Day 19. Drawing to Decrease Anxiety
How Paying Attention to Our Senses Can Help Calm Our Nerves
Hey y’all. So happy you’re here.
For folks doing the 30 Days of Drawing, you have drawn every day for ten minutes for nearly three weeks. If you slipped and missed a day or three, whatever. You can just pick it back up. There’s no rules here. Only Good ENOUGH. It’s not like drawing is going anywhere - it has been with you since you were little and will be here whenever you want to return. As will we, this kooky community of drawers, The GUT. Doesn’t seem like we’re going anywhere, either.
Okay, so it’s day 19 of 30 Days of Drawing here at the Grown-Ups Table. In other news, it’s a big week in the USA (inauguration and all.) So it seems like the perfect time to use our practice of drawing and themes of Attention and Good Enough to help with anxiety levels, yes? (Yes, please!)
Starting today, we’ll be doing daily drawings that are a bit more open ended, technique wise, but with more guidance on your subject. Hopefully this will focus our attention and help us feel more grounded in our drawing. Many mental health professional agree that when we experience a heightened state of anxiety or fear, focusing on our own senses and immediate environment can help us get out of our heads and bring us into the present. Combine that with the calming effect of drawing and I think we have a pretty solid mental health practice on our hands. And this week seems as good a time as any to use it.
Maybe you’ve heard of the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique. It’s used by people with PTSD and severe anxiety to manage symptoms and stress. It involves paying attention to one’s senses, and counting 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch… etc. I did a fair amount of googling, and I can’t find any solid science to back it up1, but many people swear by its efficacy. So, I thought we’d combine that exercise with inspiration from a very reputable source, our previous GUT Visiting Artist, 6x NYT Bestselling Author, and host of the Happier podcast, Gretchen Rubin.
Gretchen developed a writing exercise while she was working on her book Life in Five Senses that helped her call attention to her senses called The Five Senses Portrait. When Gretchen was a visiting artist for us here at Grown-Ups Table, she turned it into an art assignment for us.
In that earlier assignment, we used our senses to create a five-dimensional memory of a person, then draw it to really meditate on each sense. As you can see in the drawing above, I did one of my grandmother, Bernice Ach. I called her Nonie. By the end of the drawing, it felt like she was right there with me.
Today, we want to really be in the PRESENT. So we are going to riff on that and instead of focusing on the past, we are going to put all our attention on the here and now. We are going to pay close attention to our senses in real time and interpret what we experience in our drawings. We are going to create a portrait of Being Here Now.
Let’s see if paying attention to our senses and the practice of drawing helps any anxiety or nerves. (And if we aren’t feeling any nerves, then let’s see if we can just feel more… present.) I can’t wait to hear how this practice impacts you.
Ready to try? Let’s do it.