Art Can Help You and Your Family Reduce Stress & Cope During the Pandemic.

Art Can Help You and Your Family Reduce Stress & Cope During the Pandemic.

Art has long been a way for societies to cope with tragedy and uncertainty. Creating and viewing art have always been a way for us to understand more about the reality we find ourselves in. It helps us better understand what we’re going through, both as individuals and as a society. Creating art can give you and your family a much-needed respite during this current pandemic by lowering your stress, allowing you to creatively express yourself, and simply to have some fun.

Practicing therapeutic art classes like the Art4Healing® classes can help you and your family cope with the more challenging feelings about having to live through a pandemic and everything that has happened as a result.

There are so many other stressors right now in addition to the pandemic. Just turn on the news. Or don’t! – It’s essential to stay informed, but there are times when we need to take a break and restore ourselves and our families. We’ve got to reduce the stress and create more calm in our homes. The pressure has been piling up, and our families and our children are feeling it.

Taking Art4Healing® classes can help you express your feelings about what’s happening in your life and our world

Taking Art4Healing® classes can help you express your feelings about what’s happening in your life and our world. They can help you better understand and respond to the stress that comes with living in this incredibly challenging time. Art4Healing® classes can create a safe, creative ritual to process the collective trauma we are all going through. They can be used to calm our nervous system and get our brains out of fight-or-flight mode and into rest-and-digest mode. This is incredibly important in building emotional and physical resilience. When our brains and bodies are less stressed, we make better decisions. We can then focus on what things we can do to create change. When we feel we have the ability to create change, we have hope. There is much to be hopeful and grateful for, even during this challenging time. We can build that emotional and physical resilience in our families, especially if we create routines for fun and play, creativity, self-expression, rest, and self-reflection.

Ideas for Creating a Regular Family Art and Creativity Routine:

Ask everyone in the family to brainstorm a list of fun creative projects they might like to work on individually and together. Keep that list of ideas and rotate through them as projects are completed, and interests change. Then, pick one and get started.

Create a routine for you and your family to actually do those fun, creative projects that were just written out. Put it in your Google Calendar and set a reminder the day before and the day of. Treat this creative date with yourself and your family as a commitment to yourself and your kids. You will all start to look forward to it.

For Adults:

Pick an amount of time and frequency that’s realistic and doable to spend on actually doing your creative project. For me, I might say, Okay, every Friday afternoon for 1 hour, I’m going to work on a Shutterfly photo album to get “caught up” (Ha!) on my scrapbooks, OR work on my current baby rag quilt sewing project I need to complete. In addition to scheduling in my fun creative project time, I will also add into my calendar that on every other Saturday for example, I’m going to take an hour or so to do an Art4Healing® class. I’ll take some private time alone to do this and maybe spend some time afterward to journal about my feelings and what I learned about myself or my situation. This way, I’m having fun with my creative hobbies once a week and also taking time to feel and process my feelings about current life stressors by doing the Art4Healing® classes maybe twice a month. You can do more or less of either. You figure out what works for you!

For the kids:

Adults, you’re gonna have to schedule this creative time for them too and follow through! I suggest some consistency, so kids know what to expect and to look forward to. So, for example, every Thursday after school, the kids will do an art lesson from the Art for Kids classes here on the website. Or maybe they have a Zoom dance lesson or a music class they can do every week. Put this on a calendar on the fridge to see and know when they can look forward to it. We’ve all been living in ” Corona Quarantine Time” this past year. It’s felt really strange to be out of our routines for so long. So let’s create some routines and schedule some time to PLAY. Fun, self-expression, and learning something new is the goal—arts and crafts, music, dance, you name it. Let the kids do something expressive.

What about the Art4Healing® classes for younger kids?

Kids can do many of the Art4Healing® classes with and without you there. Still, I suggest you watch the class first and discern if you think that particular class would be helpful to your child to relieve additional stress or to help them express their feelings beyond what play and regular expressive arts classes can do. Remember, children learn and express themselves through PLAY! I want to encourage them to have fun and not get bogged down in heavy emotions. You are your children’s best guide. If your child is dealing with a lot of stress, you can consult a licensed therapist and see what they think about your child taking an Art4Healing® class based on your particular situation. You can read them the prompts from the class for their approval if you need to.

That all being said, there have been thousands of children who have used, loved, and benefited from using the Art4Healing® method.

Children that have suffered from stress, pain, grief, and loss. Children who have been through challenging life situations have found a way to express what they could not communicate with words using the Art4Healing® method. Feel free to ask me more if you have any questions about this or any of the classes I offer.

Creative Self-Care Rituals for Yourself and Your Family

Start these creative self-care rituals for yourself and your family. Take the time to get in the creative flow, express your creativity and have fun. Also, take time to express your feelings about what’s going on in your life using the Art4Healing® classess or other therapeutic practices. Of course, I always recommend speaking to a licensed professional therapist or counselor if you’re really struggling. But I will still recommend adding in these creative practices! – Get your heart and your hands involved! Get your feelings out onto a page with paint or create something with your hands! You will find it to be so cathartic and rewarding!