Art for Anxiety Relief

Last Updated on January 12, 2023 by Tracey McGrath

Anxiety is a common mental health issue.   Women often deal with anxiety throughout their lives.  Women are almost twice as likely to develop anxiety than men.  This could be due to various factors but the fact remains that women are struggling with anxiety.¹ 

Does that mean that you are doomed to suffer from anxiety for life?  Absolutely not! 

But finding ways to deal with it in healthy ways is critical.  This article will explain how you can use art for anxiety relief.  Check out my article Tips for Anxiety Relief for even more information!    

Why is Art Good for You?

1. Increases Grey Matter

Art actually helps promote brain growth.  Yes!  Just by creating art you can help your brain to be stronger.  Studies show that the brains of artists actually have more grey matter in the parietal lobe. This region of the brain is involved with spatial orientation and cognition.  More research needs to be done to determine how much art practice is necessary. But the data suggests that doing art, in general, can have positive effects on your brain.²  What a fun way to do brain exercises! 

2. Helps different parts of your brain communicate

Creating art helps different parts of your brain communicate.  When you or I create art different parts of our brain become stimulated.  A study shows spatial improvement in connections between the frontal and parietal lobes. It also shows what they called “psychological resilience” or stress resistance.³

The study’s “findings imply that the production of visual art improves effective interaction between brain regions”.  And “art production leads to improved interaction, particularly between the frontal and posterior and temporal brain regions.”³  These findings suggest that creating art may also help to slow the aging process.¹⁰  

3. Increases Blood Flow to the Brain

According to the American Congress for Rehab Medicine “observing art can stimulate the creation of new neural pathways and ways of thinking.”⁴  One study shows that blood flow increased by 10% when participants just looked at a painting.⁵

Your brain immediately starts to try to figure out what it’s seeing when you look at a piece of art. And then it tries to relate that to your human experience.  Your brain begins to decipher meaning and create connections.⁶  The textures or 3D quality of some artwork stimulate other areas of the brain. 

So, a visit to an art museum can be considered a healthy brain exercise!  Simply do an online search for “art museums near me” to find places you can visit today!

How to Use Art to Calm Yourself?

Look at Art

Visiting an art museum can be a wonderful stress reliever.  Not only are they usually a quiet space for reflection you can often get lost in the images.  Several studies suggest that human brains are made to appreciate art.^{7, 8}

The images, colors, and textures all enliven different parts of your brain. The colors stimulate certain parts.  We often have certain emotional reactions simply to colors. Red can conjure up feelings of passion or fear. Blue can be calming or dreary. Your unique emotional reaction will be determined by your life experiences.   

Art can have an emotional effect on you as well.  You may find yourself drawn to one painting or piece more than any other.  There may be no explanation for this.  Just go with it.  It doesn’t need to make sense.  Allow whatever part of you is drawn to that particular artwork to let go and gaze for as long as you like.  Through viewing art you can reduce your stress since it decreases the amount of cortisol, the stress hormone.⁹   Viewing art for anxiety reduction is a wonderful way to feel calmer and more at ease.         

Create Art

Anyone (yes, anyone!) can create art.  We are all artists.  Humans have for years used art to record stories and express emotions.  Sometimes there aren’t words for what you want to say.  And art can be a method of expression.  You can use colors to represent your emotions about a problem.  Or you could create an image that you see in your mind’s eye to release fears or sadness.   

Mixing colors on a piece of paper can create a wonderful sense of accomplishment too.  The practice of choosing which colors you’d like to use can be fun and relaxing.  

I love to think like a young child when I start a new project.  When kids around ages 2 to 3 paint they generally don’t have a goal in mind yet.  They just want to paint.  And to see the colors fill up their page is a delight.  There are no ideas about what it “should” look like or what they need to create in order for it to be considered “good”.  The act or process of painting is the practice.  Next time you try an art project remind yourself that your inner child is there to have fun. Allow yourself to let go of expectations.  

Tell yourself that you will destroy your work afterward.  Sometimes that simple promise to yourself will allow you to feel freer as you create. You could throw it away, burn it or tear it up. No one has to see it much like a journal entry. This healing and stress-relieving practice is for you alone.   

Projects: Art for Anxiety Relief

Here are 3 simple art projects that you can easily incorporate into your self-care routine.  I like to use these once a week as a method of relaxing and letting go.  Check out my article on What is Mindful Art for more exercises too!  Or grab a FREE downloadable mindful art exercise!  

#1 – Blind Drawing

This exercise can be so much fun if you allow yourself to let go and enjoy the process.  But I find it can also bring up a lot of self-critical thoughts.  The exercise itself is a wonderful way to begin to notice those critical thoughts. Once you are aware of the negative thoughts you can begin to dismantle them.  

Supplies:

• Thick watercolor paper 
• Sharpie-type marker  
• A photo or object that you would like to draw  
• Watercolor paints

Look for objects in your house like a vase of flowers or a chair or any photo that strikes your fancy.  You will only be looking at the photo or object while you draw.  And you will not pick up your marker during the drawing.  In other words, you will not be looking at what you’re drawing!

Start drawing.  Continue drawing without looking at the paper or picking up your marker.  Notice any thoughts that are coming up for you.  Do you feel like you’re not doing it right?  Or does the desire to look at your paper seem overwhelming?  Do you think you’re doing it perfectly?  How hard is it to not look at your drawing?  Don’t worry.  That’s normal!  Just keep going.  Don’t peek!  

You’re not trying to get detailed with your drawing.  You want to focus on a basic outline of the main image or object.  

As you look for the first time at your drawing, notice the immediate thought.  What are you hearing?  Does it look like what you expected?  These are goldmines of information for your limiting beliefs and down talk.  

Why do you think your drawing would be perfect when you weren’t even looking at it?  How can you find beauty in what you created?  

Now use watercolor paints to add color to your drawing.  You could use the color to fill in the image as in the above example or to highlight the background like I did in this example:   

#2 – Make Your Own Coloring Sheet

This one is a favorite of mine.  It’s super easy to create and doesn’t take a lot of supplies or time.  Again, I prefer using watercolor paper because it’s thicker than regular paper. 

Supplies:

• Thick watercolor paper
• Sharpie-type marker 
• Colored pencils, markers or crayons  

You start with your blank sheet of paper and simply doodle a continuous line all over your paper.  It will look something like this:

Then you just start coloring!  You can create a pattern if you like but in the beginning, I want these exercises to feel easy and flowy.  The benefit is that there are no rules, no restrictions.  You are flowing wherever the marker wants to go.  

Listen to any critical or judgmental thoughts that you hear.  Take note.  These are simply thoughts.  And these thoughts are not you.  They are your ego talking.  And your ego is not you.  

Simply say thank you to the thoughts and let them go.  Or you could label them like this, “Oh, that’s my ego talking again.” or “That’s an interesting thought.”  or “I’m curious about where that thought came from.”  As you label these thoughts, they will disappear as quickly as you noticed them.  This practice is very similar to meditation practice.  For more information on meditation check out my article Benefits of Meditation!  Or grab a free guided meditation too!    

#3 – Matisse-like Cut-outs

Matisse is one of my favorite artists and his later work is my inspiration for this project.  Henri Matisse was riddled with arthritis in his later years.  Instead of giving up his beloved art, he created a new art form with paper cutouts. 

Supplies:

• Thick piece of watercolor paper 
• Gluestick
• Scissors
• Colored card stock for the cutouts

To start you will take the card stock and cut out different shapes.  There is no object in mind at this point.  Just cut and set aside.  Cut different sizes and shapes to your delight.  If cutting feels good for you keep going.  I like to cut some curvy shapes and some that are angled or boxy.  Once you have about 20 different pieces you can begin the next part of the exercise.  

Arrange your shapes on your watercolor paper to create a new shape.  It could be a woman dancing, a rabbit jumping, a tree, etc.  Overlap the pieces to help create a new image.  After you are happy with your new image glue the pieces down.  

Mindful Makers Video Demo

Check out this calming video from my meditation teacher at Unplug Meditation Studio! You can also get a one-month FREE trial to Unplug’s amazing meditation app by clicking here! It’s by far the most accessible meditation app I’ve used with tons of different types of meditations. You can sort by topic, length of time or favorite instructors!

Work with me

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning how art for anxiety relief can be fun and relaxing!  If you’d like to work with me one-on-one please book a mindful art session here.  I teach time-starved and overwhelmed women how to get back to a place of peace and joy by using mindful art, and meditation.  

References:

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135672/
2. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/artist-brains_n_5187216?utm_hp_ref=arts
3. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0101035
4. https://acrm.org/rehabilitation-medicine/how-the-brain-is-affected-by-art/
5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/8500012/Brain-scans-reveal-the-power-of-art.html
6. https://www.uagc.edu/blog/how-looking-at-art-can-help-your-brain
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24704947/
8. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brain-and-art_n_5513144
9. https://www.mic.com/articles/106504/science-shows-that-art-is-having-fantastic-effects-on-our-brains-and-bodies
10. https://psmag.com/social-justice/making-creative-art-boosts-seniors-psychological-resilience-85117

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