How you can use your creativity and making art to help get through stressful times

How are you doing? The news is a little nuts right now! These are definitely historic times — ones we need to get through, one day at a time, keeping our physical and emotional health.

If you’re feeling a little stressed, you may want to make some art. One option might be painting like an expressionist — get your feelings down on the canvas with paint, get your inner critic out of the way, and just paint!

It could also be something particularly meditative, such as drawing mandalas, drawing Zentangles (intricate patterns), creating collages, or even scribbling with crayons. If you draw mandalas or patterns, you can color them in with markers, or colored pencils, or anything else that appeals to you.

You could paint hearts (or anything else) on rocks, and then surreptitiously put them in your neighbors' yards, or wherever they might be discovered. (Sharpies or Acrylic Paint markers work well for this, too.) Doing a kindness for others makes us feel better, and our creative gifts give us options to make things that others might not think of….

Little rocks from my yard, with heart designs made with Sharpies • © Karen Lynn Ingalls

Perhaps a little less art-y, but definitely creative, my holiday project was printing family photographs that my mother can’t see on Facebook (she avoids computers) and labeling them so she knows (and we do, too) who’s related to whom, across the generations.

Examples from three little photo albums of family photographs, with artistically designed covers and title pages • Karen Lynn Ingalls

When I thanked my Swedish cousins who sent photos, as we exchanged photos in messages, and told them I’d be printing the photos for her, several of them sent lots more, with their love. My little photo album turned into three volumes, with artistic covers and title pages! ​

More examples of three little photo albums of family photographs, with written labels explaining who's who, and generational connections • Karen Lynn Ingalls

If you’ve got someone you care about who’s feeling stressed or isolated, maybe creating something as a special gift for them would lift their spirits (and yours, too). When my mother called me to let me know she’d received the book, I could hear the happiness in her voice. She’s loving looking through them, and knowing that they were sent especially for her.

We can use our creative gifts in so many ways — we’re so very lucky that way. And plunging into a creative project that will make someone else’s day (or week, or lockdown time) a little brighter may be a good use of our time — and brighten our time, too.

​Here's to creating brighter times for ourselves and those around us!
We can use our creative gifts in so many ways — we’re so very lucky that way. And plunging into a creative project that will make someone else’s day (or week, or lockdown time) a little brighter may be a good use of our time — and brighten our time, too.We can use our creative gifts in so many ways — we’re so very lucky that way. And plunging into a creative project that will make someone else’s day (or week, or lockdown time) a little brighter may be a good use of our time — and brighten our time, too.