There are times when I get emotionally distressed. When this happens I have nights where I can’t sleep properly, takes a long time to drift off to sleep, or periodically waking during the night. I become insular and tend to become me very quiet. These are times when thoughts of restricting food happen, and the act of restricting happens as well.
I came home from work and decided to pull my shit together and try to reconnect with myself. I put my headphones on, loaded Spotify with my favourite songs, threw it on shuffle. Pulled out my drawing journal and my graphite pencils. I was working on a piece with chillies, but it wasn’t proportionally working for me, so ripped up the 1st try and binned it.
Currently I am going through a tough time. From physical pain and discomfort, and emotional frustration and hurt feelings. So after a really bad night last night of about 4 hours of sleep, then an emotional breakdown, plus a shift at work. I also had a bad day with food, of not eating.
I started again. This time going with the flow of the music as I was drawing. It worked. I was able to drown out the noise that was in my head, I was able to focus on the placement of each chilli and started the shading process.
The process of drawing is my art therapy. It’s not about what I draw, but how I do it, getting depth and some realistic aspects of the subject. It’s about quietening the noise in my head that causes the extra stress. Drawing and listening to music allows me to give my head a rest from the stresses. The stress hasn’t gone, it’s still there to be dealt with when I am ready.
My choice in music is centred around a lot of 80’s power ballads. Artists such as Bryan Adams, Dire Straits, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and many others. For me this style of music is soothing, calming, yet can be upbeat and I just go into lip syncing and a little playing the air drums 🤣 it’s another way to de-stress and even though I won’t go straight to sleep, I have been able to calm myself to be able to not overthink the stressful things that bounce off the inside of my head.
I will also draw elephants as a therapeutic image when I don’t want to do flowers or vegetables. Again a subject that requires focus on the outline of the elephant, and the shading to bring him into a 3D world.
Art therapy, whatever it is for the individual is the important part in my opinion. Some will find answers in the actual image that they draw, others need to be engrossed in the drawing process to allow the space that is needed to work through the issues at hand.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Sunday and week to come. Be safe and well. Until next time.
Hayley Glasson 