Meditation
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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 :
· 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.
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