subject: Art As Therapy - Coping With Feelings of Grief During the Vacation Season [print this page] Art As Therapy - Coping With Feelings of Grief During the Vacation Season
The holiday season will be a challenging time for many anyone as the stresses of finances, increased demands of time and tasks, and unrealistic expectations show themselves in a very grand way. Furthermore, if you are someone that's operating through feelings of grief at this point, everything will become compounded.
The vacations will produce feelings of depression, loneliness, and anxiety for the bereaved as they keep in mind past events. Holidays by nature are stuffed with nostalgia, tradition and ritual, but for those grieving, this can name conflicted feelings of both comfort and distress because the absence of the deceased becomes more apparent. As the remainder of the planet is celebrating, it's important for grieving individuals to acknowledge their emotional pain and get through the season with a minimum amount of stress. Being able to specific ones grief verbally can be difficult. Art expression, as a non-verbal modality, will be a good approach of operating through and containing grief when words fall short.
Throughout history, art making has been a suggests that by which humans have expressed their grief. Whether through burial ceremonies, shrines, or memorials, the symbols that represent loss are important for coping and relieving emotional distress.
Creativity will be a way to feel the unhappiness, anger and loss similarly because the remembrance of times past in all their imperfections and beauty, while taking time to perceive oneself within the context of the whole. Overwhelming thoughts and feelings can be captured in the images thereby creating a brand new sense of management, organization, and containment. Focusing on the photographs or symbols permits a person to specific stressful emotions without having to refer directly to details surrounding the loss.
Art making as a healing method allows for several positive effects to happen physiologically. The promotion of feelings of joy, peacefulness, and calm come about because of the release of the pleasure inducing chemicals called endorphins, the mood enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin, along with the lowering of heart rate and respiration. Alpha brainwave patterns are also initiated that are the patterns that present themselves during moments of prayer and meditation. The method of making art conjointly provides a kinesthetic unharness that permits someone to channel her emotions and physical energy outward rather than suppressing and tightening within.
There are a selection of ways that to use art and imagination as a tonic in the recovery from loss and grief. One in every of the ways in which that is useful is by keeping a feelings art journal. This can be an glorious way to track what is happening among on a daily basis. Experiment with color, lines and form to follow emotions, being aware of body sensations rather than specializing in thoughts concerning the current emotional state. For example, if you're feeling sad, strive to sense where that disappointment lies in your body and express this sensation as spontaneously as possible.
Another approach that is helpful in containing grief is by using imagery to appease and restore the spirit. Gather objects and images (photos, magazines, calendar photos) that evoke feelings of appreciation, pleasure, compassion and gratitude and use these as inspiration for your own art. While this art creating is meant to be enlivening in the moment of creating it, it is conjointly meant to remind and inspire you when times feel challenging within the future.
Art as therapy is medicine for the soul. And while creativity can be a beautiful companion on ones healing journey, apprehend your limits. It might be vital to hunt out a skilled therapist, support cluster or pastoral counselor that can help you additional with the trauma or loss and will be the witness to your art expressions and emotions.
