To just breathe actually requires a fair amount of attention, developing the craft of watching things come up and letting them go. That intention is the first thing to set which is for sense input, a creaking wall can generate a hundred thoughts of doom says the homeowner. Bad smells can create even more doom. But if you look at those sense inputs (which include thoughts) and realize they can create only three kinds of feelings positive, negative and neutral, the hundred thoughts of doom are fabricated out of the labels you apply to it, you then group those labels into stories and soon you’re worried about your houses collapse.
Understanding that process is going on almost continuously as we live is important because then you can say, just a negative feeling and stop there. That process of noticing this sequence is what you are doing over and over again.
IN doing a drawing breaking your craft down helps immensely in setting your intention for your work. Make a list of what you are doing when you draw, gesture, composition, form, light and shade, costume, expression. Then do just that, one panel at a time. It’s just to easy to jump into an expression, a costume detail or a cool little background piece when I am working on a composition and or a gesture.
The moment I go off of just that one thing is when the problems start and my brain wanders off seeing something that creates a negative or positive feeling. Evaluation happens when you finish the drawing not when you are working.