Do you doodle? Many people love to scribble away absent-mindedly, and often these doodles can carry a great deal of meaning

Often, its just boredom. People are not wired for doing nothing – with a long prehistory of precarious existence, people need to be constantly engaged in productive action. Laziness is a sure recipe for extinction.

Doodling is also an outlet for frustrated artistic expression

These fundamental outlets for creative expression have been stymied by a combination of social pressure (fear of inadequacy) and lack of training (our overfull school curriculums leaving little room for the arts, combined with a flawed view of artistic development as innate and not to be ‘messed with’ by education).

When we are otherwise occupied

Doodles can certainly reveal something of a person’s mental state

t must also be considered whether the inspiration for a doodle is internal or external.