Latest...

Art, Architecture, Design & Travel

Art Therapy To Combat Stress And Relax yourself



Art ‘Meditation’ Therapy


By Dr Anindita Roy (icreativesciences@gmail.com)

Stress is one of the world’s largest health problems, leading to exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, a weak immune system, or even organ damage. During this stressful times of COVID-19, instances of stress have increased manifold and psychologists are busier than ever before.

Cortisol, also known as ‘the stress hormone’ is a biological indicator to measure changes in stress response in patients and also their caregivers.

Studying art making’ activities, with cortisol as a “Biomarker” , has been effectively used to measure stress levels in the body. Cortisol can be  measured through saliva samples; the higher a person’s cortisol level, the more stressed a person is likely to be. (Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07421656.2016.1166832 )

Studies have also shown that meditation can help control cortisol levels . Focusing on ‘one experience’ e.g ‘making art’, happening in the ‘present moment’ or ‘mindfulness’ can help you relax and improve creativity & cardiovascular health.

So we can say that ‘making art’ can be used as a meditative technique to relieve stress and lower cortisol levels and keep us anchored.

Research has also shown that increased cortisol levels give rise to complications such as Blood pressure, type2 diabetes, osteoporosis, weight gain, impaired brain functions and also lowered immunity so that the body caught infections readily.

Now, every individual is creative and can be expressive in the visual arts. Doing art of any kind  allows you to put into perspective things that are bothering you.

Academic stress in young college students and high school students needs to be dealt with and I think that creative arts can help. Younger persons are developmentally still raw and are still figuring out ways to deal with stress and challenges. Including creative art making techniques have helped many young people to effectively deal with stress.

The skill level of ‘making art’ does not matter. Here we are not aiming at making high grade artists . The idea here is to engage in ‘visual art making’ using easy techniques.

Some easy creative activities that help relieve stress are :

·         Abstract art with pencils, colour pencils or paint
·         Doodling with markers
·         Making structured or unstructured collages
·         Making Posters, cards, postcards
·         Clay modelling
·         Write with colours
·         Keeping a scrap book.



Playing a soft and  soothing music while ‘making visual art’ adds to the benefits manifold. Online support groups , in these critical times of COVID-19 can help boost and motivate you to engage in therapeutic art making activities. Making ‘Mindful Art’ can help you to achieve what psychologists refer to as flow which leads to improved performance and lowered stress levels. Start your journey to live a stress free life by creating a ‘dream journal’, ‘gratitude journal’ or just a daily ‘art journal’. 

We are here to help and support you in case of need. Do subscribe for online sessions.



covid-19 art


covid-19 art

covid-19 art



 Artwork by : SARMESTHA DUTTA

#covid-19 #novelcoronavirus #fightcorona #stayhomestaysafe #coronafighters















Related Posts