Art and Emotional Processing

I often doodle or use art to calm down from anxiety but recently it has become a way for me to process emotions. I lost some dear friends suddenly and in a horrific way. I won’t go into detail as it is still fresh. I was distraught, my thoughts went to dark places and so I drew. I found a photo of my friend that I took with intent of drawing later on. Little did I know that that photo would be used to help me process loosing her. I knew that I needed an outlet for all these emotions and with no where to put them I focused my pain and energy into creativity. That drawing is one I am most proud of out of all my recent work. While drawing didn’t cure my grief it helped me process the pain and turn into something beautiful.

B. M.

I am no expert on grief and processing emotions but I truly think it is important to have an outlet for emotions outside of your support system. While it is good to have therapy and talk about emotions with loved ones sometimes words don’t cut it. I would encourage anyone to take something that allows them to be creative drawing, painting, writing, woodworking, gardening, or anything else that gives you that release. If you can’t think of anything try somethings out, find stuff that you enjoy and the rest will fall into place.