How Painting Can Improve Mental Health

Painting is one of those things that can take you out of your own head. Rather than having a plethora of thoughts running through your mind in an intangible matter, you can channel your thoughts to relaxing strokes of a brush to the paper.

Painting can help you release some of that built up mental tension by transferring things you can’t describe to something you can see. If you’re dealing with a strong feeling or an image lurking through your thoughts, you can put it down unto paper. The act of physically removing it from your head can be very therapeutic.

This means that not everything you draw has be some sort of avant-garde, French art school masterpiece. Maybe even close your eyes and let the brush glide through the paper. The goal here is to remove the tension in your mind.

But aside from just manifesting your thoughts, painting can help empty your mind in another way. Often times with anxiety, it can be difficult to practice the therapeutic meditation tactic. With anxiety, it’s important to meditate and clear you mind so you can cultivate this feeling during an attack. However, with thoughts constantly running through your head, how can you clear your mind?

This is where painting comes in! When you’re focusing on painting a certain image, it becomes all you focus on. This single concentration point forces all other thoughts out of your mind. So not only are you producing a work of art, you are clearing your head and relaxing at the same time!

But why painting? Why not sketch it out with graphite or shade it up with some colored pencils? Painting has a certain flow and glide to it that other mediums can’t match. Sure you can get the same thought manifestation and meditation effect with a crayon, but it ‘stubs’ around the paper and doesn’t slide as easily. Painting is also messier so when you go into it, you might not pressure yourself to make as constructed and structured work. You free yourself to just make a mess and really capture what’s in your mind.

I use watercolor for that very reason. I enjoy the fluidity of the medium. It’s also not expensive to start up either! You just need a basic pallet—you can mix your own colors to get ones that aren’t included. You really only need one brush, but sometimes packs are better values. And don’t forget the watercolor paper! You don’t need any premium art supplies. Remember, if your goal here is relaxation, the work you produce is for yourself only and there’s no need to worry about critique.

You can even show your artwork to your therapist and loved ones when you have a hard time explaining your feelings. Often times, visuals are helpful in explaining ideas.

Now after learning about the benefits of painting, are you willing to try it out? Or have you been painting already? Share your artwork with me to be featured on this blog! Either email me your favorite painting, or tag @fawndearie on Instagram with your most recent work!

Thank you so much for reading!
Much love! <3