Did you know that picking up a pencil to doodle or making a figure out of clay can help you to relieve stress, depression, and fear, and can even help diminish pain or other physical symptoms? Art therapy uses simple art activities to help people express themselves and develop a sense of well-being through the creative process. Expressing oneself through a drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage makes our thoughts, feelings, and ideas tangible and communicates what we sometimes cannot say through words alone. Through working with art materials, learning new skills, and developing ideas through visual media, often people feel a sense of self-satisfaction, personal achievement, and accomplishment.
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I do all sorts of therapy with art, I play with clay, colour or do Zentangle of I just want temporary distraction.
But I’ve officially started an art journal despite having the book on tips for years. I’m always afraid to start journals after having my old ones read when I became psychotic and my mum thought I was going to die. I understand her reasoning but it still bothers me when starting a new one.
I can’t write journals Im awful at it so to draw, paint, write, doodle, stick all sorts of things that help me offload or reassure me, some pages are mostly drawing, others writing. I Suffer from blank page syndrome easily so I just doodle to get my hands going.
It definitely helps, but I can’t do art therapy, I have done many courses in art and have done art therapy individually and group. Each time it puts me off my natural creative processes for months to a year. In recent years due to these sessions I’ve not done art for myself, instead doing ink and watercolours as gifts for family. But now Im gradually getting my spark back where it helps me.
I spent hours today doing it and I feel much less anxious as I’ve confessed (not literally) on paper and I don’t feel so bad now.
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