Searching for Your Higher Self? Map the Journey with NeuroGraphica®

An innovative drawing process soothes conflicting energies we carry in our bodies and minds

As a person familiar with the healing effects of drawing something beautiful, I’m always up for learning any new approach to therapeutic art.

Meet NeuroGraphica (NG), a relatively new drawing approach and art form that will appeal to hobby and professional artists alike. NG will also interest anyone who enjoys practicing mindfulness through making art. I discovered the process through a recent blog post on a popular site for Zentangle aficionados. In the post, Anna Romanenko, a Certified NG Instructor, gives a basic introduction and demonstrates how to start practicing it at home.

As it turns out, much of NG founder Pavel Piskarev’s research has not yet been translated from Russian. After a little searching, I was happy to find an informative interview with him by Marina Bialik for Alpeon Magazine. What is clear to me so far is that he is a polymath with a range of interests that bring to mind a modern-day Leonardo DaVinci.

The next section summarizes and synthesizes what I learned in that article. Following that, I describe my own experience giving this intriguing approach to personal transformation a try.

What is NeuroGraphica?

Your Inner Vision Made Visible

Piskarev describes NG as “conscious drawing by means of a special graphical language” that anyone can learn to draw and interpret. NG symbols allow artists to “express their inner state of being” and to recalibrate it “to adjust their destiny.” Pretty heady promises for a drawing method. Still, the process rings true in my experience as a seeker in the world of self-help.

An important feature of NG is that it makes thoughts and feelings visible by translating them into common geometrical forms. These forms express meanings based on our intuitive responses to them.

Triangles, for example, invoke “danger, aggression, or conflict,” just as sharp objects do in real life. Circles represent flow, softness, and safety. In NG, no form is better or worse than another. What matters most is awareness of how these symbols relate to real-life challenges. Once we make that connection, we can redraw them in order to overcome the limitations we face in our lives.

The role of Neurolines

The process also gives special prominence to the neuroline, what Piskarev calls “the ‘nerve’ of a drawing.” Neurolines serve to unify different elements of the drawing into a coherent and dynamic composition. Neurolines are also meant to be drawn in a spontaneous and intuitive manner. That is, unlike arcs or zigzags, they should move in unpredictable directions, just as lines in nature do. (Think of cracks in a sidewalk or bare tree branches.)

Neurolines also exercise memory and thinking in the places where they cross. Wherever such intersections occur, the angles are rounded, forming softer-looking yet stronger connections and broader networks. These networks eventually support personal transformation through increased psychological wholeness.

At all points in the process, artists make intuitive tweaks based on feelings and emerging insights. These changes occur in the first session or over a period of days, weeks, or months.

Algorithms that shape destiny and stoke inspiration

NG algorithms focus the artist’s attention on the reasons for creating a drawing. (This is explained in more detail below.) As the process unfolds, NG encourages a state of calm awareness. Little by little, blockages, conflicts, and other challenges land on the paper in graphical form. The artist then makes intuitive adjustments to the drawing that align with better outcomes.

It’s a bit like chiropractics for the psyche and soul, with the artist as the one who makes the adjustments.

In a way, NG declares that the future is now, so to speak. As Piskarev asserts, “A well-formulated, well-drawn, and harmoniously constructed result within us creates the motivation that pulls us like a magnet into the future.” Artists realize their capacity to be creators of their own lives.

Albert Einstein once observed that “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Algorithms such as “Lifting Inner Constraints” encourage the kind of self-awareness needed to discover and reshape sub-conscious beliefs. In turn, people move beyond the starting points of their problems. Surprising conclusions and synchronicities often ensue.

One more point is worth mentioning. According to Piskarev, an overabundance of neural connections stoke depleted inspiration. The two examples of my own NG art featured in this article have fewer intersections than more experienced NG artists would create. As a beginner, I am still learning to see a NG drawing as a work in progress that I can keep changing. All in good time.

How do you draw NeuroGraphica art?

Two ways to begin

In Romanenko’s introductory (online video) workshop, participants learn two ways to begin a drawing. The first is to use some unresolved issue as a starting point. From there, the idea is to draw neurolines one at a time, slowly and intuitively, beginning from any edge of the paper and ending likewise. This process continues in a relaxed way, with as many meandering neurolines as seem necessary.

Most people find it easy to draw intuitively when drawing quickly, but for many, slow intuitive drawing is harder. To help with this, NG suggests an ingenious tool. The artist places the tip of the pen to the paper and directly up against a coin (like a penny), and then gently pushes it across the paper. This forces the artist to make spontaneous micro adjustments to the direction of the line as it progresses.

A second, more common method, is to start a drawing with a fast, intuitive scribble (go to 28:15 in the video). The scribble is cathartic and represents blockages, conflicts, or other psychological turmoil. Energy moves from the mind, through the arm to the hand and out through the pen tip. Once revealed, the artist can then graphically rework the issue on paper.

When the drawing begins using the second approach, neurolines extend from the scribble to the edges of the paper. This serves to connect the foregrounded elements to the background.

The more networks, the better

In both methods, neurolines begin to cross each other as the drawing develops, creating all-important intersections. These crossing points offer opportunities to discover and work on psychological conflict.

Take the simple example of a person who arrives home after a day at work and finds it hard to shift gears to spend time with the family. In this case, work and home identities are in conflict. Over time, such energy clashes lead to negative mind states and fatigue. According to Piskarev (whose Russian has been loosely translated by certified NG Instructor Anton Antokhin):

A person is so arranged that he is not linear, he is not constant. Sometimes when I sit at work I think about home. When I walk with [the] children I sometimes [think about] my work. How to tie it all up…so that it becomes one continuous stream of consciousness? It is for this that the neurographic pattern was invented, which allows you to connect neural networks…that turn a fragmented, neurotic person into something whole.

Softening and beautifying

Artists create graphic networks by rounding and filling in all points of intersection. All pointy places become soft, colored-in areas. This fun and relaxing process ultimately results in a coherent design.

Next, the artist colors in clusters of elements. (Go to 1:55:00 in the video.) This adds to the beauty and coherence of the overall composition.

Finally, the artist adds field lines by thickening and darkening some of the neurolines. Artists can also add shapes or other smaller lines, and more rounding as needed.

Voilà! Your introduction to the basic theory and practice of NG is complete!

Are you ready to start drawing?

To begin, I recommend checking out Linda Farmer’s blog post. She gives a concise overview of the method with three very good introductory videos by Romanenko. At the bottom of the post, make sure to check out several useful links, including neurographica.us and neurographicaacademy.com. These seem like two of the best places to find workshops.

I also recommend Antokhin’s blogpost “From Rage to Sage.” In his post, Antokhin tells his personal story of using NG to self-regulate anger. Five of his own drawings accompany the post to show his journey to greater inner peace.

Why not give it a try?

For me, the jury is still out on the scientific basis of NG. So far, each of my own drawings feels more satisfying than the last, and for now, that’s enough. And Piskarev sees the process as powerful enough to take us far beyond pleasant feelings. As he asserts, “NG is a methodology that helps people perform painless ‘neuroplastic surgery’ on their brain and make corrections to the course of their destiny.”

Could a simple and relaxing drawing process really do all that? You’ll need to find out for yourself. I’m sure that giving the process a try is safe and hopefully fun. And it may just become your new go-to meditation practice — or steppingstone to a new and more fulfilling destiny.