In this lockdown, it’s very important to know how to make time in our day to let out some of the negative energy, and reduce the daily stress that we’re facing in our lives due to the existing crisis of Coronavirus… We can do this by using tools and materials that are available in our homes, we can also do it with the people who live with us, and break the social routine, common in the Egyptian household.

What is Art Therapy?

It’s the usage of arts to enhance psychological health, like dance, music, sculpture, and painting. And its effectiveness has been proved, and it is one of the solutions to reduce anxiety and depression, and also always a new opportunity to discover the soul and ensure its well-being.

Why is Art Therapy an effective method in enhancing our psychological health?

The reason behind the success of Art Therapy is that it provides us with a safe environment, free of judgments, or authorities; where we can discover and take note of our emotions, the apparent and the hidden of them. Art Therapy is also a living example of freedom; it has no rules, no right or wrong, only play and souls and feelings’ exploration.

— We will mention some of the simple exercises that can help us reduce anxiety at home, and with materials and tools that we have —

Scrabble
We can use any type of crayons (Wood, lead, pastel, or chock) and an appropriate space of white paper. We allow ourselves to scrabble with no judgment or analysis; we can close our eyes if that would be more helpful. We can try to scrabble with total control on our hands for a while and for another while we can let them be free, and try doing it with no control. After we’re finished we take a step back… and imagine the figures resulting from our scrabbles, and color them freely or add details that we want. This is a free zone for your hand and mind.

2. Throw It Away

Papers and a pen, and write your negative thoughts or the things that are upsetting or scary to you, or even express your worry or anger. Imagine the paper like tree leaves falling in autumn, and shed your thoughts and fears with them.

3. What Do I love?

We write the things that we love in ourselves, lives or in others, we talk about what makes us special and listen more to ourselves, and we signify these things with colors, just as we see their colors are within us.

4. Playing with Colors

We get water colors and white paper, and free some space… we let go, playing with the colors, using our hands, brushes, or even our feet, we color them and step on the paper! The important thing is to feel the energy of freedom, and let our stress out on paper in the way most suitable for us.

5. Sculpture or Using Clay

Applying pressure and sculpting the materials available, whether freely or with having a certain shape in mind that we want to reach, would help us discharge the anxiety or nervousness that we have.

6. Daily Blogging

We’ll use our notebook and any other materials or tools of our choice; we draw a random image or something from our imagination. The goal of this exercise is to allow ourselves to act more freely with no expectations, hence what we blog might be a reflection of how our day will go, what’s our mood like, or even the types of problems we’re going through. After we finish blogging, take a look at your art pieces that you have blogged this day, also blog how you feel about them in writing, and how these images have affected you.

7. Music

Music is one of the important tools in reducing our daily stress, so here are some music tracks suitable for our exercises:

8. Coloring on Our Phones

We can reduce the time we spend on different social media platforms and all the stress they bring us, by using our phones in coloring on this application:

Download Colorify App

Our psychological health is extremely important… and with us staying at home for long periods of time with the current situation, Art Therapy and playing with colors might be a way to reduce our daily anxiety and stress, and something that can help us know more about ourselves and make better use of our days.