Art is something we all appreciate and enjoy. But beyond its aesthetics, art can be a powerful outlet to support your mental health, especially when you have recently experienced emotional trauma. Nowadays, art therapy is considered an alternative treatment in the psychology world. By using various artistic mediums such as painting or sculpture, you can express and explore your feelings while at the same time becoming more self-aware of your behaviors, emotional intelligence, social skills, and even addictions.
In order to use art to heal yourself and overcome emotional trauma, you don’t have to practice art therapy with a licensed therapist. You only have to be honest with yourself, and ready to face your emotions. While art can help relieve the symptoms of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and more, it can also help you overcome a painful breakup. Here we'll discuss how creative expression can serve you as an agent for emotional healing when going through a rough breakup.
Symbolic Expression
Talking about your relationship and breakup is often hard and painful. But keeping your feelings inside will only make things worse. If you don’t feel ready to talk about your breakup, consider opening the door to non-verbal communication. It allows you to express yourself without words and tell your story visually.
Apart from relieving yourself from pent-up emotions, you will also have a deeper insight into your own world and feelings. By depicting a metaphor, you provide yourself an emotional safety net that allows you to share thoughts and feelings you weren’t even aware of. An image has the power to express what words never could. So, if you are having difficulties facing your feelings, painting a few brushstrokes or shaping a piece of clay may be all you need to experience realization and self-awareness.
Healthy Outlet To Relieve Emotions
When we are going through a breakup, we often try to escape our reality or relieve overwhelming emotions by drinking, overeating, or just doing something crazy we will definitely regret later. Instead of doing something that is unhealthy for you, consider creating art. Art provides you with a healthy outlet to relieve your overwhelming emotions. Externalizing or channeling your feelings through art will help you cope with your problems in a healthy way. Art will never leave you with a hangover or something you will regret the next day. On the contrary, you will have a beautiful piece of art that will remind of your fight and delivers a sense of accomplishment.
Freedom To Express Regardless Of Skill
It is very important to know that art therapy is meant for everyone who struggles with their emotions, not only for talented individuals. The art you create will not judge you, and it doesn’t have to look like a masterpiece. Art is here to help you express in a safe and non-threatening manner. You don’t have to have any artistic skills to benefit from art therapy. Expressive works of art, no matter whether they are abstract or as simple as a stick figure, can communicate equally powerful as a painting that took five hours to complete.
Expands Self-Awareness And Healing
Through artistic expression, you will bring to the surface emotions and thoughts that were buried in the subconscious. Creative expression can help you unblock things that were stuck. By exploring your newly discovered feelings, you will have a deeper understanding of yourself, which will ultimately help you heal. By experiencing, expressing, and facing your emotions through art, you will also be empowered, and become more confident in your ability to solve problems.
Have Concrete Representation Of Your Healing Process
The final product of art therapy is never as important as the entire process that comes before it. However, art therapy leaves you with a beautiful reminder of the healing journey you went through. Having a tangible reminder will have a meaningful impact long after the therapy has ended and will always help you remember how strong you were and how you managed to fight when you believed you were the weakest.
