Self-care through creative practice

I’m easily overwhelmed these days. Between the chaos in the news, working full time and being present for my family, it often feels as though my own needs and self-care come last.

I’ve learned the hard way that in order to show up for others, I need to sustain my own energy and positive mindset. If I don’t, I end up stressed out, grumpy and irritable—the opposite of who I want to be.

As an introvert, I have two main ways of taking a step back and recharging. The first is reading. I love escaping into fiction, especially juicy mystery novels filled with suspense, intrigue, and characters who are grappling with their own flawed lives. Even better when those novels take place in other places, so I can immerse myself in another culture, with different social norms and pressures. This escape inevitably provides my brain with the rest it needs from my own daily stresses.

The other way I decompress is through creative play. For a long time, I thought I had to carve out a significant chunk of time to make art. While this is true if I’m working on a large or complex painting, it’s not necessary for engaging my creative brain and practicing self-care.

I’ve learned during periods where my free time is highly compressed that taking just a few minutes to make something with my hands tunes my brain to a different frequency. This process is both meditative and relaxing.

The trick is to have an easy creative exercise ready that takes very little thought or materials to engage with. One of my go-to exercises is to take a small- to medium-sized piece of paper and start by drawing or painting just one line. The line can be straight, curved or wiggly. Then, I draw another line that responds to the first. Sometimes I start in the middle of the page, other times in one corner. The idea is to just keep adding lines and other marks until the page is filled.

What I love about this activity is that there’s no pressure for my already full mind to come up with an idea or concept or to create any kind of meaning. It’s simply an action and reaction, back and forth, responding to what’s already happening on the page. When I do this, my mind becomes entirely focused on the present moment. All other thoughts and worries cease to exist. By the time 10 or 20 minutes have passed, my page is full and my mind is clear.

Over the years, I’ve played with different variations on this same theme. Sometimes I use just one pen or one colour of ink or paint. Other times, I play with a specific type of line or pattern that I repeat using different colours. I’ve also taken more of a Zentangle approach and divided my paper into different sections which I then fill with as many different types of marks as possible.