Transforming Stress Into Art | Emily Twynham and Samira Butt of Mediate and Create

We had never heard of this before, but, you know, sometimes people have said that they've been. It's helped with pain as well, which is fascinating. And then there's more research going on with dementia as well. So this is all very new. So neurographic art and dementia patients as well. You know, can it help them? I mean, when we did a few classes with some elderly people, and there were some people in there who had sort of memory problems, and one of the ladies who was, you know, sort of looking after them, she said, this person, it's the first time they've actually done an activity from beginning to end. Otherwise in the middle, they tend to forget. It was really fascinating, you know, and the thing with this is, the more you do it, the better it is.

Welcome to the Mental Health Entrepreneur Podcast. We are here to inspire creative ideas and connections for entrepreneurs and advocates working to address our mental health crisis. As you listen, I hope you will experience new ideas and motivation to innovate in your business, your community, and in your life. Welcome back to the Mental Health Entrepreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Harrison, and with me today are Emily Twynem and Samira Butt, the founders of Meditate and Create, which is a collective offering classes and inspiration for neurographic art. Welcome, Emily and Samira.

Thank you.

It's great to have you today. So talk to me a little bit about what neurographic art even is.

So. Well, neurographic art basically was invented by Pavel Pisgrev, and he's a psychologist and an architect, and he does lots of design work as well. So he actually invented it, and he realized that when you put art and science together, when you do this activity, it actually fires up the neurons in your brain. And when that happens, it actually changes and kind of reprograms the brain as well and forms new neural pathways. So this form of art is actually. Science meets art is really, really fascinating. So he's the actual founder of this.

Okay. He's got an institution in Russia as well. It's got this newer Graphica, which has been coined now and it's been trademarked. So there's the Neurografika Academy, an institution that's quite big in Russia, but you'll see quite a lot of different variations of neurographic art. So there's neurografika, neuro art, and neurographic art. They all come under the umbrella of neurografika. There's just some concepts that have been taken and kind of added to and taken away because the actual Process of creating Neurografika art follows an eight step algorithm which we've had quite a lot of feedback from people who have done some of the courses that have said that following the quite stringent rules kind of takes away a lot of the freedom. And so people then just like to take the concept of what it does for the mind and the body and then just simplify it a little bit more. So that's kind of where we come in with our classes.

Okay, and how did the two of you get started with this?

Okay, so it's really fascinating actually. I studied psychology in the past and I was looking for some kind of therapy to help myself as well. So I just came across, you know, sort of googling. I came across neographic art and I got really fascinated by it and I started looking into it and learning about it and everything. And then I mentioned it to Emily as well. And I said, well, Emily, what do you think about this? You know, I've had a go and it's really therapeutic, you know. So I introduced it to Emily and then Emily, I'll let you tell your story.

Yeah. Because me and Samir actually met and a school we, Samira used to run workshops for children in schools. And then I came in one day to help and that's how we met. And as soon as we met, we just hit it off. We were talking about spirituality and you know, art and all these amazing different things. And I love the nature. And we just ended up. Samira invited me to hers one day shortly after and we set up a Raleigh studios few months after that. But we were sat in our studio one afternoon. Samira shared neurographic art with me and I was like, okay, I'll have a go. And I started doing it. And I share this quite often with people as well because it can bring up different emotions and different responses and it's not the same for everybody. So when I first actually did it, I found myself getting really irritated. And I kept saying to Samira, is this meant to be relaxing? Because it's triggering me. It's, you know, it's frustrating me. It's making me angry. And so I sat with it because Samira said, you know, persevere with it if you know, stop if you really want to. But know, give it, give it a go properly, you know, feel into maybe. Why you getting angry? Why is it frustrating? So I sat back and then I realized it's because that was the first time that I'd done something where I wasn't focusing on an outcome I was just focusing on completely letting go and being present. And despite what we did day to day running art workshops, this was just one step different. Just, just completely different in the sense that I wasn't focusing on the outcome, it was just completely letting go. And it's like that element of removing the control about the outcome really got to me. And so when I worked through that, I absolutely love them. Now I can't stop doing them. It's really interesting to just be aware of. We always said to people, keep a journal with you. Write down any feelings, emotions, memories that may come up because it really can bring things up for you to work through and highlight certain trigger points and things that need to be brought to light, let's say.

Interesting. I love this idea that it's not the same for everyone because everyone's different and everyone's brain is different. So if we're integrating things and bringing up new neural pathways, it makes sense to me that everyone would have a different experience of that. So for you, Samira, was it more calming?

I thoroughly enjoyed it because, see, I've been meditating from a very, very young age. Must have been about 12, 11, 12. So I used to meditate quite frequently. And when I came across neurographic art, for me it was art and meditation mixed together. I call it medicine for the brain. This is what I call it. I say it seem like medicine for the brain. So when I'm doing the actual art, it is very meditative for me and it brings me completely into the present moment. I do feel like I'm being healed and I feel more relaxed. My body relaxes, my mind relaxes and it's just the actual, you know, the rounding off and drawing the lines. And then, you know, during the activity you can even contact your higher self as well. So you can ask your higher self questions about whatever issue it is that you're tackling at the moment. Because every time we do the neurographic art, you should have an intention. You don't have to, I mean, just do it for fun. But it's good to have an intention of why you're doing it. So is it for relaxation? Are you tackling some kind of issue in your life? So, you know, think about what it is that you want to address whilst you're doing the activity. So when you're doing the activity, when you're doing the rounding off and you're drawing the lines, you bring that thought, that intention to the front and then you start, you know, drawing the lines and doing the rounding off and Then you can, like I said, you can ask your higher self questions of, you know, how can I resolve this issue? What can I do? And then sometimes you may get the answer, you may not get the answer. But, you know, if you do it continuously, it's very helpful. You can even see images. It's really funny. Emily might be able to show you some of her images, but, you know, sometimes unconsciously, you get these images in your drawings and they can actually relate to the intention that you had in your mind, you know, which is really fascinating. Maybe Emily could show you some of her pictures and tell her a story about that as well.

Sure.

It was really interesting. Just to add on to that, what we were discussing initially, Rachel, just before we started the recording, is how can we impact more people at once rather than just seeing Singular. Because it's like everybody now in some shape or form, needs some support, I'd say. Well, I'll not make that assumption that everybody does, but there's a huge majority of people now that need some form of support, whether it's emotional support or an outlet, such as art or creativity, or a mindfulness activity to help them just kind of relax, unwind, de stress, help with the mental health, their anxiety, depression. And this is why we. We started these classes, because we wanted to create a safe, comfortable space so people could express themselves. You know, we often have conversations before we actually start with people as well. And our goal has always been to create this environment with no judgment. And, you know, you're not coming into this as an artist. Yes, there may be people that are coming from an art background, but this is for every.

Anybody of any age.

We've worked with dementia patients, We've worked with, really young children. We've worked with adults every age, every ability. And this is literally just completely intuitive art. This is what's coming from within and what's coming out onto the paper. And so there's absolutely no way that it can be. Be judged based upon, like, level of skill. And so, like Samira was saying, we. We try and get people to open up to a deeper level of how you can use this as well. Because we started experimenting with how the subconscious and the conscious can work and the unconscious and how we can actually ask questions. And whether this is coming from, you know, the angels or God or the universe or source, or whoever it is that anybody perceives to be there, a higher power, or whether it's just the higher self and the consciousness speaking. You can ask questions and the answers are crazy. I mean, I was asking. I Can show this. I'll show this on the screen as well. But I was going through a bit of a rough time just around December last year. And I thought, I'm gonna do this exercise to just kind of gain clarity. I really wanted clarity in my life. I was feeling a bit lost, career wise. Lost about where I was going to live, live. Lost about my place in the world. And so I just. My intention was to gain more clarity in my life. And so I just started doing the lines in a certain direction. And I intuitively picked the colors because this is also something else that we get people to do. We never tell anybody what the meaning of a color is. We're like, what does that color mean to you? You know, is blue a car in color? Or, you know, is blue a color that you associate with sadness? You know, what is that color saying to you at that time? So for me, I was picking blues, silvers and whites. And I realized as I'm coloring it in after, it actually looks like the third eye, like the pineal glass.

Oh, yeah, yeah. For those who can't see, the neurographic art is a series of different shapes that are soft, they're rounded edges. And this photo is a bunch of those with kind of an eye in the middle. Like she's addressing the third eye. I just also want to add that if you want to see the picture of this, you can watch these episodes on the mental health Entrepreneur pod on YouTube. So you can actually see the parts that we're doing today that are visual. Sorry to interrupt. I just wanted to help our listeners to kind of see what I was seeing a little bit. That's amazing.

Yeah. And I realized that the colors were all associated with the feminine aspects, the emotional aspects. And a week later, we ended up, like, pursuing this further online. I just found out we were moving somewhere else. So this. This some divine connection somewhere between when you, like, connect on such a deeper level. Obviously, we bring in meditation at the beginning. The whole meditate. Great. Is that we create this calming, relaxed space where Samira does an amazing guided meditation and breath work with people. First, we have a little presentation at the beginning for about five to ten minutes where we'll discuss maybe, like, metaphysical reasons as to why we get ill and delve into more psychological meanings as to why certain things may appear in our lives and how we can better deal with them. And then we do a different neurographic art. Each class is completely different. We never repeat them. And that's just to give people different ideas, especially for people that suffer with maybe creative block as well. It's just to kind of get the brain, like, flowing, get the ideas flowing, get the energy flowing. And it can really help to just shift any stagnant energy or blocked energy. This one's fascinating. And then I let Samira expand. The intention with this one was to drink more water because I was. We started playing around with, okay, if that's what's coming out with this. And what else can we get with this? So it actually looks like a fish.

Oh, yes, I see the fish.

Yeah.

Interesting. The fins here. And I never started that about a fish. It just came out.

So our minds are very powerful, and the subconscious mind is hugely untapped for most of us, I think. I mean, I'm sure, you know, but art is one of those things that. That puts the right and left brain together, so to speak. I do a lot of EMDR therapy, and that's another advantage to that type of therapy as well. So it's fascinating to me that you're coming out with these things. That's fantastic. When you're working with groups of people and you're having these classes. I'm just curious if you can say a little bit about what that process is like or any stories that you have from participants.

Yeah. So when we first started doing these classes, we actually used to do them face to face rather than online. So we have one lady come in, and she had been suffering from neck and shoulder pain for weeks, and she tried so many things and been to the doctor, and nothing had worked. So she did the neurographic art class, and then at the end of it, she realized that her pain had gone, which is fascinating because we had never heard of this before. But, you know, sometimes, you know, people have said that they've been. It's helped with pain as well, which is fascinating. And then there's more research going on with dementia as well. So this is all very new. So, you know, neurographic R and dementia patients as well. You know, can it help them? I mean, when we did a few classes with some elderly people, and there were some people in there who had sort of memory problems, and one of the ladies who was, you know, sort of looking after them, she said that, you know, this person is the first time they've actually done an activity from beginning to end. Otherwise in the middle, they tend to forget. It was really fascinating, you know, and the thing with this is, the more you do it, the better it is. I myself, I tend to think a lot about problems. You know, I can't Sleep at night. Things are going around in my head. But honestly, because I've been doing these classes myself, it has helped me immensely. My mind is more calmer, I'm more calmer, more relaxed, and not a lot fazes me anymore, to be honest. So I just feel like a different person just through doing these classes. It's really amazing. I'm sure it affects you the whole being human being in many, many different levels. It's absolutely fascinating.

We've had, well, a few people actually, that have been with us right from the start of the online journey with this, and we see them weekly. And it's such a nice kind of community when we just log on and we all come on and we have a little conversation beforehand, you know, how's the week been? And it's as if, like the. The hundreds and hundreds, thousands of miles away, you know, across the pond. But it's as if sat next to me, like in our living room, and we're sharing a space. So it's just. It's really nice. And we like to be really personable with people. We like to make people feel comfortable. I mean, some of the feedback that we have are these. That it's really opened their eyes to, like, what's possible, like the creative potential and how far you can take this. If people feel really relaxed after it, they look forward to coming on a weekday. Like, it's their meditation, it's their me time. So each month we have a different theme and we intuitively pick the theme and also we ask for feedback. You know, what type of classes would you like us to guide you with? So we did one about the inner child and we split this up into four classes. And so we take you on a journey with. With neurographic art and with the meditations and even with the, like, little presentations, meditations at the beginning, from nurturing that inner child and connecting with the inner child to fully understanding the whole process that inner child goes to into adulthood and how we can integrate that inner child into everyday life. Like how we can tap back into that playful, loving energy, that unconditional love, that joyful aspect, and that one that's not judgmental of ourselves or other people. We had a lot of feedback from that as well because we did one about healing the ancestral mother within that, you know, our mother, mother wound and our grandmother wound. So it's a powerful tool to really be able to go deep, like deep layers of the subconscious and the psyche and to just unpin and untangle things when I've done them as well, I've had, like, weird memories come up for myself, and I've journaled, like, some of these memories and emotions that have come up. I even did one with my partner, and I shared this as well with the group in the class. This was our transforming and releasing emotions in January that we did. So we. We transformed stress into calm, transformed anger into forgiveness, transformed sadness into gratitude. We try and acknowledge the emotion, not suppress it, bring it forward. But then, like, well, how can we. How can we turn it around? How can we move through it rather than sitting in it? And I shared a new graphic art piece that me and my partner had had a bit of a disagreement and thought, right, I need to move through this energy. I don't want to argue, but I'm like, I'm angry. So I sit and I did something called a catharsis, which is where you scribble on a piece of paper really fast. You may have done that themselves or the people may have done that. No one's really angry. So the idea is you channel all that anger and that emotion into the paper. Creates squiggles, lines, and then you round it off and you go back in there. So I did this three or four times, and by the end of it, I felt completely calmed and I started to reflect on my behavior in the conversation that we had. And I started to become more aware of. Maybe I could have worded that different, or maybe I didn't understand properly how to ask this. And so then when he came back into the room, we had a completely calm conversation and within five minutes, everything was resolved. So I think even using this with relationships at work in stressful environments for five minutes, it can really, like, bring the energy down and help you move through any emotion.

Amazing.

Just to add to that as well, what we do is before every activity, we have a meditation. And for us, that this is. This is where we kind of our own twist to the neurographic art. So what happens is that we meditate, and then whatever the intention is for that class, we focus on that and what that does. It really helps to bring the person into the present moment and to have that issue at the front of their mind, consciousness. So then when we do the activity, it becomes even more powerful. So that's what we realized. That's when we decided we're going to do the meditate and then the create afterwards. So we bring the person into the present moment, bring the issue into the present moment. We deal with it in the meditation as well. And then again with the activity, it further sort of cements and kind of helps to resolve whatever's going on as well. So it's really fantastic. It's very powerful.

Lovely.

I think you offered to do a little demo. Samara, would you be able to show us a little bit about what this art is like?

Yeah, sure. So I'll just share my screen. Basically, you can use any kind of writing material. You can use color pencil, crayons, pens, whatever you've got in handy. But if you are thinking of using watercolors, I would suggest that you use permanent markers to do that so that the color doesn't actually run. And so what neurographic art entails basically, is drawing random lines. So what you want to try not to do is control the movement of the line. So you. You think about what you want to resolve or what the issue is, or what you choose, what your intention is. You think about it, and then you imagine that thought coming down your arm and into your hand. And then you. You draw. Just let your hands draw lines across the page. Just let them go wherever they want to go, thinking continuously about what your intention is. And then you just let it do whatever it wants to do. You can add shapes to these as well later on, but when you do that, I'm just gonna explain what you need to do as well. So, for instance, these are our lines. You can do as many as you want and as few as you'd like. It's totally up to you. Then once we've done our lines, what we do is we call the rounding off. So that's basically wherever your lines meet, like these junctions. What it is, is that you imagine that these lines represent your energy flow. Now, when the energy comes down through these lines, and if it comes to an angle like this, like a sharp angle, it kind of causes chaos in the brain. So what we do then is that we round off. This is called rounding. We round off these little junctions, these little corners, because the brain sees this as chaos. So you just round off these junctions like that. That's called rounding off. And then if you imagine the energy flowing now, it's coming and it's just going around there nicely, and it's moving again. So you come up to another little corner like this, and you round that off again. And then you try and make your lines as smooth as possible. So you don't want any jagged edges, you know, just keep them nice and smooth. And you just continue doing that throughout your whole drawing. You just wherever the junctions are, you just keep rounding them off like this. And as soon as you start rounding them off. This is where the amazing thing happens, actually. These shapes here, these bits where they're round off, they actually look like the neurons in your brain. So when the neurons in the brain start seeing these little shapes here, they start firing up. And this is where your brain starts to sort of reprogram itself and they start forming new neural pathways. So if your intention is to relax, then your neural pathways will start forming those pathways that will, you know, encourage you or your body to relax, to sort of kind of get used to that as well. So the more you do this exercise, the better it is for you, and the more you're changing your behavior. So if you tend to be anxious all the time, then by doing this over and over again, you will form a new pattern of thinking, a new behavior pattern. That's the fantastic thing about it. Now, if you decide to add shapes in there, so like, for instance, if I want to add a circle here, then again, you've just added lines. So you're going to get some more of these little junctions here. Then you would keep, you know, round off these areas as well, and you just keep doing that. So you can add more lines, you can add more shapes. And then afterwards, obviously, you might want to add some color. Now, what we suggest is we're very much into using your intuition. So Emily explained that earlier that whatever color comes to your mind, just use it and then just put it wherever it wants to go into, into your drawing. And then once you finish your drawing, then you sit with it, and then you can have a look at it and see what it means to you. What do the colors mean to you, what do the lines represent and how do you feel? And it's fantastic if you can journal it as well. And it's like a journey. So as you're journaling it, you might see the changes happening in your personality. How do you feel afterwards? What about your emotions, you know, and how does your body feel? Do you feel different in your body? Do you get tingling? You know, what kind of sensations are you getting in your body sensing? So, for instance, if you're thinking about healing yourself, this particular area in your body that you want to heal, and that's your intention, then see how you feel afterwards. Has it helped you in any way? So the more you do it, better it is for you. So, you know, this is what we usually say. So once you've done the coloring, you can even add, like doodles in there. You have these spaces here, you can have doodles in there, whatever you like. And you make it your own. How we interpret this now is that initially you put your lines down. Now that represents the chaos that's in your brain. You've got the chaos down onto the piece of paper. Then what you're doing is that you're rounding off. So now you're bringing peace, you know, and healing into your drawing. So that's the rounding off period.

All the solution, let's say the chaos, all the discomfort, and then it's the solution and the peace.

So that's what you're introducing into your drawing. Once you've done that, then you add the color and then you add your doodles. And that represents you evolving as a human being. So you're sort of evolved into another person or you've resolved the issue or whatever it is, whatever your intention is. So that's how we interpret these drawings.

Amazing. Oh, that's wonderful. I think you did a great job of describing it. So if people are listening, they can also have a picture of what you're doing. But that's amazing. I love that. So what is next for neurographic art? I should say for meditate and create. What's. What's coming next for you? What is your vision for this work?

Our vision's kind of aligned anyway, I'll put my two pence in, let's say about it. But we've only just started entering the online world this year, January time, and we're already. And the group that we've got has grown immensely. It started on just a few hundred. And since between January and now, we're on 16,000 people. So it's crazy. And that's organic, that's no advertising, that's not paying for anything anywhere. That's, you know, no, nothing. That's just people finding the group, finding it via the algorithm. And I would kind of say our presence in the group because we try and engage a lot in the group. We try and inspire people, we try and lift them up, we try and encourage them as well. So we have quite a vital role in that group. We're in there quite a lot. I mean, we are all a studio started because we were inspired by bringing nature back to people and inspiring creativity with everybody at any age and any ability. So we did workshops that were nature based. You know, we. We'd use clay, we'd use leaves, twigs. We do flower printing, we do paper making, fairy dolls, anything. And anything that was creative, artistic, we do. But we wouldn't do it as a course or a class where you'd come and by the end of it, you're going to be a skilled potter or a skilled painter. It was more about creative expression. And I think for us, that's where we want to go. We want, and even go as far as to say the world, really. We want the world to kind of see creativity for what it is, an expression of the soul rather than being graded or judged on the final outcome. It's just a journey. And so we want to promote this inner journey to more people and to inspire them to be more confident to share the work and be confident to just do art. Because cooking is artistic. You know, poetry is, is art, gardening is art. It's whatever energy you put into something, whatever sings to your soul. That is what we want to inspire people to, to live for, to. To do more of. To bring more of into their life. Yeah, that's, that's what I foresee.

Fantastic. You have anything to add, Samira?

Yeah, I mean, Emily said that very eloquently. Our aim is to get this out to as many people as possible because, honestly, over the past few years there have been so many people who've been suffering from mental health issues and loneliness. And for us, it's about helping bring back people not only in touch with nature, because like Emily was saying, we do do classes where we get people involved with nature, because our motto was, you know, bringing nature back to you kind of thing. Especially after the two years that we had with the COVID and everything. So that's what we, we want to do. We want people to, to help them with their mental health issues. And do, you know, ideally, it would be fantastic if this was introduced into schools as well. I mean, it would be brilliant. Children could really do with that. Adults could do that, even the teachers as well. I mean, if you practice this for five minutes every single day and you wouldn't have to finish it in one day, you could have a piece about and just do a little bit every single day. I'm sure Emily agrees as well. This would be so beneficial for starting with children to all ages. Honestly, it would be absolutely amazing if we could do that and just introduce it in schools. Just like mindfulness. That's what it is really is, Neha. Mindful and sort of connecting with your deeper self. It's creativity. I think a lot of schools, especially in the uk, so that's kind of getting rid of creativity is more about the left brain side, you know, maths, numeracy, you know, languages and all that kind of thing. But this would, like you said, art, it balances both sides of the brain. So this is fantastic for that as well. You know, this is ideal and it changes your behavior at the same time depending on what you want to tackle. So if this could be introduced to, you know, widely to everybody, it would be amazing. Would help some.

So many people, even in the workplace. You know, if you're all trying to solve an issue in the workplace or you want even to do team bonding, I mean, we've done this collaboratively before with people. We do something slightly similar, but more nature based. I did did it a few weeks ago for an open day here and we did. It's called Abstract Frequency Arts. We take people into nature and we get them to find twigs, leaves and interesting things, things natural objects that might make marks. And then we put relaxing nature sounds on or we just do it outside and listen to the birds singing in the wind and feeling the sun. And basically we just use ink and they just make marks. It's just purely mark making, feeling the textures of the different brushes and materials. And it's connecting people to nature and it's working collaboratively on a piece of paper and it being a shared journey, not just this is mine. And you know, I've got a vision of which there's nothing wrong with, but I think it's just opening people up to this connectivity and receptivity of our environment, of each other and the connection that we can have with each other in nature and ourselves as well. Bringing ourselves onto that paper and bringing that creativity out.

I love that. Well, that is all the time we have. But if you want to learn more about neurographic art, we have all the details in our show. Notes, notes you can find, meditate and create and you can also find the Facebook group that these two lovely women have created. Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Samira. It's been a joy to have you.

Thank you.