Get creative and watch your life bloom.
What a week. Separation from friends and family. Work halted. Eateries closed. Theaters dark. Gyms shuttered. And worse — no accessible Godiva Chocolate.
Kidding aside, I’ve heard from friends — especially those who live alone — that this kind of quarantine is threatening their mental health and sense of social inclusion. In short: many are anxious, panicked, lonely and sad. Science backs this up, as the second week of Coronavirus challenges our bodies and our brains. The CDC says extended isolation can lead to stress, insomnia, depression and even hallucination.
One solution? Make art.
Take 10 minutes. Grab a pencil, your kids’ crayons, or a felt tip marker. Smash a cardboard box, and make it your canvas. The supplies don’t matter. The exercise is about relieving you — even for a few minutes — of the fear that exacerbates our anxiety.
Try making marks, slopping paint, or ripping paper. See if you don’t feel a sense of joy — even accomplishment — in the middle of a tense day.
Sit yourself down in your garden — or if inside, in front of a window — and spot something that speaks to you in some way. See it, put it down on paper, and leave your self-criticism somewhere else. It’s not about the product — it’s about the process. If you totally let go— and just create — you just might find this to be an inspiring daily exercise.
For me, the beauty is truly being in the moment. When we stop, sit, and just draw — we get to make something from nothing. By doing that, we birth an idea and see it emerge from a blank page. Whether we keep the end product or not is irrelevant. It’s making it that matters.
How does creative expression reduce stress? Experts say typically artistic work requires focus, and this prevents us from being preoccupied with our uncertainty. In this way, creativity acts much in the same way as meditation.
To express an artistic vision you don’t need special supplies, you don’t need training, you don’t even need skill. You really only need two things: the desire, and the time. A global pandemic just handed you the time.
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I enjoyed reading this, LL. Great food for thought, creating a relaxing mind-body experience, while stimulating our inner desire for creative expression. DC
Y’know how when you head out towards a new destination it seems to take forever to get there and the journey back home seems so much quicker? Now we are faced with a journey that has no fixed destination, no ETA, and we’re not even sure how much gas (energy) it will take to get us there and if we will have enough gas (energy) to get back home. So we are exhausted before we start. Exhausted by worry, stress, and fear because for the first time, perhaps in a long time, we are scared of what tomorrow brings. So, as Lonnie said, we are “preoccupied with our uncertainty“. (God, she is smart!) May we, on this pandemic journey, find the focus to create our own art, to dance the way we dance, and to sing the melodies that only we can make. Then when we finally reach the end destination, we can return home in short order to create, dance, and sing some more! Thank you Lonnie, for calling us to create! ❤️❣️