Art therapy - why not?

One way to reduce stress and escape from the daily activities boredom is art therapy. It is a form of therapy that also stimulates creativity, reduces trauma, and helps with your self-esteem. You do not need to be an artist to try it but you will definitely need some artist supplies like paints and brush, pencil, paper and if you want to go wild – glue, gesso, scrap paper, old magazines, and books.

The art therapy relies on non-verbal more abstract ways of communication to help your feelings and frustration resurface from your subconscious. The most important here is not the final product but the therapeutic benefits of the creative process.

If you think this is something you will enjoy and might help you relief the everyday stress, I have come up with 5 simple ideas to get you started. Most importantly you have to enjoy the time you spend creating but not strive for perfection. If the first one doesn’t do the trick, you can try another or come up with your own idea.

1. Draw an object without looking at the pen and paper, just following the form of the object – choose something from all the things around you and draw it on a piece of paper and a pen/pencil, without looking at your hand on the paper, but only where you imagine your pen tip is. Warning: When you are finished it might not look at all like the object you have chosen but I promise you will laugh at it :)

2. Create some personalized greeting cards for friends and family – fold a piece of paper and design a simple watercolor and ink greeting card for a birthday or for Fool's day.

3. Create a postcard that you will never send

4. Start a daily art journal – basically like a diary but with drawings and sketches and blobs and whatever you fancy that day. Instead of writing, you can create.
   

5. Start an altered book art journal – this one is actually pretty interesting – the only thing you will have to overcome though is that you are going to ruin a book so choose the one you really don’t like. This is where you will need the gesso I mentioned above :)

So I hope you found this interesting and someday you might even try some of my suggestions!

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