mental health services – Artistry By Lisa Marie

The holidays are over…but the stress is not! We all still have a lot of stressors in our lives. These past few years it seems have seen a drastic escalation of anxiety for many people. And with no more Christmas gifts to unwrap, there are a few chilly and worrying winter months ahead of us. The winter blues are no joke and many people this time of year can easily succumb to anxiety. It’s important to take care of your mental health! So what can we do to relax today? What are some easy and (more importantly after all those holiday bills) affordable ways to relax? Not everyone can (or wants) to go outside in the cold to seek out calming activities.

So here are six indoor-friendly, winter accessible, totally easy ways you can reduce stress and relax today.

Chew Gum – It’s actually been proven that chomping on gum can relieve stress! Personally, I can always go for a nice refreshing bit of mint breath. A study done at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia found that not only does chewing gum reduce stress and anxiety, it increased alertness! AND it can help improve performance when you are trying to multitask. Just remember what your mother told you and chew with your mouth shut.

Indoor Plants – They’re affordable, add a touch of green to a room, and help reduce stress. Ok, actually going out in nature is the real mood booster. But that’s not always an option in the winter. And house plants are super easy-access. Just taking a three-minute break during the day to go hang out with a plant can ease your stress. This has been taken so seriously by serious people that there was a whole study about it done in Japan.

Listen to Classical Music – Yeah, yeah, we’ve all heard that playing classical music for babies can make them smarter. But it can help us adults too! Neurologist Dr. Michael Schneck found that classical music can help relieve anxiety. Listening to it can lower cortisol levels, which is often associated with stress. Not only that, it can lower your blood pressure and heart rate.

Okay, so far we have you chewing gum in front of a houseplant while listening to music. Let that mental visual sink in for a moment. What’s next…

Eat Chocolate – Alright this is a personal favorite. But not just ANY chocolate will do. It has to be dark chocolate. Don’t just take my word for it! A study from Loma Linda University Health in California states that eating dark chocolate can lower blood pressure, enhance blood flow, and results in beneficial brain frequency called gamma. In layman terms? Dark chocolate makes your body and brain work better and happier – which reduces stress.

Laugh – Who DOESN’T need a good chuckle?! Laughter does lots of great things we need! It brings extra oxygen-rich air to your heart and muscles and increases endorphins released from the brain. Also it can help ease your blood pressure and heart rate – that’s some really fantastic stuff right there! Also it puts you in a good mood, which is super important to any people who are stuck inside with you through the winter. Not judging. Just saying: Don’t be a grumpy gus!

Color – Step aside kids! Coloring is for adults too! In fact, coloring can help relax the amygdala (that’s the fear center of the brain for those of you who don’t feel like googling it). But relaxing your mind, coloring can generate a mental state that is very similar to meditation. It gives you a moment of mental pause that can induce a sense of mindful quietness that can give your thoughts a rest. That is SUPER important when you are stressed out or suffer from anxiety!

This the part where you say “Wait a minute lady typing this post! You said I can relax today! If I order a coloring book I have to wait for it to ship and get delivered!” Well, impatient but perceptive reader, you are correct. But the solution is printable coloring pages! Order the exact images you want to color and print them at home or color them in your favorite coloring app. Don’t have a printer? Your local library probably has printing services (often for FREE). Here’s a list of Other Ways To Print Without A Home Printer.

Interested in adult coloring! Here is a whole Coloring Shop full of gorgeous hand-drawn coloring pages you can download and color today!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links and I may earn a commission if you click them and make a purchase (at no cost to you). This post is otherwise NOT sponsored or endorsed by any of the brands mentioned or reviewed.

About Artistry By Lisa Marie:

Artistry By Lisa Marie is a small art studio located in Rochester, NY. It currently consists of Lisa Marie, a hoard of colored pencils and her two small boys (her husband John is a computer geek with no artistic skill and has bowed out of the art business). Lisa Marie has been professionally creating art for over a decade and has created an extensive library of stunning hand-drawn coloring pages, all available for digital download. While she has a Master’s in Art History and can talk your ear off about the Old Masters, her background is custom pet portraits and beautiful coloring pages. Her main interests are encouraging creativity and helping colorists release their inner artist and relax.

This is the part where you ask “But HOW does creativity do all this?”

Welp, apparently when people are creating they tend to get lost in the activity. Being creative requires focus and concentration. It forces us to stop multitasking. Some psychologists call this state of creativity, “flow.” The Flow Genome Project, an organization that studies human performance, defines the state of flow as “those moments of rapt attention and total absorption when you get so focused on the task at hand that everything else disappears and all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof.”

The “state of creative flow” is caused by changes in brain function. Brainwaves slow down, and original thoughts are better able to form. (Translation: we think better) Additionally, the prefrontal cortex temporarily deactivates, or “goes quiet,” making us less critical of our ideas and more courageous. Lastly, during a flow state, our brain releases “an enormous cascade of neurochemistry,” including large quantities of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. These are pleasure- and satisfaction-inducing chemicals that affect creativity and well-being.

So being creative makes our brains smarter, braver and happier.

Side Note: The next time my husband tries to stop my creativity I’m going to tell him to “Stop blocking my flow!” Pretty sure it will be a big hit.

Seriously though, how EASY was it to be creative when we were younger? They literally GAVE us finger paint and crayons! We easily imagined entire worlds and adventures without any effort. But then we got older ::shudder:: and our natural creative tendencies were drowned out by adult responsibilities and concerns. So how do we get it back? How to we regain our lost ~~youth~~ creativity?

First of all: creativity is NOT reliant on the end product. That means you don’t have to make a masterpiece to be creative. For your mental health, it’s about the process!

Here are 5 easy-access ways to get creative today to boost mental health:

1.Sing or play music. Singing raises oxytocin levels in everyone – both amateur and professional singers get this happy boost. If you’re not enamored with singing, how about listening to music? Just hearing a tune you like can release oxytocin. Also did you know that oxytocin affects our ability to trust and socially connect to others. Studies show that if you sing in harmony with someone else you feel more positive feelings towards them? Want an easy way to listen to your favorite tunes? I LOVE the Panasonic ErgoFit Earbuds. They stay put in my ears when I’m bobbing my head.

2. Dance. Studies have shown that dancing relieves anxiety, improves quality of life, and lowers the risk of dementia for older people. Not to mention it’s just fun! The benefits of dancing aren’t just physical. It’s a form of physical creativity that effects your mindset and can help boost your mental health. Feeling shy? Close the curtains, block out the rest of the world then….shake what yo’ mama gave ya! Want to really move? I glide around my living room with LAMANTOP Socks.

3. Play or Tell A Story. Playing isn’t just for kids. The National Institute for Play totally backs me up on this when they stated: “A huge amount of existing scientific research—from neurophysiology, developmental and cognitive psychology, to animal play behavior, and evolutionary and molecular biology—contains rich data on play. The existing research describes patterns and states of play and explains how play shapes our brains, creates our competencies, and ballasts our emotions.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel better already…

4. Go Outside. OK, for this to work you need to turn off your phone. Unplug for a moment and go out into nature. A study titled “Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning Through Immersion in Natural Settings” showed how nature affects creativity. A group of hikers who spent four days immersed in nature and disconnected from technological devices increased performance on a creativity/problem solving task by 50%! So head on out for a walk in a park, visit the garden or commit to a hike. If you REALLY want to dive deep into relaxation walking, check out the book Walking with Glenn Berkenkamp: 35 Wellness Walks to Expand Awareness, Increase Vitality.

5. Draw, Paint or Color. OK, maybe this is the most obvious way to be creative, but a lot of adults forget that this is a totally OK option. Artistic activities are linked to improving memory and resilience in older adults. Art even helps seniors with dementia reconnect with the world. Actively making art (instead of simply looking art) slows down cognitive decline. Don’t want the “pressure” of making a masterpiece? Grab a coloring book! The art is already started. You just need to pick up a crayon, colored pencil or marker and have fun! Want to get enjoy coloring today? Order a printable coloring page in my Coloring Shop HERE. All lovely, hand-drawn art you can print and color TODAY.

It’s amazing how mental health can be drastically improved with a little creativity. In our day-to-day lives, full of humdrum routine and stressors, we need to make time for ourselves. So groove to some music, go for a walk or grab a crayon – just go create!

About Artistry By Lisa Marie:

Artistry By Lisa Marie is a very small art studio located in Rochester, NY. It currently consists of Lisa Marie, a hoard of colored pencils and her two small boys Luke (4) and Michael (1) (her husband John is a computer geek with no artistic skill and has bowed out of the art business). Lisa Marie has been professionally creating art for over a decade and has created an extensive library of stunning hand-drawn coloring pages, all available for digital download. While she has a Master’s in Art History and can talk your ear off about the Old Masters, her background is custom pet portraits and beautiful coloring pages. Her main interests are encouraging creativity and helping colorists release their inner artist and relax.

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

So here are six indoor-friendly, winter accessible, totally easy ways you can reduce stress and relax today.

About Artistry By Lisa Marie:

More Reading Suggestions:

This is the part where you ask “But HOW does creativity do all this?”

So being creative makes our brains smarter, braver and happier.

Here are 5 easy-access ways to get creative today to boost mental health:

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel better already…

About Artistry By Lisa Marie:

More Reading Suggestions: