Stress and anxiety can be caused by many things such as family issues, pressure in the workplace, financial troubles, or even heartaches. Rest assured that there are numerous ways on how you can relieve yourself of stress and anxiety, and trying out some arts and crafts can be one of them. You would be surprised at the power of art in easing your stress and calming your mind. Perhaps, it is noteworthy to dig deeper into this and take a look at how art therapy activities can benefit your mind.

• Color Experiment to Refocus

Playing and experimenting with colors can help you shift your focus. Try to choose a certain color that appeals to you and do this randomly. You can either use this color to paint on a blank piece of paper, or tear out pages in a magazine with this color. Glue the pieces you have torn into another paper and don’t think too much about their form. Just enjoy the color in its basic hue. Repeat this with another shade until such time that you fill in all the colors in the color wheel. The act of focusing on the colors itself steers you away from thinking about the things that cause you stress and anxiety, making this an effective art therapy.

• Visual Gratitude Journal for a Positive Mindset

Combat stress and anxiety through a positive mindset. While this can prove to be challenging, a visual gratitude journal can greatly help you with this task. Your visual gratitude journal can be composed of drawings, paintings, photographs, or a collage of images from newspapers or magazines that remind you of the things that you should be thankful for. In parallel, you can also keep a daily visual journal with you that will enable you to record anything that happens in the moment that you are grateful for.

• Self Accomplishment through Small Works of Art

Being able to successfully accomplish something can do wonders in relieving stress and anxiety because you tend to focus on your achievements, rather than on what is bothering you. You don’t really have to be an expert artist to create a masterpiece but if you are new in the arts, make sure to explore guided crafts. Freestyle art may leave you frustrated and more stressed, rather than feeling accomplished. Thus, try paint by numbers, cross stitching, or even diamond painting which is an integration of the two. Seasoned hobbyists from vizuarts.com believe that diamond art painting is a great way to ease you from stress and calm your mind because you tend to focus on placing the rhinestones in their proper place in the canvas, rather than thinking about what is causing your stress. For sure you will feel a sense of accomplishment after you finish a certain design.

• Doodling or Painting to Release your Mood

Regardless of whether you are feeling joyful or sad, excited or stressed, doodling or painting can help you in releasing your current mood. When you are stressed out, you tend to be grumpy or sad, doodling solid lines or splashing in bold colors on fresh canvas is a way of releasing this emotion. Once this is out of your system, you will be able to breathe better and reboot your mood. Being able to let out what you feel, rather than holding everything back in, is good for your mind, body, and spirit. This is because it gives you more control in shifting your mood from something that is negative into something that is more positive.

• Soul Collage for Self Discovery

When you are stressed out, your mind is rather clouded. It is in these instances wherein you begin to question how much you know yourself. The best way to combat this is to discover more of yourself to have a good grip of your capabilities. A soul collage can help you accomplish this.. In a blank cardboard, make a collage or images or words that speak to you. Try not to plan anything in advance, but just go with the flow and you may be surprised by what your subconscious may be telling you.

Final Word

Art can be therapeutic. As renowned artists would have it, their masterpieces are results of their self-expression, of releasing anything that is bothering them, or even as a celebration of their joy. Thus, this can be the right time for you to consider art as a therapy to reduce your stress and anxiety, process your feelings, and eventually manage your behavior. It can even be a way for you to increase your self-esteem.