Feeling Powerful

Feeling Powerful
Watercolor Fashion Moment

Sunday, January 28, 2018

When Life Stressors Are Spinning Out of Control, Try This

Do you have a stressed mind that will not shut up?

Lately, the stress of world events, politics and personal worries become tilt overload for most people.  I know politics alone make me absolutely crazy and leave me feeling dumbfounded, exasperated and helpless.  On top of that, I am going through one of those major life stressors that rock you to your core and leave you feeling like a deflated ball; my father is in Hospice losing his fight with cancer. This has been the most challenging time in my life that often leaves me mentally and physically drained.

I know there are so many like me that have their own personal burdens that they are carrying around as well. I want to share with you what has helped me tremendously.
Art.

Creating art is a form of mindfulness, which is focused attention.  The troubled world melts away when you are creating. In that moment, all that exists is what you are doing. And, what you are doing can be many things. Art comes in many forms, thus known as The Arts. Creating and expressing oneself can be through sketching, painting, writing, singing, dancing, knitting, working with clay, photography and more!

When the brain is on fire running on all cylinders and you just can’t calm it down, what works for me is turning to art. It works every time. Art is a form of mindfulness in every brush stroke or pencil mark that diffuses nervous energy into the current task at hand, creating- thereby, quiets the incessant chatty mind.

#artheals #art4mentalhealth

Check out these hashtags on Twitter and you will see many submissions of art to help break the stigma associated with Mental Health. I participated with Art Therapist and St. Xavier University Psychology Professor, Nicola Demonte in the mission of breaking the stigma associated with Mental Health through the Twitter hashtag campaign #art4mentalhealth. Even though we were in two different locations, Chicago and New York we posted events and art online. The coolest thing was to see all the different participants who posted.  We had Refugee Art Project who used art to release their pain and feel a little joy through art.  Splashes of Hope are artists who paint murals in hospitals and waiting rooms for families in prisons to relieve anxiety and evoke a cheerier atmosphere in what can be certainly scary and unpleasant circumstances. There were artists who are homeless getting their amazing work posted and advertised for them through a group called Art Lifting to better their situations and at the same time use art as a means of healing. I certainly benefited from posting my art as I painted or sketched whenever I felt so distressed that I didn’t know what else to do make myself feel better. The pencil to paper focused concentration wipes the chatter away like a squeegee on a windshield.  The distress drips away into the ethers, every single last noxious thought as I sketch, sketch, erase, and blow.
I sketched during blizzards. I sketched when I was frightened and horrified by tragedies around the world, such as the Paris Massacre at the Bataclan night club.  I shared music videos that marked an emotion that matched a news event, whether it be hopeless or hopeful that I felt others would appreciate. Music is especially powerful. Art helps. Art heals and is available to everyone.

It is a magical balm.

The other night my husband showed me a brown trout as he has been jonesing for fishing. Bam. That was my object du jours. I sketched a brown trout as it had been a difficult day with my ailing father. Somet days are better than others with my coping ability with his terminal illness.
  
It’s nothing fantastic, but that wasn’t the point.  The point was I needed relief from my own busy mind and faulty nervous system.  And, you know what? It helped. It really did.
It is a message of this much I can do to ease the pain. I can create something. I feel better.
Give it a shot. Color. Paint. Squiggle. Doodle. Knit. Create. I did, and I am telling you it set my emotions free.  It unleashed the untamable beast.  Isn’t there a quote, “Music soothes the savage beast?” See? It’s a tried and true, time tested healer.

You may find yourself on a new artistic adventure like me! #art4MentalHealth
Even with writing this article I am releasing and expressing my emotions. I am breathing easier because of it.


Create on, my friends for your good Mental Health!