How drawing flowers can help you relieve stress

Art therapy has become very popular in the last couple of years, despite being a relatively new therapeutic discipline. Just walk into a bookstore, and you’ll notice how easily you can purchase a collection of mandalas for stress relief.

Though mandalas are probably the most popular form of relieving stress through creative expression, art therapy includes other techniques as well. As an example Data Science for business can be pretty stressful, art Therapy will for sure help you out relive stress.

In the next couple of sections, we will explain what art therapy is, how drawing flowers can help you relieve stress and how to draw a flower.

What is art therapy?

Art therapy is a form of therapy rooted in the idea that creative expression can improve mental health. It can be used to treat anxiety, depression, eating disorders, emotional difficulties, stress, PTSD, and even some medical conditions.

Because people can be creative in more than one way, there are multiple types of creative therapy aside from art therapy: dance therapy, expressive therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, and writing therapy.

Either way, all these forms of creative therapy have the same goal: to allow people to explore their self-expression through the creative process and gain healthy coping mechanisms that will improve their quality of life.

Sometimes, drawing flowers at home is enough to reduce stress levels. But, if you feel like that won’t work for you, you can book a session with an art therapist. They will guide you through the process and help you deal with the difficulties you’re facing.

How does drawing flowers help lower stress levels?

We like to think that we have control over the things that happen to us. That’s sometimes true but not always and this lack of control can make us anxious about what will come next.

On the other hand, you have full control over what you draw. You decide which colors you’re gonna use to paint your flowers and what exactly they’re going to look like. 

It also forces you to stay in the moment, focus on what you’re doing right now, and reach mindfulness. Sure, an unpleasant thought may pop up in your mind but it won’t stay there for long because you’ll need to focus on the movement of your hand, the colors you’re adding, and the texture of the paper.

There is also a couple of research that backs this up. For instance, participants in a small study from 2007 were asked to list 10 of their biggest worries. After that, they were asked to spend 20 minutes drawing or sorting through art prints. Those that were drawing reported greater improvement than those who simply looked at art prints.

What I you need to do to make it work?

This is the beauty of drawing for stress relief – there aren’t that many things you need to make it work.

Of course, you’ll need some basic supplies like a piece of paper or a sketchbook and some pens, pencils, or markers. If you like watercolors or something completely different, you can use that as well. 

Once you have everything you think you need, it’s time to find the right space for drawing. You can sit at your desk or on your porch, or even go for a walk to find a nice place. The location doesn’t really matter as long as you can have at least 20 minutes to yourself. If you like drinking tea, prepare yourself a calming tea.

We advise you to set a timer for 20 to 60 minutes and put your phone on airplane mode. This way, nobody will disturb you or interrupt you.

Now it’s time to start drawing. Remember – it doesn’t matter if you’re talented or not. This is not a competition. The purpose is to focus completely on what you’re drawing.

How to draw flowers

There are many different flowers you can draw: geranium flower, poppy flower, rose, lily, and many others. If you want to learn to draw a rose, you can see a tutorial on how to draw a rose by BIOWARS, but in this section, we’ll focus on some basic guidelines that will help you draw any flower.

So, the first step would be to gather references. You can do that by simply googling the flowers you want to draw or taking a walk in the park.

Once you’ve gathered enough of them, it’s time to determine their proportions and break them into simple shapes. For instance, the center of the flower is usually a circle, while petals can have a hexagonal shape.

At last, it’s time to start drawing.

First, draw a stem and then proceed to draw the overall shape of the flower. When you’re done, draw a small circle where the center of the flower is and start adding petals. You don’t have to go into detail immediately, especially if you’re using a pencil to sketch it first.

You can then slowly add the details and shade the petals. It’s important to look at where the natural light hits and replicate that to make your drawing more natural. You can use colors to do this but you can also stick to your pencil – whatever feels comfortable to you.

Conclusion

If you don’t have time for art therapy or art classes, taking 20 minutes a day to draw something or even doodle is a great idea. You’ll be surprised how much more relaxed you’re going to feel afterward.

Besides, who knows – maybe you turn out to be super talented and discover a new hobby or passion.