Mindfulness and Creativity: The Momo Approach to Cartooning

Mindfulness and Creativity… and Roadsweeping?

“You see, Momo,’ Beppo the Roadsweeper told her one day, ‘it’s like this. Sometimes, when you’ve a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you’ll never get it swept.’

He gazed silently into space before continuing. ‘And then you start to hurry,’ he went on. ‘You work faster and faster, and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you’re out of breath and have to stop – and still the street stretches away in front of you. That’s not the way to do it.’

He pondered a while. Then he said, ‘You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.’

Again he paused for thought before adding, ‘That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that’s how it ought to be.’

There was another long silence. At last he went on, ‘And all at once, before you know it, you find you’ve swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. What’s more, you aren’t out of breath.’ He nodded to himself. ‘That’s important, too,’ he concluded.”

I’m sure you’ve figured out that this extract is totally applicable to mindfulness and creativity. You focus on the step-by-step ‘doing’ of [cartooning], and let go of the outcome. In effect, you focus on the moment and trust the process to get the result you want over time.

It pinpoints exactly how we work on the Da Vinci cartooning course, and how you can work too.

Let’s take a walk through Beppo’s ‘mindfulness and creativity’ process

Sometimes, when you’ve a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you’ll never get it swept.’

This is the same when you’re learning to draw or cartoon… or do anything that takes more than a lesson or two. Your destination of mastering the skill is a long way off, and the distance between where you are and where you want to be seems immense. It’s feels demoralising, even impossible.

‘And then you start to hurry,’ he went on. ‘You work faster and faster, and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you’re out of breath and have to stop.”

This describes so perfectly how, in an effort to avoid giving up, we try to speed things up. We spiral into a cycle of frantic activity, recurring disappointment and finally chronic frustration. All of which pushes the goal further away — it’s horrible!

‘That’s not the way to do it.’

Darn right, it’s not! When you’re learning an expansive, creative skill like cartooning, it’s totally counter productive to fall into the performance trap and get stressed out. You’re very likely to give up if you take such an approach.

‘You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.’

Focusing on the next breath, the next stroke of the broom has a rather Zen feeling about it, right? In cartooning terms it means you focus on pencil strokes rather than pictures, practice instead of results. Having no expectation of success is incredibly freeing.

‘That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that’s how it ought to be.’

Focusing on the process takes the pressure off because you reserve judgment about your skill (or lack of it). Your practice becomes a meditation which keeps you 100% in the moment. Cartooning becomes fun, because you’re not invested in the outcome, and the more you enjoy it, the more you do. Suddenly you have a virtuous circle of enjoyment and practice leading to more of each.

‘And all at once, before you know it, you find you’ve swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. What’s more, you aren’t out of breath.’

And before you know it, weeks of practice have turned into months. Looking back on the small, daily steps of the journey, you now see solid progress. Your cartooning skills have stepped up and up, one imperceptible pencil stroke after the other. And best of all, you don’t feel burned out by the process.