In this un­prece­dent­ed time that we are all ex­pe­ri­enc­ing, it is im­por­tant to not on­ly ex­press your­self, but al­so to find ways to ease the stress while so­cial dis­tanc­ing due to COVID-19. For fam­i­lies im­pact­ed by a se­ri­ous health con­di­tion, the pan­dem­ic and its as­so­ci­at­ed stres­sors may be par­tic­u­lar­ly acute. I would like to share with you sug­gest­ed ways to help you ex­press what you are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing dur­ing this time and give you an out­let to help light­en the mo­not­o­ny of stay­ing in­doors every day.

Start with Ex­press­ing Grat­i­tude

To be­gin, let’s all take a mo­ment to take a deep breath and no­tice what and who is around you. I think that in a time of cri­sis this is im­por­tant to re­flect and take a mo­ment to breathe. What are you grate­ful for right now? Prac­tic­ing grat­i­tude can pos­i­tive­ly im­pact your emo­tion­al well-be­ing, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing dif­fi­cult times. It can help re­mind you of how im­por­tant your loved ones are and can help you feel more pos­i­tive and wor­ry less about the un­knowns. I en­cour­age you to ex­press grat­i­tude once a day as well as cre­ate a sched­ule and find ways to ex­press your­self while we are prac­tic­ing so­cial dis­tanc­ing.

Even af­ter a year, the pan­dem­ic is still new ter­ri­to­ry for most of us, we are all try­ing to fig­ure out how to find a bal­ance be­tween work and home, alone time and fam­i­ly time; where is the line and how do you han­dle such a unique sit­u­a­tion? I en­cour­age you all to find a rou­tine or sched­ule that works for you. Al­so, find a way to dif­fer­en­ti­ate your days off from work or school days; for ex­am­ple, find cre­ative out­lets on your days off or try a new ex­er­cise.

Cre­ative out­lets re­lease chal­leng­ing feel­ings

Cre­ative out­lets and ex­pres­sion are so im­por­tant, now more than ever. While it may be hard to con­trol the many vari­ables with­in this pan­dem­ic, we CAN con­trol how we ex­press our­selves to help pass the time cre­ative­ly. Ex­press­ing your­self through cre­ativ­i­ty may help im­prove your mood, build your self-es­teem, and can be a dif­fer­ent form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion to re­lease chal­leng­ing feel­ings.

There are end­less amounts of ac­tiv­i­ties you can en­gage in, even if you do not con­sid­er your­self an artist or have lim­it­ed ma­te­ri­als on hand! I have al­ways found that the hard­est part is start­ing, but do not fret, there are ways to work through it. To be­gin, as­sess what ma­te­ri­als you have at home and cre­ate a space at home that is your “cre­ative place.” De­pend­ing on what you need, it can be a small cor­ner in your room or a col­lec­tive space in your home. Be open to try­ing some­thing new. You can look on­line for in­spi­ra­tion or fol­low your own in­tu­ition! Go for it, don’t hold back, and know there is not any­thing wrong that you will do when you are ex­press­ing your­self!

Art ther­a­py – it’s all about the process

Many times, we are wor­ried about the fi­nal prod­uct dur­ing the cre­ative process, but in art ther­a­py it is about the process and not the end re­sult. While art ther­a­py is fa­cil­i­tat­ed by an art ther­a­pist, that does not mean that you can­not ap­ply the same prin­ci­ples at home by your­self or with fam­i­ly mem­bers. Let go of ex­pec­ta­tions that you may have and dive in­to your own self-ex­pres­sion with­out judg­ment or at­tach­ment to your cre­ativ­i­ty. I think that you may find this to be a free­ing ex­pe­ri­ence and it will al­low you to ex­press your­self ful­ly!

Here is some in­spi­ra­tion I have come across over the years in the field about ways to ex­press your­self:

Cre­ate:

- Make ephemer­al art (That is, use chalk pas­tels and wipe your draw­ing away once it’s com­plet­ed; rip up art and turn the im­age in­to some­thing else)

- Cre­ate a Zen­tan­gle, a re­lax­ing way to cre­ate beau­ti­ful im­ages by draw­ing struc­tured pat­tern. Sim­ply fold a blank piece of pa­per in­to dif­fer­ent shapes and cre­ate dif­fer­ent de­signs in each fold­ed sec­tion.

- Draw with your non-dom­i­nant hand

- Draw your­self or your part­ner or child as a su­per­hero

Re­flect:

- Start a jour­nal; Cre­ate a grat­i­tude col­lage or draw­ing

- Cre­ate a box rep­re­sent­ing your feel­ings or mem­o­ries

- Col­lage your ex­pe­ri­ences so­cial dis­tanc­ing

- Take pho­tos and ed­it/change them to re­flect the mood of the im­age

- Make hand­prints and list your strengths/in­ter­ests with­in the print

Con­nect:

- Cre­ate a mur­al with your loved ones (tape small­er pieces of pa­per to­geth­er if you do not have ac­cess to mur­al pa­per)

- Start a doo­dle chain with fam­i­ly mem­bers; cre­ate a fam­i­ly tree

- Make col­lab­o­ra­tive art with your loved ones

- Cre­ate art on a vir­tu­al chat with friends

Ex­plore dif­fer­ent medi­ums:

- Use nat­ur­al ma­te­ri­als to cre­ate art

- Cre­ate a sculp­ture us­ing items that you plan on throw­ing away/re­cy­cled ma­te­ri­als

- Use clay or mod­el mag­ic to sculpt your feel­ings or use it to re­lieve frus­tra­tion by stretch­ing, smoosh­ing, and pound­ing

- Cre­ate/paint a ground­ing stone

- Cre­ate an im­age on­ly us­ing calm­ing colours

- Use two-three dif­fer­ent medi­ums and see how they work to­geth­er.

These ideas are a good place to start, but I en­cour­age you to be open and fol­low your in­spi­ra­tion wher­ev­er it takes you!

While cre­ative ex­pres­sion may be a help­ful out­let dur­ing a chal­leng­ing time, if you or a loved one is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing de­pres­sion or anx­i­ety due to COVID-19, I strong­ly rec­om­mend reach­ing out to lo­cal ther­a­py prac­tices to con­nect to a pro­fes­sion­al to help you work through dif­fi­cult emo­tions. Most ther­a­pists are see­ing clients via tele­health and it’s a great plat­form if you need some­one to talk to dur­ing this time.

Re­mem­ber that you are not alone and ex­press­ing your­self may help you through this un­prece­dent­ed time. Stay safe, wash your hands, con­tin­ue prac­tic­ing guide­lines rec­om­mend­ed by the CDC and your lo­cal gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, and hap­py cre­at­ing!

About the Au­thor:

Dr Er­i­ca May­er re­ceived her med­ical de­gree from Har­vard Med­ical School in 2000. She ob­tained a Mas­ter’s of Pub­lic Health from the Har­vard School of Pub­lic Health in 2005.