ART & MINDFULNESS: AN INNOVATIVE TOOL TO HELP YOU FOCUS & RELAX
ABOUT
More and more children today struggle with paying attention.
With Deep Tracing®, we’ve created a tool that helps them stay focused, while enhancing their coordination skills.
A focused child learns better, leading to positive self esteem and self confidence.
If you are part of an organisation that wants to make a positive impact, reach out to us to collaborate.
WHY IT WORKS
Maintaining the balance between relaxation and focus, Deep Tracing® engages our senses. The more senses we engage when performing a task, the better it is for our brains to create neural pathways associated with this task, making it easier to repeat in the future.
VISION
Our eyes are two pieces of actual brain located outside the brain, and they belong to the Central Nervous System (CNS). When these two pieces of brain – our eyes – focus intensely, they enhance mental focus, training our brain not to be easily distracted, in the long run.
Deep Tracing® requires intense optical focus, on an area as narrow as a 0.4mm line.
TOUCH
We, humans, use the sense of touch to gather information about the environment surrounding us and as a way to bond with each other. When we deep trace, we are following a line sculpted on a piece of paper, making it a tactile experience, as well.
A tactile activity enhances intellectual growth and emotional stability.
Letting the trace guide us, responding mindfully to it, helps us develop patience and empathy.
SMELL
No other sense is so closely intertwined with emotion and memory than the sense of smell.
The deep tracing scent, a blend of relaxing and uplifting essential oils. When sprayed on the paper, it helps us relax and take our experience to the next level.
Associating the Deep Tracing® experience with a certain smell, helps the brain recall the emotional and mental state we were in when we were living the experience.
HEARING
Music activates both the left and right hemisphere of the brain, at the same time, and this activation is very beneficial to training the brain and improving memory.
When our mind is in a relaxed state, alpha brain waves are produced.
Practicing Deep Tracing® while listening to alpha brainwave music, sets a peaceful and mindful tone to the whole experience.
Testimonials
A neuropsychologist’s view
We asked the Neuropsychologist Anastasia Karayiannopoulou to study Deep Tracing® and give us her expert opinion. Here’s what she shared with us:
“Deep tracing provides a multisensory perceptual experience by activating four sensory input modalities (visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile), recreating a synaesthetic experience. Visual and somatosensory parts of the brain, as well as frontal, temporal, olfactory and limbic areas are implicated during this process.
Deep tracing lies on the notion of activating both of our visual perception streams, stemming from the occipital cortex. Specifically, the “where” dorsal visual pathway, which is connected to the parietal lobe, is activated when we use our visuospatial and visuo-constructional ability, that guides our fine and gross visual motor coordination in space and prepares our vision for action (Goodale & Milner, 1992). The second visual stream which is simultaneously activated is known as the “what” ventral visual pathway which projects to the temporal lobe and provides information of the stimuli’s shape, colour, form, and features (Goodale & Milner, 1992). Sustained visuospatial attention is required throughout the deep tracing experience, which is associated with the activation of the right parietal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Thakral et al. 2009)
Deep tracing may also impact the activation of the brain’s reward circuit. In a recent study Kaimal et al. (2017) applied a non-invasive hemodynamic brain-imaging technique, which measures blood flow and elicits highly activated brain regions, known as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), while participants performed colouring, doodling and free drawing. The study showed that while performing these creative tasks the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) was significantly activated especially in the doodling condition. The mPFC is responsible for emotional, affective responses and motivation, as it constitutes an integral part of the reward circuit, along with the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens, the hippocampus, and the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA). This reward circuit is interlinked with our brain’s dopaminergic system, which helps us predict pleasure outcomes and contributes to emotional regulation.
According to another study, electroencephalography (EEG), which measures brain wave activation, was applied while artists and non-artists created visual art (Belkofer et al., 2014). The results showed significant alpha waves activation in the left-hemisphere of the artists and significant activity in the frontal lobes of the non-artists. The latter finding may be explained by the novelty of the task, which required higher levels of sustained attention. Alpha waves are often detected when the brain is in a relaxed state of meditation, mindfulness and creative alertness (Kim & Kaimal, 2019). In contrast, dysregulated patterns of alpha waves, as well as abnormal activations of the prefrontal cortex are linked to depression and anxiety (Fernández-Palleiro et al., 2020; Koenigs & Grafman, 2009). Creativity and visual art making are found to be correlated with theta and gamma wave patterns in the brain (Kim & Kaimal, 2019; Stevens & Zabelina, 2019). Theta waves are associated with deep meditation, reduced consciousness, whereas gamma waves are associated with heightened perception and working memory. Deep tracing may lead to the activation of alpha and gamma waves when conducted in a mindfulness setting.
Deep tracing may also be interlinked with the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN connects the medial prefrontal cortex to the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and it remains paradoxically active, when the brain is not attending to any external stimuli; this provides the individual with the opportunity to self-reflect, day-dream, travel autonoetically, plan and set goals or think divergently by generating novel ideas (Bolwerk et al., 2014).
However, during mindfulness the DMN has shown to be less activated (Garisson et al., 2015), which allows other pivotal mental processes to take place (Tang et al., 2015). During states of mindfulness, the dorsal anterior insula is activated, which is responsible for perceiving bodily perceptions, as well as the ACC, which is highly linked to attention and self-monitoring. As a result, all sensory information can be perceived in real time and complete present-moment awareness is accomplished. According to recent neuroscience research conducted on mindfulness through meditation, changes in the activity and structure of the ACC, the posterior cingulate cortex and the frontolimbic structures were detected while participants practiced mindfulness, which enhanced emotional regulation, concentration control, self-regulation and reduction of stress (Tang et al., 2015).
Recent neuroimaging findings on the therapeutic effect of creating art and practicing mindfulness, elucidates the need to incorporate deep tracing in this field of research. Deep tracing can become a powerful tool that bridges the benefits of both worlds, art therapy and mindfulness, leading to multi-sensory integration, higher levels of self-awareness, attention control and emotional self-regulation.”
Anastasia Karagiannopoulou, Neuropsychologist
Cognitive Neuropsychology, University of Edinburgh,
Sleep Disorders, University Health Network, Toronto Western Hospital,
Lecturer of Neuropsychology, Biopsychology & Cognitive Psychology at Metropolitan College, University East London
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Belkofer C. M., Van Hecke A. V., Konopka L. M. (2014). Effects of drawing on alpha activity: a quantitative EEG study with implications for art therapy. Art Therapy 31, 61–68. 10.1080/07421656.2014.903821.
Bolwerk, A., Mack-Andrick, J., Lang, F. R., Dörfler, A., & Maihöfner, C. (2014). How art changes your brain: Differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity. PloS one, 9(7), e101035.
Garrison, K. A., Zeffiro, T. A., Scheinost, D., Constable, R. T., & Brewer, J. A. (2015). Meditation leads to reduced default mode network activity beyond an active task. Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 15(3), 712–720.
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3Goodale, M. A., & Milner, A. D. (1992). Separate visual pathways for perception and action. Trends in neurosciences, 15(1), 20–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-2236(92)90344-8
Fernández-Palleiro, P., Rivera-Baltanás, T., Rodrigues-Amorim, D., Fernández-Gil, S., del Carmen Vallejo-Curto, M., Álvarez-Ariza, M., López, M., Rodriguez-Jamardo, C., Luis Benavente, J., de las Heras, E., Manuel Olivares, J., & Spuch, C. (2020). Brainwaves Oscillations as a Potential Biomarker for Major Depression Disorder Risk. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 51(1), 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/1550059419876807
Kaimal G., Ayaz H., Herres J. M., Makwana B., Dieterich-Hartwell R. M., Kaiser D. H., et al. (2017a). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: coloring, doodling, and free drawing. Arts Psychother. 55, 85–92. 10.1016/j.aip.2017.05.004
Kaimal G., Mensinger J. L., Drass J. M., Dieterich-Hartwell R. M. (2017b). Art therapist-facilitated open studio versus coloring: differences in outcomes of affect, stress, creative agency, and self-efficacy. Can. Art Therapy Assoc. J. 30, 56–68. 10.1080/08322473.2017.1375827
Kaimal G., Ray K. (2017). Free art-making in an art therapy open studio: changes in affect and self-efficacy. Arts Health, 9, 154–166. 10.1080/17533015.2016.1217248
King, J. L., & Kaimal, G. (2019). Approaches to Research in Art Therapy Using Imaging Technologies. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 13, 159. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00159
Koenigs, M., & Grafman, J. (2009). The functional neuroanatomy of depression: distinct roles for ventromedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Behavioural brain research, 201(2), 239–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2009.03.004
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ABOUT THE CREATOR
Vasileia Dereli is the creator of Deep Tracing® and has been working with organisations committed to making a difference since 2021.
She is the founder of VADE creative studio, an Athens-based creative studio, designing projects that cross the boundaries between Art and Well-being.
Inspired by the transcendentalist notion of simple living as well as the functionalist principle Form Follows Function, the studio’s work is an ever-evolving articulation of an elemental aesthetic, where every project finds its own raison d’être.
Visit the studio’s site by clicking here:
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FounderBorn in 1987, in Athens, Vasileia Dereli graduated from the Athens Law School in 2010 and the Athens School of Fine Arts in 2015.
In 2019, she was awarded the SNF Artist Fellowship grant ARTWORKS for her artistic practice. In 2020 she was awarded the Art in Wellness prize and her work was exhibited at the United Nations Office in Geneva. The same year she produced a work of art for Onassis Stegi, called Solo.
Her work has been shown in Athens, Munich, London, Braunschweig, Venice, Vienna, Geneva.
She lives and works in Athens.