Art. I knew it.

Last year when things were pretty dismal in my life and I kept feeling like I was having the metaphorical rug pulled out from me about once a week, I just felt overwhelmed.  I felt hopeless.  I didn't feel that I had the mental capacity to read or crochet.  Taking a walk or going around people just seemed like more than I could handle.  That's when my art exploded.  I just wanted to draw all of the time.  I had begun doing artwork a year or so before and helped me cope with my Dad's passing and my Mom's Alzheimers, but when everything came raining down on me, I retreated into my art to recover.  It helped immensely.  I personally write bible verses on all of my art, so that got me reading and finding quotes about hope and that helped even more.  I feel like my art pulled me through the tough times.  I would say that most of it is not very good, but sometimes I get lucky and all of the elements on the page blend together and it's good and when I look at it, it makes me feel happy.  In searching the web, I have found that doing art has been proven to make people happier.  I knew it.






Here are a few facts about art and our mental health.

1.  Four out of the six happiest activities are arts related.

2.  It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing,   Creativity Breeds Happiness   "Richards, the researchers note, wrote that day-to-day creativity “is both a cause and consequence of positive development."

3 You don't have to be good at it to reap the benefits.

4.  Just looking at art makes us happier.    

Resources. 

Here are a bunch of art therapy prompts to get you started if you don't know what to do at first.  Expressive Art Inspirations

Coloring in coloring books and doing paint by numbers are also ideas.  I don't know if there have been scientific studies done about these, but they sure are popular right now.

Adults Are Coloring.

Coloring Books for Grownups are a Thing.

Here's one of my drawings without any color, for you to download and color if you'd like.  Right click with your mouse on the picture and you can either select save image or print right from there.