How art helps in managing emotions and controlling stress?
Mridul, a 25 year old guy, works in the corporate sector and just like any other employee, he looks forward to the weekend so he can relax. On most days he comes back home fully stressed and exhausted. Most of us can relate to Mridul.
This kind of mundanity causes anxiety and emotional stress. But is there a way to change this? Eventually, Mridul has managed to ease his mind even with that much amount of stress and it is with the help of art. You may ask how? Can art really help us manage stress?
Mridul's friend, Shashank, suggested art and journaling, and told him to randomly paint or draw anything whenever there is an anxious feeling pondering upon his head.
But what’s the science behind this? Let’s find out!
It Develops Mindfulness
When we are in our creative zone, we lose ourselves in the realm of imagination and give our whole attention to building a new kind of universe altogether, without thinking about the end results, as our focus would be fully on making art and not how it would look. As we indulge in the process of making art, we fully devote ourselves to the present moment, leading to peace and mindfulness.
Art is expressive
Over centuries, art has played a crucial role in expressing our emotions. People create art to express what they feel. In Mridul’s case, after having a stressful day, he felt like venting out to his friends, but none of them were available. So, he took out a diary and penned down whatever emotions he could articulate, with no structure or planning. Just like Mridul, we can articulate our feelings through art. Drawing out something with which we resonate and portraying our inner thoughts on paper can release stress and anxious feelings.
Art helps us understand our emotions
As mentioned above, how art helps in expressing our emotions, it also helps in making us understand our own emotions in a more clear sense and to figure out why we feel low. Once we are aware about our emotions, it becomes easier to manage our stress and anxiety.
We’ve established how art can help us in managing stress. But let's now discuss some exercises which one can do by themselves to manage stress and anxiety.
Journalling –Journalling is one way to express what emotions you are going through. It helps in managing anxiety. You can keep a diary with you, on which you can scribble, draw and write anything which makes you feel good.
Photography – Photography is another form of art where you can achieve mindfulness. While we take a photograph of something we are engrossed in the art of observation, which leads us to mindfulness. We dwell in the present moment which eventually helps us to overlook the stressful thoughts.
Doodling – Doodling is basically an art form where you draw aimlessly from anything to everything. The beauty of doodling lies in the imperfect figures we randomly sketch. As we are scribbling continuously, we are in a state of mind where we attain relaxation
So now Mridul actually feels better and he knows how to regulate his emotions better.
We all go through so much in life. Work stress, emotional stress, and what not. But let's just sit for five minutes and try to doodle whatever makes us feel complete.
Take Care,
