Stress, anxiety and creativity

What do you do when the level of stress and anxiety that you are experiencing is overwhelming and makes you sick?

I’ve found that the best way to calm that anxious mind is to actually be creative and paint anything.

Creating gets us out of our everyday minds. It's as if creativity seems to happen in a different part of my mind than the anxiety. Whatever’s going on in my head gets muffled as I watch flowers, trees or barns flow from the brush. When you throw yourself into a creative project, your brain just doesn’t have the room to worry about things happening at work because it’s busy doing things are more fun, engaging and productive, but requires all of your attention.

I've got two emotional outlet - art and working out. These days I need both of them.

Creating also involves problem solving. You want things to look or sound a certain way, and you figure out how to do that. Often times with watercolours, there is a stage that things might not seem right, then I have to find a way to fix it. Even when the painting doesn't go in the direction that I want, I still get the benefits of stress relief.

Here is a watercolour painting I did during the holidays.  This is my second one of blue glass jars which I find fascinating.  Last week it was submitted to a jury for a local art show and the painting was accepted.  Yahoo!

I also had this watercolour that was accepted.  Here it is:

The show at the Trinity Gallery in the Shenkman Centre will start on February 10 and last for about two months.  I'll provide date later of the vernissage.

Have a great week
Danielle