This Art School Drawing Trick Will Change How You Look at Everything

This Art School Drawing Trick Will Change How You Look at Everything

In this eye-opening episode, you'll learn about a very unusual art school assignment that reshapes how Todd Perelmuter looks at life, blame, and happiness. Instead of sketching objects, his teacher asked the class to draw the empty space around them. That simple twist becomes a powerful metaphor for peace, especially for anyone stuck in cycles of stress, addiction, or constant self-criticism. Todd unpacks how most people hand their happiness over to ever-changing circumstances: family, money, achievements, or sheer luck.

He points out that we quietly "blame" those same things for our joy, just as much as we blame people and events for our misery. As he puts it, "Whatever we depend on, whatever the mental story says we need to be happy, it becomes our prison." Rather than telling you to turn blame inward and feel guilty, Todd challenges the whole idea of a solid, separate self that can be at fault in the first place.

He explains that every person is the result of countless causes and conditions, not an isolated, independently created entity. When you see yourself and others that way, the urge to blame starts to soften. The episode then moves into a practical two-step shift: first, disidentifying from the stream of thoughts and ego; second, placing attention on the quiet space and silence underneath all sensations, words, and emotions.

Todd likens it to focusing on the "negative space" in a drawing—when you notice the emptiness, the picture of life changes completely. Anyone wrestling with emotional ups and downs, including those in recovery from addiction, may find comfort in Todd's reminder that peace is "always there" beneath the chaos. You might come away asking yourself: what would change in your life if you stopped blaming people, situations, and even yourself, and started paying attention to the stillness between your thoughts?