How Rock Painting Can Help Calm Kids through creativity not medication.

I have always enjoyed being creative and love to get out a bunch of paints, brushes, pens and paper. I’m only 13 (yes I’ve had a birthday since starting RockFun) and I really enjoy art at home. My parents did send me to an after school art club about 2 years ago, but I found that it was too like a classroom and too strict as they wanted me to paint a pot of flowers or an apple, but I just wanted to paint what was in my head, a dragon or a cute blob animal thing, so the classes weren’t working for me.

Rock painting (and art in general) has become a part of who I am. I can easily get lost in the moment when I’m doing creative things, time just flies by and all my worries disappear. (Until mum shouts for me to lay the table that is).

Now for the science bit…

No, I didn’t write all of this, I had help!

Creativity (not medication) is an important stress buster to help keep your little munchkins (that’s us kids) calm. Art has been scientifically proven to reduce stress levels in little ones and adults alike.

Have you ever heard of Art Therapy? It’s an entire discipline used in many places to help people fight addiction, anxiety, self doubt, PTSD, depression and even help with Alzheimer’s disease. Art has a way of tapping into the right-side of the brain where creativity, intuition, visualization, emotions, and daydreaming (I’m good at that one) stem from. The scientists KNOW that art therapy works, but still don’t quite understand why?

I love this design by Dr C. Daniels > I’m definitely on the right side.

Reducing Stress and Anxiety through Art

But HOW does art work in helping reduce Stress and Anxiety?

• Distraction
• Flow
• Mindfulness
• Self Care

A very important part of reducing anxiety is using distraction. By distracting ourselves from the usual torments of everyday life we achieve a level of pride and achievement through Art which is a great way to focus on something positive. This gives us feelings of positivity, productivity and inspiration, all of which are the mortal enemy of anxiety.

Artists of all kinds; whether it be through painting, drawing, music, or sculpture, get so absorbed within their masterpiece that they achieve a state known as ‘flow‘. This is the sense of being so completely engrossed in something that we reach an almost meditative state of mind. We artists forget about all of our thoughts and easily lose track of time and what is going on around us, sometimes to the annoyance of those around us.

When we focus on our next fabulous creation we become so completely at one with the present moment going on that it helps quieten our mind as we become single mindedly focused with the task at hand. It is easy when creating to forget about everything outside of the immediate task at hand. Similar to doing Yoga, listening to calming music, this puts us in a state of mindfulness, which is super healthy for our brains.

Having an enjoyable hobby such as rock painting, helps us feel so much more balanced and allows for much needed mental and emotional downtime that is lacking in today’s world. It is self care, without feeling like self care.

I wish more people would consider artistic therapy as an alternative to medication. Just imagine if Picasso, Van Gogh or Mozart had been drugged out of their creativity because they didn’t behave how society wanted them to. Remember try Creativity not Medication first!