Journaling and Art as Therapy
In the past, our bodies were used to work and create. Things like planting a field, making bread, washing dishes, chopping wood but now we are not likely to spend a good portion of our day doing physical tasks. Movement is something our body and our brain needs. Movement helps us process our emotions and helps to ground us to the present. This is one of the reasons why art and journaling can be beneficial.
We may think we are not creative but we are all creating something on a daily basis, such as a meal, a home or interactions. Unfortunately we have been told that by society that only specific acts of creativity are valuable. We have also been told that it is the product at the end that is important, which misses so much of the benefits.
Once I was on a hike and kept focusing on the top of the mountain, how quickly we could get there and the best way. I was getting frustrated with a member of our group as he was slow and we had to break often to wait for him to catch up. At one such rest, he stopped and showed us the picture he had taken. It was a beautiful flower that I had walked right by. There were wild strawberries on the side of the trail that I had also missed. As I slowed down, I noticed such things. The strawberries were tiny and bursting with flavor, one of the best I had ever eaten. If I focus only on the end result, I miss so many things along the way and this is true in many areas of our lives.
Using art to journal forces us to slow down a bit and spend sometime thinking and feeling. It is not about the end product and how it looks, this is for you and only you. You can choose if you want to share it, sometimes people choose to cut it up or burn it at the end in order to say goodbye.
Water colour is a useful medium to use as it can be more tactile and a bit more forgiving. You can start by putting just water on the paper and then adding the colour while exploring how it moves on the page. You can write thoughts and then paint over or put colour down and then write. A simple prompt could be; what emotion are you feeling right now, what colour and shape is it. And then just start, don’t overthink, enjoy the process! Feel free to reach out to explore more options
More tips and info at:
