Yesterday I was having a really down day. Do you ever have those? Days where everything is going wrong, you feel like garbage, and you just can’t seem to find any joy.
My mood was mostly guided by in inexplicable and crippling anxiety. A tension deep in my gut that I couldn’t seem to shake no matter what I did.
Anxiety is a relatively new struggle for me. I used to live a calm and worry free existence, but as I’ve aged, that’s changed in a big way.
I have to literally avoid watching or reading the news because it exacerbates the anxiety I’m already feeling on a daily basis. The bad news stories ripple through my mind and I can’t seem to think of anything but all the terrible things that could happen to me and my loved ones.
I’ve tried a myriad of solutions to deal with this anxiety, and yesterday I think I found one that truly helps.
Drawing.
I unleashed all those pent up frustrations onto my sketchbook and was astounded at how much better I felt afterward. I used woodless graphite pencils and sticks to really push and scratch into the paper, reveling in the power of my hand and arm muscles.
This sad little raccoon was the result of my 30 minutes of intense anxiety relief. He’s the perfect representation of that mood, personified on page.
Beautiful retention of a worrier…glad you found relief by doing this.