Watch your doodles

Do you often find yourself making undefined and random patterns on a piece of paper or even on the margins of your notebook while you are in the middle of a lecture or in between a meeting? Either out of boredom or tiresome, our mind fidgets. Sometimes, being all ears can be a challenge when our hands want to be a part of the moment along the paper. Nobody is immune to this either. And to our luck, doodles are the result of our bodies combating boredom.

Even American presidents have found themselves sketching away. 26 of 44 American Presidents doodled. From Theodore Roosevelt, who doodled animals and children, to Ronald Reagan, who doodled cowboys and football players, and John F. Kennedy, who doodled dominoes. Traditionally, we have thought of these doodles as a sign of distraction, an indication that the mind was not where it was supposed to be. But the good news is, recent research has shown that doodling is not an enemy of attention, in fact, it may be our friend.

Sketch away

While it’s easy to presume that a doodle is like an incoherent ramble, it may actually act as a therapeutic tool. Even the simplest idle jotting we repeat on the margins of our pages can evoke childhood memories and associations that provide clues to our obsessions. Delving deeper, studies have shown that unplanned, random sketches can also provide a window into our subconscious, similar to how art therapy works to enter this area of our minds. Even an elementary stroke on the page unveils not only our state of mind but also how we view ourselves.

I am sure you are now more curious to know the meaning of those random scribbles of patterns that you drew a while ago. Wait no more. Check out here to understand and know what those doodles mean.