Connecting with Yourself Through Art
A Maryland Art Therapist’s strategy to strengthen your mental health
Self-connection is a heightened state of being. You are able to tune into your emotional, physical and spiritual needs and create small meaningful daily actions that fulfill a greater life purpose. Connecting with yourself through art making can help you to explore your inner being and provide a sense of release.
Creating art has the power to tap into the hidden parts of self when verbal expression is not enough. It allows you to activate your emotions and the intuitive parts of your mind and body. It validates the uniqueness of an individual, promotes feelings of self-worth, and inspires reflection.
Connecting with yourself reduces anxiety and improves mental health
in at least 7 different ways! You’ll see growth in your your self-awareness, authenticity, and emotional well-being. You’ll develop the ability to self reflect and begin to feel more empowered. You may find a deeper connection to your spiritual self. And your relationships will grow as you do.
Connecting with yourself builds self-awareness and helps you solve problems.
Self-awareness is the ability to understand your own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. It helps you recognize your strengths, shortcomings, values, and beliefs.
Self-awareness is crucial for personal growth and development as it enables you to make better choices and decisions aligned with your true self. Expressing yourself in a creative way will allow you to observe your life from another angle, think visually and find creative solutions to life challenges.
It helps you to behave with authenticity in your work and relationships
When you connect with yourself, you become more in tune with your authentic self. You develop a deeper understanding of who you are, what you truly want, and what brings you joy and fulfillment. This allows you to live a more authentic life, being true to yourself rather than trying to meet the expectations and standards set by others. Your art is a sincere reflection of you. Creating art overtime provides a visual mirror on your journey of authenticity.
It reduces stress and calms your nervous system
Connecting with yourself involves paying attention to your emotions and taking care of your mental and emotional well-being. It allows you to acknowledge and process your feelings, whether they are positive or negative. By connecting with yourself, you can better manage stress, anxiety, and other emotional challenges.
There are many studies showing that art making can minimize stress, combat negative mood, and activate resources and coping abilities. Art is a meditative process, calming the nervous system and restoring balance.
Better mental health begins with self reflection
The journey of self-love and self-acceptance begins with self-reflection. Self-reflection is the process of introspection: examining your thoughts, experiences, and actions. Through self-reflection, you can gain insights into your patterns, behaviors, and habits.
Self reflection helps you identify areas for personal growth, learn from your mistakes, and make positive changes in your life. Art can show you elements of yourself you may not notice everyday. Art making is an essential tool for the transformative process, offering a safe place to a deeper connection with self.
Strengthen your relationships through art (and art therapy)
When you have a strong connection with yourself, it positively impacts your relationships with others. By understanding yourself better, you can communicate your needs, boundaries, and desires more effectively.
You can also develop empathy and compassion, which allows you to understand and connect with others on a deeper level. Art connects. It gives meaning to our lives and understanding the world. It helps to educate and strengthen communities through shared expression.
Regain control of yourself and your choices
Connecting with yourself empowers you to take charge of your life. It gives you the confidence to make choices that align with your values and aspirations. You become less influenced by external opinions and more capable of setting and pursuing your own goals.
Self-connection fosters self-belief and resilience, enabling you to overcome challenges and obstacles. Art making gives you a voice and allows you to own the power to make your own artistic choices. Art making helps to find clarity and create the change you want in your life and in yourself. Art provides tangible evidence of self-accomplishment.
Connect on a spiritual level
Spirituality is a belief and connection to something bigger than ourselves. Spiritual connection is the ability to have intuitive awareness and understand when something impacts your soul and gives meaning to your life experience.
Being connected to your spiritual nature helps you reflect on your values, beliefs, health, relationships and may help you better understand your purpose in life. It reminds you to slow down, pray, practice gratitude and seek clarity. Like mindfulness meditation, art provides a safe haven to relax the mind and body in order to be fully present in the moment.
You deserve to feel empowered, connected, and in tune with yourself. Try it now.
I invite you to take your own journey of connection with yourself through art. Below are art prompts and reflective questions to promote self-connection. All you need are a few art materials of your choice (markers, paint, watercolor, oil pastels, magazine clippings, etc) and paper or canvas of your choice (newspaper, fabric, wood, magazine, etc). Get creative!
Create your safe place.
To feel a sense of meaning and purpose, safety is important. Creating a place of peace and restoration may help you increase self-awareness and support emotional stability. What do you see, hear, touch, smell taste, feel in your safe place? Write or visualize your answers.
Create your ideal future and include yourself in the image.
Create a visual representation of the life you want to live. Illustrate your hopes and desires for yourself. Place yourself in a meaningful place on your image. Write or visualize your answers to these questions.
What qualities do I want to cultivate in myself?
What are my fears?
What sustains me?
What are my strengths?
What inspires me?
Make a visual path/connection between your safe place and your ideal future. Ask yourself
Where on the path do I see myself?
What parts of this path are difficult to navigate?
Are there any obstacles in my way?
Create a visual representation of obstacles.
Is there a creative solution? Create it.
What do I need to leave behind?
Who are the most important people in my life? Are they with me on my journey?
Visualize growing into the best version of yourself.
How did you get there?
What was the journey like?
What have you learned about yourself so far on life’s journey?
How can you honor your self-connection today?
You just strengthened your mental health!
Overall, connecting with yourself is essential for personal growth, emotional well-being, and living a more fulfilling and meaningful life. It helps you understand who you are, embrace your uniqueness, and navigate life with authenticity and self-compassion.
Connect with an art therapist to continue your journey to better mental health.
If you believe your art making journey brought up emotions and thoughts that require deeper processing, then art therapy may be right for you. Contact us today to get started.