I have talked before about the branch of psychotherapy known as art therapy, where art is used to communicate non-verbally in order to help you understand yourself more and hopefully ease or grow out of any problems that you have encountered like anxiety and depression.
In order to do art therapy you need to visit a qualified art therapist who will be able to guide you and mentor you. This is obviously a time consuming and potentially expensive business.
But you can use art in many ways. It is actually extremely relaxing to do art. Now I know what you are going to say, Van Gogh had severe mental health problems and he was an artist. Well, I am not advising you to be like Van Gogh. In fact the object of the exercise is not to produce "good" art. The object is to relax, forget anxiety and depression and just take your focus somewhere else. In that respect it is like a very simple and effective meditation. One which is much less esoteric than other forms and easier to achieve.
So, all you have to do is take a pen/pencil/crayon/lipstick and something on which you can make a mark and let your imagination go. You can draw something, someone or just make some abstract scrawls.
You can try and draw your feelings; not as crazy as it sounds. You may actually feel much better for drawing what you are thinking. You may find it useful in trying to sort out what’s going on in your head. If this works for you, why not also try with other art forms: photography, painting, or anything.
Other things like DIY and even cleaning can be surprisingly therapeutic, but I think there is something special about art and the way it takes you away from yourself.
