3 Artistic Therapies to Beat Your Anxiety Disorder

Navigate your anxiety with art therapy, whether you suffer chronically with anxiety or it’s only an occasional occurrence. Art therapy’s greatest benefit is the ability to calm down your nervous system, as you redirect your focus to your artwork.  A shift in attention allows your body to regulate your nervous system and process all the emotions running through your mind.

As a non-verbal form of expression, art therapy helps you to visually express a situation and help to distance yourself from the situation, giving new perspectives. Use art therapy to connect to your inner self and become invigorated by a new feeling of vitality.

Make use of these three techniques to find a sense of calm in your anxiety:

1.    Express your Anxiety

This technique makes use of drawing while you pay mindful attention. When you feel anxious take a piece of paper and tape it down. Gather your favorite type of drawing tools (pencils, crayons, oil pastels, or whatever you prefer), Start by closing your eyes and engage with your body, noticing how your body feels when overcome by anxiety. When opening your eyes, choose a color and begin drawing a continuous line without picking up your tool from the page. This is a way for your anxiety to express itself on paper. Stop drawing when you feel the motion is completed. If you are feeling as though your mind is controlling the line, use your other hand.

Once complete, look at your piece and turn the paper around to see it from different perspectives, until an image begins to emerge, even if it doesn’t make total sense. Using more colors and you can start to develop the visual that depicts your anxiety. Once complete, take five minutes to free-write about your drawing experience and how you feel about your anxiety now.

2. Collage your Safety and Comfort

This technique requires you to create a visual piece that reminds you of your safe place. Collect some blank paper, old magazines, and photos, glue stick and markers. Breathe deeply and start by thinking about a time when you feel safe and at ease, or a location that makes you feel relaxed.  Look through the magazines and cut images out that grab your attention based on what you were thinking. Don’t look for the perfect image but rather allow the images to speak to you. Take the images that you are drawn to, regardless of if they make total sense.

Arrange your collected images, creating an overall graphic representation that makes you feel safe. This will be a reminder for you whenever you feel the overwhelming anxiety washing over you.

3. Visualize your Anxiety

This technique is more free-form, allowing you to answer a variety of questions. Imagine what anxiety would look like if it had a personality or physical body, or how it talks and interacts. Picture your own body under the influence of anxiety and how it looks without. Represent these imaginations visually to truly understand your anxiety, and find ways of dealing with it.