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I hope you’re all doing ok and have enjoyed the past week as much as you can do. I’ve spent the weekend relaxing, painting, recharging and updating my Spotify playlists (basically doing anything I possibly can to avoid listening to or watching the news!).

Earlier on this week you may have seen on Instagram that I dabbled in a bit of painting as part of my #isolationcreation challenge. I have launched a competition to try and encourage a bit of creativity during the lock down and its been amazing to see the entries trickling in.

Mental health

It’s stress awareness month and one of the important things that have been highlighted during the lockdown is the negative impact that isolation can have on our wellbeing. Even though I’m used to working from home, I’ll admit that even I have found it much harder to stay motivated and I have had to take a lot more breaks than usual. Listening to all the scary things on the news day in day out does no good for our productivity or anxiety levels, so we should really try to prioritise our wellbeing during this time and do things that will keep stress levels at bay.

a pair of paint brushes
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Painting

One of the things that I’ve been doing on my breaks is a bit of painting. It’s helped me to relax, to stay focused and to take my mind off everything for a little while. It’s allowed me to then tackle my actual work in bitesize chunks with a clearer mind. Now, I haven’t painted properly since my art foundation course back in 2006, so I was a little nervous on what the outcome would be! But I’m so glad I gave it a go. You can see what I created by having a look on the highlights on my instagram.

Art therapy

Art therapy sounds fancy eh? Whilst it is a very specialist field in its own right, you can still benefit by tapping into your own creativity and self expression all by yourself. In simple terms it means grab some paints, grab a paintbrush and wiggle it around on some paper!

There are studies that reveal how you can relieve stress through art therapy as ‘it can help you tap into a “state of flow.” ‘

“Have you ever been so engrossed in an activity to the point of being in a near-meditative state? If so, you might have been experiencing what some psychologists refer to as flow. Similar to meditation, flow can lead to improved performance and lower stress levels.” – Cheron G. How to measure the psychological “flow”? A neuroscience perspective. Front Psychol. 2016;7:1823. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01823

colourful, abstract art
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

Create your own artwork

I challenge you to create your own artwork. Get the kids involved too if you have any. But, even if you don’t have kids this is a great way to improve your home on a budget, add some colour to your walls and de-stress at the same time! Then you can enter your creation into my #isolationcreation competition on instagram 😛

Over the next three weeks I will pick a winner each Sunday at 8pm and they will win a soy candle and room spray gift set worth £30 from Oakes Candles, to make their home smell amazing.

Scroll down to see some affordable arts and crafts supplies that you can purchase and get delivered to your door! *Affiliate links included.

I hope you all stay healthy, stay creative and stay home 🙂

Find out about my design SOS video consultations and online design services here.

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Categories: Art, Arts & Crafts, Shop The Look, Tips & Advice

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