When people think about painting and art, they have a lot of misconceptions in their heads – especially about how useful it is as a therapeutic tool.
We’ve come across people who believe they should create sculptures and painting masterpieces to be considered an artist.
Others think you’re either born with the talent or not.
The ones who are gifted with the talent want every piece they create to be a masterpiece; otherwise, they’re disappointed with the outcome.
There are so many complications surrounding art that people forget that, in the end, it’s simply another way of expression.
In today’s day, where everyone is sprinting towards their yearly goals and completely wrapped up in their routines, art can be a simple and excellent way to destress and take care of your team’s mental health.
In this blog, we’ll share some of the best ways you can leverage art and painting to help your remote team be more healthy and happy.
Why Does Painting Help Mental Health?
When you paint for no other reason than simply getting colors on paper, it allows your struggling mind to finally relax enough to deal with the complex emotions working on overdrive.
Something as easy as painting can help people see a significant difference in their stress levels.
It helps people finally breathe and process through complicated feelings, focus on themselves, and work on attaining emotional release.
And do you know the best part?
You don’t have to be a great painter! Or even moderately good!
All you need to do is tap into your creativity while playing with some colors. This will allow you to slow down, leave all the stress about your work and personal life behind for a while, and simply live in the moment.
The Benefits of Painting for Your Mental Health
Cultivates Emotional Growth
Painting is a form of expression, and when you do it right, it helps a great deal in improving your emotional well-being.
Each shade of color has a different meaning. Even when you choose a color without any particular reason, your mind subconsciously relates to the specific color even if you don’t acknowledge it.
When you paint, it encourages you to look into your emotional state of mind and feel emotions that you may not even know about.
More often than not, it’s easier to pick up some color and let yourself free than articulate what you feel with words. At times, it may be challenging to weave sentences while dealing with complex emotions to convey how you really feel.
But with painting, you don’t have to worry about explanations. You simply let yourself free and pour your soul onto the canvas.
It doesn’t matter what age, art and painting are therapeutic experiences for people to release their emotions.
Therapists often recommend drawing or painting as a treatment for people who suffer from anxiety, stress, and even other emotional experiences.
Painting helps people heal because of abstract emotional expression.
On the other hand, even if you don’t essentially suffer from any severe emotional conditions, painting helps boost the level of emotional intelligence within people.
It helps people understand their own emotional state and realize what is affecting their moods and stress levels.
Processing your emotions and identifying the root cause of the problem will help you treat your issues in a much better way.
There are different types of paintings you can experiment with.
When you try them out, you’ll understand that different types of paintings trigger different kinds of feelings. Some may make you happy, while others may help you calm down after a long stressful day.
Another significant advantage of painting is that it helps with emotional release.
One of the most critical aspects of the therapeutic value of painting is that it allows people to process their feelings about a subject and move past them.
It’s critical to let go of bad experiences and not hold on to them forever.
When you introduce your team to the art of painting to live in the moment, it’ll help them adopt the practice and dive deeper into how they can leverage it to tackle some heavy aspects of their life.
Avva’s Interactive Online Canvas Painting Workshop (US & UK) is a 90-minute virtual workshop conducted by talented artists who will guide your team step-by-step during the entire painting session!
This relaxing watercolor painting workshop will help your remote team deal with stress and anxiety in their everyday lives and turn negative emotions into fun and creative experiences.
Also, your team doesn’t need any level of skill to join this workshop:)
Fosters Creative Growth
When you sit down to create art, you indulge your creative side. One of the significant benefits of painting is that it empowers your team to think outside the box and come up with a way to express themselves.
Even if your team creates a painting of an animal, they’re unconsciously or subconsciously looking for ways to express themselves.
Honestly, indulging in your creative side is in itself a comforting notion, but when you actually get involved in the process, it’ll make you feel calm and happy and boost your mental health while you do so.
If you have team members who aren’t essentially artistic and are more logical and analytical, a non-judgemental painting session will help stimulate and nurture their creative brains!
Enhances Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Motor Skills
Yes, there are a lot of emotional and creative benefits of painting; however, that’s not it! Painting is a brilliant way to help your remote team boost their critical thinking ability.
However, the critical thinking and problem-solving aspects are incredibly subtle in painting.
For example, when an artist decides on a concept he wants to recreate on paper, he has to think conceptually and bring several aspects to life while he’s painting.
How often have you noticed that the image you had in mind when you started painting is drastically different from what you see on paper?
This is typically due to limitations in color or other unexpected outcomes that arise during the actual painting process.
When you think of an image before you start painting, your vision is ideal. But as you start putting your vision on paper, you see your idea evolve as you go on — this is when your mind adapts to different challenges, which, in turn, improves your problem-solving skills in the long run.
When you cultivate the practice of painting, thinking outside the box and working out different challenges that come along will become second nature to you.
And the best part?
Painting is not a logical and analytical activity — which is usually the case when it comes to activities that help develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills!
Secondly, painting also improves your motor skills. You need to develop precision while handling a paintbrush. However, this isn’t just limited to your hands and fingers. Your entire body is involved in the process of painting.
A regular painter effortlessly develops fine motor skills that help them develop mental shortcuts that reflect in their everyday life.
Reduces Stress
Stress is an issue that people have to deal with to a certain degree at all times.
Working from home during a pandemic has made people work through a constant undercurrent of stress and anxiety even while they are working on their everyday personal or work-related tasks.
This high level of stress and anxiety significantly impacts your mental health.
When your body stays in this state of unease, it inevitably affects every part of your life — from your appetite to your sleep schedule.
Painting allows your team to carve out some space from thoughts they don’t want and often can’t control. Instead, they can engage in an activity where they do have complete control.
Focusing on a creative activity like painting helps your team truly relax and let go of the issues and demands that have been wrecking their minds.
When you create something beautiful, it stimulates your brain to relieve your mental and emotional strain simultaneously.
From deciding what to draw to the different shades they want to include in their painting, this focus on a creative process ensures that your body doesn’t waste its energy on stress and anxiety.
Self-care
With the responsibilities people are dealing with on an everyday basis, it’s not surprising that they forget that they need and deserve some downtime.
Remind your remote team not to forget about self-care while dealing with the curve balls that life throws at them.
Even if it’s simply a few minutes every day, sitting down to create a doodle can rejuvenate you to face the rest of the day head-on.
Helps you find your flow
Flow can be defined as the state of mental and emotional engagement and focus.
Have you ever lost yourself in something so deeply that you have no idea what’s happening around you? No outside distractions or even troubling internal thoughts?
When you are in a state of flow, you may feel entirely immersed in whatever you are doing.
While there are several ways to attain this state of flow, immersing yourself in activities like painting helps boost your creative levels and emotional well-being.
Bolsters Memory
A considerable part of painting is visualizing and implementing different concepts. This practice boosts your team’s recollection skills and helps them sharpen their mind.
It has been seen that individuals who have a creative outlet like painting and writing have a lower chance of developing illnesses like memory loss with age.
In addition, painting allows your remote team to move past the awkwardness and share their personality through their art.
You can bring your most introverted team member out of their shell by leveraging art to let go of the typical social reservations they may have.
Boosts mindfulness
Mindfulness is defined as the ability to stay present and aware of the thoughts, feelings, emotions, and other sensations within your body.
This may be a scary aspect if you or any of your team members suffer from anxiety. The last thing you want to do is sit down and fully experience your anxiety-ridden thoughts, right?
Well, while it may seem a bit counterproductive, it does help when you spend time with your anxious thoughts. Taking the time to process these thoughts will make it much easier for you to get go of them.
You need to learn to identify and recognize emotional triggers that aren’t welcome, and mindfulness is an excellent way to do that.
Painting allows you to stay grounded in the moment. In turn, this has a tremendous impact on your mental health and subtly encourages you to clear your mind and accept yourself in the present.
While this doesn’t mean that you’ll not think of any unpleasant thoughts, staying engaged in the process will help you drift past these thoughts effortlessly and come back to them when you feel ready to deal with them.
Final Thoughts
Many people feel like painting poses as an excellent stress-buster. In fact, mental health experts actively recommend different kinds of art therapy to people to deal with various mental issues.
Painting provides people with a safe outlet to relieve their stressful emotions and provide them with a sense of control. When you’re painting for yourself, there is no right or wrong.
Therefore, encourage your remote team to relax and let their emotions flow the next time they paint!
