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Formal Art therapy is NOT about creating masterpieces that you’ll be analyzed and judged on. And it’s not about digging into trauma. It recognizes that when words fail us, the brain can empty its overwhelming and incoherent emotions and thoughts through the most basic creative expressions. Once the brain “dumps” its emotions and tensions, we feel like we can breathe and have access to “normal” thinking again. It has been proven to be highly effective for healing emotional and mental pain and trauma, reducing anxiety, depression and transforming lives.
My Story
This is my personal story, my research and the solutions I found. Even though I have created my whole life and I need it like food and water, when I was catapulted into at times excruciating pain, high anxiety and severe panic attacks after unfavorable reactions to anesthesia, I first researched medical and traditional ways to get out of my situation and back to “normal”. It was a dead-end.
Meanwhile, creating digital art was my life line, but I felt like it wasn’t the “right” kind of creating. While it provided distraction and some relief, it didn’t solve the problems I had so I started looking into why creating with the hands seemed to impact my brain much deeper. It felt like there was some sort of rewiring going on. Turns out, that the brain does, in fact, build new neurological pathways for calm and joy when we create with the hands. To put it simply, when we create with our hands, the brain shifts into the pleasure giving center. That’s why we experience inner calm, joy and satisfaction. I continued my practical research by taking online creative courses. I observed others in those groups, their frustrations and feeling “not good enough”. To my amazement I realized that even though most people liked the courses and benefitted from them to a degree, their level of actually HAVING joy and getting maximum, lasting benefit was limited.
I discovered, when we are in pain - physically, emotionally or mentally - “normal” creating can get you even more agitated, anxious and frazzled. You need totally simple ways of creating that bypass and neutralize the inner critic. You can then deeply benefit from creating/doing something artsy.
A Brief History of Art Therapy
Art as formal therapy emerged in the 1940s. And some studies confirmed its effectiveness. However, it is only in the last decade that more and more extensive studies have proven its wide range of healing. Especially in treating children and adults who have experienced trauma, are undergoing cancer treatments, have ADHD, are autistic or live in nursing homes. Art as therapy has therefore gained recognition.
The Science of Art Therapy
If you haven’t had personal experiences of how well making art works to reset the brain, you probably want some proof before considering it.Some years ago I came across a Harvard study that showed the brain scans of two groups of people before and after one group meditated and the other group engaged creatively. Within 20 minutes the brains of those who were creating something, were mostly balanced and relaxed. Whereas - with very few exceptions - the meditators took much longer to achieve comparable, but often lesser, results.That’s not surprising. Just imagine your mind is racing like an Indy race car on steroids and your body is vibrating in frozen overload. Then you are supposed to sit still and “empty your thoughts”. That might work for some, but sounds like a recipe for further frustration for most of us. On the other hand, for thousands of years, creating has been the most natural and soothing way to deal with stress and trauma.
Creative Joy
Through my own needs and experiences, I developed a series of very simple, playful ways to engage creatively. I call it the 2-minute Golden Key Method. As a result, I regained a foundation for the natural inner calm and joy that we are born with and I can sustain it even during adversity.
I put it all into the “Doodle Magic and Creative Joy” virtual retreat so others can gain the same freedom. It consists of short, simple, PLAYFUL methods of creating which bypass the inner critic and are highly effective in bringing you home to yourself again and restoring your natural inner calm and joy.
I encourage you to create, create, create. Give yourself permission to just PLAY, without judgment and with the curiosity and passion of a child that is let loose with some paper, pens, colors and paints. Don’t have any agenda of producing art as a result. Let yourself experience creating as a process, as an experiment, as PLAY. That’s when you get the most benefits. I invite you to read the comments from people who have taken the course and check it out.
Doodle Magic and Creative Joy Virtual Retreat:
https://monikaastarastudio.newzenler.com/courses/doodle-magic-retreat
Happy Art, Clothes and Jewelry website:
https://www.monikaastara.com/
You can find all these FREE creative ways here: https://monikaastarastudio.newzenler.com/freebies
Contact Monika to go shopping or take a class:
Text or Call: 512-470–2553
