Art Was the Key to Letting Go of Stress

The holidays are finally here, bringing an onslaught of family, nutrient and, for many of usa, stress on stress. Whether y'all're dreading endless conversations with your corking aunt Judith or getting anxious over the prospect of impending New year's resolutions, may we humbly suggest you permit your creative side serve equally a sort of internal massage.

Art therapy is a form of therapy predicated on the belief that artistic expression has the power to assistance u.s. in healing, in self-esteem or just in chilling out. Information technology's unique in that most other forms of therapy rely on language as the foremost mode of advice, whereas art requires something different, something harder to define.

We're not art therapists, and the techniques below are but suggestions based on practices familiar to the art therapy community. But for those hungry for a creative outlet to relieve the tension that tends to build upwards this time of year, the practices below may help. They crave few materials and no artistic groundwork -- in fact, the less art you make, the better. The following suggestions are less about the terminal product, and more about the transformation that occurs along the way.

Behold, 37 art therapy techniques to help you relax this season.

1. Design a postcard you don't intend to transport

Whether it'southward a dear notation to someone you're not fix to confess your feelings to, or an aroused bluster you know is amend left unsaid, sometimes enumerating all the details helps deflate the outcome at hand. While writing the text can exist therapeutic in its own right, designing the postcard gives even more than value to the object. It likewise allows you to activate different portions of your brain while relaxing in a manner similar to coloring in a coloring book. In one case you toss that signed and sealed letter in the trash (or tuck it away in a drawer), you'll find its bulletin has lost some of its ability.

2. Cut and paste a painting to create a collage

Create a painting on a material similar paper or cardboard. When you're finished, cutting or tear information technology up. Then use the pieces every bit building blocks for a new artwork -- a collage. See how your original artwork transforms into something new and heady, something unpredictable. This exercise illuminates the close proximity between creation and destruction, encouraging the states to take risks to button ourselves creatively and in other aspects of life.

3. Build an altar to a loved i

Take inspiration from folk art and create an altar honoring a unique relationship between you and some other person, living or non. Decorate the shrine with photographs, letters and relics of memorable times spent together, too as new art objects you've created in their accolade. Anything can get creative material, from gifts you've exchanged to a candy wrapper yous know your subject would love. Building a totem to another person awakens memories and creates a physical manifestation of a relationship that can provide condolement in tough times.

4. Draw in total darkness

So much of the stress we experience when making art comes from the judgments and criticism that seem unavoidable every step of the manner. Attempt creating artwork in total darkness to make art free from that fine art critic inside your caput. Retrieve of it as a form of bullheaded contour drawing. Y'all're all of a sudden freed upward to create lines, shapes and patterns just considering you feel like y'all should. When you turn dorsum on the lights, we doubtable y'all'll be surprised by what you find.

v. Watercolor your bodily state

Lie down and close your optics. Visualize your torso every bit you breathe in and out. Try to imagine your jiff as a particular color as it enters your torso, some other colour as it exits. What do you see? Draw an outline of a torso on a big sheet of newspaper, and inside, create a watercolor based on your bodily state. Recollect nigh what these colors hateful to you, where they are densest, where they are about opaque. Call back of this equally the most relaxing self-portrait you lot'll ever create.

6. Create a Zentangle-inspired creation

Zentangle is a cartoon method invented by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, designed to make cartoon meditative and accessible to all. To acquire the official method y'all must exist taught past a Zentangle Teacher, merely you tin can recreate the basic thought on your ain. Use a piece of paper, cutting into a 3.5-inch square piece, and depict a freehand border around the border in light pencil. Then apply your pencil to draw a curved line or squiggle within the border, called a "string."

Now switch to a pen and begin cartoon a "tangle," a series of patterns and shapes effectually your "string" and voila! You got yourself a Zentangle. The process is designed to encourage deliberate, ritual creation and let room for human error -- no erasing, that's confronting the rules. Traditional Zentangles are always black and white but we fully support experimenting with color. The entire process shouldn't accept more than 15 minutes, and can be repeated whenever you lot feel the urge. Proceed some squares handy and then you can e'er create when inspiration strikes.

seven. Produce a permission slip

Retrieve of the societal and cocky-imposed pressures you lot feel on a mean solar day-to-twenty-four hour period ground, the personal traits you come across equally faults, the natural slips you encounter as errors. Choose 1 of these things and requite yourself, in ornamental detail, permission to do just that. Turning ane uncomplicated defeat into an achievement can minimize feelings of self-hatred, allowing you to achieve more of your important goals. Retrieve, information technology's an fine art projection, so brand it pretty.

8. Write a constitute poem

Don't consider yourself a poet? Let someone else practice the hard function of coming up with the words by grabbing your textile from old books, magazines, newspapers or even letters. Cut out words that jump out at or inspire you. Collage your found materials just equally you would a visual collage. You tin take a topic or story in mind at the showtime, or simply get started and see where your word collaging takes you.

nine. Arts and crafts a marking-making tool unique to you

Instead of spending the bulk of your time on an actual painting, why non focus a piddling of that attending on crafting an alternative paintbrush all your own? You lot can brand a mark-making tool out of nearly annihilation, whether information technology'due south a row of toothpicks glued to a cardboard base of operations and dipped in pigment, or a DIY paintbrush made from pom-poms and yarn. When you finally get around to actually making a piece with your new tool, y'all will have relinquished some of your artistic control to your distinct artistic medium, which, of grade, is a piece of work of art in itself.

10. Brand a forgiveness box

If at that place is a sure person -- including yourself -- you don't want to harbor negative emotions toward any longer, effort making him or her a forgiveness box. Decorate a small box with soothing images and words that tin be either specific to an individual or catered to your desired inner land. Y'all tin write the person's name on a sideslip of paper and include it in the box if preferred, and the name can exist removed and exchanged if needed. The human action of making the box will bring upwards happy memories of whomever the box is for, also every bit assist you physically work toward a place of forgiveness.

11. Create a color collage

Color has the power to affect our moods. Sometimes, even so, instead of using color to transform our current state of listen, information technology's helpful to have a moment to delve deep into the color you're currently experiencing. Feeling hot-tempered and uninhibited? Cut and paste orange images that fit your mood. Working inside your current emotional state tin aid you make sense of why you're feeling the style you're feeling and realize that, perhaps, it's not such a bad identify to be.

12. Make a power mask

Virtually often nosotros think of wearing a mask every bit a way to hide something about ourselves, but sometimes this layer of protection and anonymity makes us feel liberated and really aids in expressing something true, difficult and real. Create a power mask, filled with symbols that make you lot feel strong (think of an role player'due south costume or athlete'southward helmet). Yous can put it on when preparing for a rough situation -- whether it's dinner with the extended family or giving a speech at work -- and bear witness to yourself you can attain the task at hand with or without the mask.

13. Construct a vacation "anti-calendar"

All too often calendars are jam-packed with chores, obligations and responsibilities, making the coming days a signal of stress more solace. Endeavor making a DIY advent calendar, which nosotros've dubbed an anti-calendar. Instead of giving yourself a chocolate each day, treat yourself to a compliment, a doodle, an inspiring quote or an encouraging mandate such as "eat breakfast in bed today." If all goes according to program, you could observe yourself bouncing out of bed each morning like a kid on Christmas.

xiv. Start a doodle chain

Fact: It'southward impossible for a doodle to look bad. One time you give in to the endless possibilities that occur when wiggly line meets unidentified shape, you'll detect it dangerously difficult to end drawing. Offset a doodle-axial take on exquisite corpse with a friend or loved one to loosen your attachment to your creation. It's pretty magical to watch your alone squiggle blossom into a spindly beast earlier your optics. You can besides try this with a pen-pal for a more productive spin on chain mail.

fifteen. Draft a portrait of a past self

We're not talking about past lives here, but versions of yourself you experience like you've either lost bear upon with or outgrown. Whether yous're revisiting a phase of innocence, ignorance or just plain difference, using the infinite between memory and imagination as your subject helps illuminate how malleable your self actually is. Information technology feels almost like reading your old diary for the first time in years.

16. Build a wishing tree

Take a cue from her majesty Yoko Ono and build a concrete object to agree your wildest dreams. Use either a real establish or a tree-similar object you create yourself, write your wishes down on paper and hang them, i past one. You lot can invite others to do the aforementioned. Writing your hopes and dreams on paper brings you lot a small stride closer to making them real. Not to mention, the little papers resemble blossoming flowers from far away.

17. Paint your own personal set of Russian dolls

Though nosotros're built a little differently -- mainly, not out of forest -- we too have unlike layers nestled within us at all times. What is the self you portray to others? What well-nigh to your nigh trusted loved ones? What remains hidden underneath? Yous can either purchase a set of dolls and paint over them or pigment atop a fix of cardboard gift boxes or other stackable objects. Experience free to use images and words to recreate the layers you envision when you lot recall of yourself.

18. Add on to a masterpiece

Intimidated by a glaring sheet of blank paper? Yep, u.s. too. Instead of starting from scratch, try adding onto a canvas you already know and dearest to boost your confidence and lower the risk. Whether you're applying makeup to the Mona Lisa or filling in the blanks of a Paul Klee paintings with your own make of alien creatures, nosotros're sure the original artists would be honored by your tribute. Who knows? Yous could get a famed appropriation artist in the process.

19. Assemble a prophylactic space

This is for the architects amongst united states of america. Remember building a pillow fort as a kid? That cozy, hole-and-corner space for you and only you? Accept inspiration from the 5-year-old inside and build yourself a grown-upwardly fort -- ahem, an art installation. Y'all can create a full-diddled tent if yous wish or but conform meaningful items in a closet or under the bed. Comprise nostalgic objects, quondam toys or blankets, twinkly lights -- anything that makes yous feel removed from the world around yous. Put on a soothing vocal and permit the adept feelings wash over you.

20. Use crayons

Yup, it's that simple. In that location's something about the crayon's edgeless tip and uneven method of coloring that is at once frustrating and liberating. Yeah, information technology'due south hard to draw a straight line. Aye, information technology's nearly impossible to color in a infinite without it looking patchy. Just that's exactly the point. Allow your artistic imperfections to float to the surface and learn to cherish every human being error in your creation. Whatsoever piece of work y'all create will be distinctly yours, even if it's non quite museum-worthy.

21. Brand an invisible New year's day's resolution visible (and cute)

New year's day's resolutions. How did something so seemingly restorative turn into something then incredibly stressful? Instead of promising yourself to floss more or eat less, focus some attention on an invisible accomplishment, something that'southward either too big or too pocket-sized to see with your eyes. Instead of writing it in the notebook with the residual of your resolutions, devote some fourth dimension to making your personal goal into a beautiful object, a visual mantra that inspires you just upon seeing it.

22. Create a retention jug

Memory jugs originated with members of Africa'southward Bakongo communities, who believed the concrete world was continued to the spiritual world by water. They ofttimes busy graves with h2o-centric items like jugs to connect deceased spirits to the waterways that would lead them to the afterlife. The ritual was revived recently equally a form of found art sculpture, or 3D scrapbooking. Utilise lacquer to attach plant objects to a vase, jug or pot -- whether they remind you of a specific person, call back a certain time in your life, or just brand you smile.

23. Do a putter a day

Yous know what's difficult? Taking time out of a hectic schedule to create a work of art when y'all accept admittedly no idea where to start. You know what's like shooting fish in a barrel? Taking a few minutes to pause from your solar day and scribble out a picayune weirdness, merely for the sake of keeping that manus moving. Split each folio of a sketchbook into fourths and create one simple drawing every day -- actually, if you draw a happy face every bit your falling asleep it's okay. Simply getting into the creative rhythm will get your imagination churning. Presently you'll feel more than comfortable with your artistic way and exist struck by inspiration during your daily routine. You lot may even want to spend more than than five minutes on a drawing someday. But worry not, doodles ever await adept.

24. Shed your old skin into a sculpture

Okay, this is far less creepy than it sounds. This suggestion is for those doing some early spring cleaning or getting rid of old belongings -- exist they clothes, papers, glasses, buttons, defunct technologies. Instead of tossing away your old junk, use the materials to create a sculpture of a onetime self, immortalizing the (insert advisable adjective hither) year that was 2014. The sculpture does not have to (and probably won't) look similar you; it can be abstract, geometric, organic or all of the higher up. Even if the materials seem meaningless now, they'll get treasures with the passing of time, and the ceremony of creating the sculpture provides great closure in moving on to the new year.

25. Use your non-dominant mitt to create

You know that Pablo Picasso quote, "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist one time he grows upward"? Firstly, make that "he" a "he or she." Now, channel this Picasso-ian sentiment by unlearning annihilation you lot've ever learned most mode, control and discipline past passing your pencil to the other hand. Before you know it, yous'll have the uncertain, wiggly, unfettered stroke of a child -- and thus, past the transitive Picasso principle, of a bona fide creative person.

26. Arts and crafts an intention stick

Whether yous telephone call them intention sticks, prayer sticks, wish sticks or talismans, their purpose is the same: to provide a physical object for you to wrap your hands around and bring you strength as well every bit peace of mind. Intention sticks, which have roots in Hopi and Tibetan traditions, proceeds their power from the positive energy posited in the stick during its creation -- so basically, brand sure you're in a good mood when you make information technology! Detect a stick that fits perfectly in your hands, call back of it like a magic wand, paint it and decorate it with mantras or intentions close to your center. Add together string, feathers, glitter, beads and whatever else you wish and keep the stick in a undercover place for when you need information technology most.

27. Make your own stencil

If you're having trouble embarking on an artwork itself, how almost starting with the artistic medium instead? You tin make a DIY stencil from a paper-thin box, playing card, cereal box -- the list continues. Use scissors to cutting out a shape all your ain and you can make your imprint, quite literally, on any future artworks or random pieces of paper you happen to encounter. Don't worry about straight lines and perfect proportions; with a handmade stencil, the more than rugged the better.

28. Turn your fears into a (literal) monster

Sometimes the but way to lessen your fears is to face up them caput on. Retrieve about something that frightens you, whether it'due south "spiders," "being a bad artist," "going bankrupt" or "losing my way." Give this fear a shape, a color and a texture; it tin can exist as abstract or symbolic as you wish. Creating the beast outside of you will strip your fearfulness of some of its power, particularly when comparing information technology to the (now often silly) fears we all had as a child.

29. Craft your own dream guardian

You lot've heard of a dreamcatcher. We're tweaking the tradition a little scrap, thus freeing upwards the possibilities of what shapes your new dream guardian can accept. Create a dangling sculpture to hang above your bed that will watch over you while you sleep. Experience gratis to utilize the traditional willow hoop with feathers and beads, or veer off track and get experimental with material, bells, photos, or whatsoever brings you peace of listen. Soon you'll have a new friend to keep an eye on you every bit your dreams sweep yous off into some other world.

30. Make a painting with no tools simply your body

Don't have the time (or the funds) to invest in a new batch of art tools? No worries, all you need to get artistic is your own beautiful body. Explore the possibilities of your own beefcake -- the plush curves of your fingertip, the sharp edge of your smash, the capabilities of hand and foot and fifty-fifty hair, if you lot're feeling bold. Not simply will your canvas terminate up looking unexpectedly magnificent, only y'all'll probably resemble a work of art yourself.

31. Revamp a stuffed animate being

We've been dying to give this one a get since nosotros caught a glimpse of Jenny Ottinger'south latest exhibition, in which she conducts slightly botched surgeries on blimp teddy bears, producing jumbled creatures at once adorable and creepy. Nosotros'd recommend a less frightening version for a therapeutic outcome. Have a dearest childhood toy and transform it into a piece of work of art, either by patching its holes, replacing its ragged parts or going a more avant-garde route. Y'all'll finally be able to render your dearest teddy to its rightful spot on your bed, while proudly displaying an original objet d'art.

32. Arts and crafts a memory rock

Next fourth dimension you have a special twenty-four hours, take a habitation a costless souvenir in the course of a stone -- or a receipt, or a brochure, or a leaf; anything will exercise the trick really. Telephone call information technology your new sail. Decorate your new keepsake with memories from throughout the day -- notwithstanding abstract or physical your creative self desires. If y'all're feeling painter'due south block, use the natural creases and edges of the rock to guide your aesthetic decisions. A few memory rocks downwardly the road, you'll take a rock garden that instantly conjures recollections of your most joyous days, to help with the glum ones.

33. Channel Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Brief art history primer: Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th century Italian painter primarily known for his surreal self-portraits made from painted objects similar fruit, veggies, books and fish. Channel practiced ole Giuseppe with objects that hateful something to y'all. Whether you lot draw, paint or collage, create a version of that precious punam of yours fabricated from the objects that help define you or make your eye palpitate -- whether information technology's your dog, sunflowers or the In-N-Out logo.

34. Make an ephemeral artwork

Practice the art of letting go by creating a piece of work of art with an expiration appointment. Work with a material that erodes with fourth dimension -- whether it'due south a sand castle that washes abroad in the body of water, a chalk mural that fades in the dominicus, or a drawing attached to a balloon and ready into flying. You know what they say, f you dear something, set information technology free!

35. Pigment a mirror or window

Overhaul the concept of a blank canvas by selecting a surface that already tells a brilliant story. Utilize pigment to a mirror or window, and let your brushstrokes mingle with whatever's already gracing your uncanny sheet -- be it a snowy mean solar day or your own reflection. Just think of it as makeup's way artsier second cousin.

36. Plow a journal entry into a work of art

Whether yous're drawing inspiration from last week's misadventure or your third grade trials and tribulations, why not artistic a visual accommodation of your own first-person narration? Take an onetime journal entry -- i that was specially poignant, hard, joyous, or totally capricious -- and recreate the text as imagery. Feel free to draw, pigment, collage, whatever tin all-time express the atmosphere of that one twenty-four hour period.

37. Design your (artsy) spirit animal

Do you have a spirit animate being? Have you never been quite satisfied with the classic genus and species currently bachelor to you? Here's your chance to craft the imaginary hybrid animal of your wildest fantasies. From a liger to a jellyfish-dragon to a pegasus-zebra, the only limit to the wild fauna available to you are the zoological limits of your mind.

This mail is based on a series of fine art therapy roundups we've published throughout the by year.

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