Did you know that getting artsy is a fun and beneficial way to reduce anxiety and stress symptoms?
According to Healthline.com, “Art therapy refers to any use of art for a therapeutic purpose, including relief from anxiety and stress. The theory behind art therapy suggests drawing, coloring, painting, and sculpting can help you tune into and express painful or difficult feelings you have trouble putting into words.”
This blog post does not constitute medical advice. Please see your medical professional for proper diagnosis and treatment.
Creative expression has always been beneficial to humans, but art therapy is more helpful than most realize. It’s a studied and proven treatment that has been known to help hundreds of thousands of patients from all races, backgrounds, and ages soothe their symptoms.
I am a fan of art therapy in any format because it helps me, even though I use an app on my iPad. I always try to color if I’m stressed out, so I know this brings down my stress levels on a personal level. Since I do suffer from anxiety myself, I believe that sharing this information is important and it helps you regain your focus from whatever is going on at the moment.
Art Therapy Ideas For Anxiety:
Draw Inside a Heart
Draw a heart on paper and fill the outline up with the emotions you’re feeling right now. You can color this in with pens, pencils, markers, crayons… you name it. Write words that you’re feeling and that you want to feel. It’s also a fun way to journal without actually writing in a notebook.
Paint Your Stress Away
Pick the colors that you associate with anxiety and paint away. It can be as simple as brush strokes or splattering the colors all over the canvas. This can be very therapeutic because you’re channeling energy from whatever is going on in your head and putting it onto a canvas. Be super creative with it and don’t think.
Put Together An Art or Creative Journal
I talk a lot about the fantastic effects journaling can have on our mental health on pretty much all of my posts, so it naturally had to make it to the list. If writing isn’t your jam, or you want to turn your journaling session into art therapy, you can also get creative and make an art journal to visually express your emotions (think collages, drawings, line art, etc.).
Create a Collage of Your Safe Place
Take a trip down memory lane and remember the times when you felt safe and happy. Then, go through old magazines, cut out images representing those memories and places, and create a collage of your safe place. You can also do this online if you’re familiar with creative apps.
Take Photographs of Things You Love or Find Beautiful
Going out to get fresh air is a beautiful thing for your mental health. This time, though, you’ll bring your camera along to take pictures of the things that you find beautiful (a tree, a butterfly, a leaf on the ground – whatever you pick!). Then, put together a collage of those photos or print them out and hang them on the wall to remind yourself of the beautiful things in your life.
Paint To Calming Music
Get a paintbrush and paint whatever you feel like to calming music. You can create your playlist, but you can also find beautiful collections of soothing music on Spotify.
Paint a Beautiful Landscape
It’s no secret that spending time in nature can be a wonderful thing to do for our mental health. Imagine your favorite place to be in (be it the beach, a cottage in the mountains, or a sunflower field), and trace it on a Canvas. While painting, you can imagine that every object you paint represents something more significant. For example, if you’re painting a cottage in the mountains, the mountain can represent happy times, and a cottage can be your safe place.
Let Your Anxiety or Stress Express Itself
Grab a plain piece of paper and your favorite drawing or painting utensils. Close your eyes and notice how anxiety feels in your body and where. Open your eyes and start drawing a continuous fiddle without lifting the utensil from the paper. Stop when it feels proper to after you’re done, free-write about the process for 5-10 minutes and what you felt while drawing your anxiety.
And that’s a list of some of my favorite art therapy activities. Remember that it’s vital to combine art therapy with psychotherapy for the best results. A professional can not only make your journey to healing anxiety a lot smoother, but they can also guide you to help you make the most out of your art therapy sessions in a way that works best for YOU.
Have you ever given art therapy a go? What are other art therapy ideas that have helped you soothe anxiety? I’d love to know, so feel free to share them in the comment section below!
An important note on Art Therapy
Art therapy is not a substitute for any therapy. Instead, it’s sometimes recommended to treat anxiety as part of a larger plan. If you suffer from anxiety, I encourage you to seek a therapist combined with your art therapy of choice.
Not only will a professional make your journey towards healing anxiety easier, but they can also guide and advise you on how to make art therapy work best for your symptoms.
This blog post does not constitute medical advice. Please see your medical professional for proper diagnosis and treatment.
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