Create Something Beautiful for Stress Relief
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Some people are deeply talented artists who can create lifelike drawings, amusing cartoons, powerful animae drawings, and other pieces of art with relative ease. Others struggle to draw stick figures.
When it comes to stress management, the end product doesn’t really matter; it’s the process of creating a piece of art that counts.
One study divided slightly stressed subjects into two groups and found that creating a picture (rather than simply looking at and sorting famous pieces of art) relieved anxiety and decreased negative mood. In this study, they chose between using charcoal pencils, oil pastels, or even regular colored pencils, and the drawings themselves weren’t evaluated, just the anxiety levels and mood of the people after they were done.
So whether you are someone who already enjoys creating art but doesn’t make time for it, or you’re someone who doubts their own artistic ability, let go of results and let go of perfectionism; create something that’s just for you in a drawing journal, a canvas, or whatever you have handy.
