Color away the worries!

When was the last time you colored something?

Or painted?

Or sketched?

Don’t remember? Well then probably it’s been a very long time and you need to bring out the inner child and indulge in some art activity. I am not saying this for the sake of fun but for your betterment. If you are feeling upset, depressed, anxious, confused, angry, or anything that makes it difficult for you to think properly; just sit down and color for a while.

I built up this habit about two years back. I searched the internet for ‘adult coloring patterns’ and found drawing sheets that have detailed intricate patterns to fill in. I color them with different mediums depending on my mood. Sometimes I use color pencils or poster colors, chalk pastels, oil pastels, water colors, markers or sometimes simply shading with a regular pencil. It really helps me to relax. It decreases my anxiety and confusions and helps me to think clearly.

What happens is when I am involved in filling colors to these detailed patterns, I forget what was actually disturbing me. When I keep thinking about the problem I am never able to find a solution but when I am involved in art, and forget it for a while, then rethink about it I realize that the solution was so easy but because I was so tensed I was not being able to figure it out.

Unfortunately in our country art has always been considered a failure. But internationally, art is a great healer. Art therapy institutes are formed and people are treated for their mental health problems. Psychologists see a vast difference in people form the first session and even the patients say that it’s great how they can express themselves through colors and start recovering from their depression.

So next time you feel something is not going right, just disconnect from the world for a while and connect yourself with art. Also, if you have kids, build up this habit in them from now so they don’t grow up to be individuals finding it difficult to express themselves when they aren’t able to find words to speak.