Art & Mental Health

I published my first coloring book!  

In two different versions too!  

The Not-Shaded (examples on the left below) can be found by clicking Here.

And the Shaded rose version (example on the right below) can be found by clicking Here.

When I asked my friends and family which version they liked the best it was pretty split down the middle, so I decided to do both!  The non-shaded would make really good patterns for people (embroidery or tracing for doing your own water color) and the shaded version makes coloring them really easy and relaxing!  You can just use crayons or colored pencils and go to town on them.

My idea for this was from several years ago when I read an idea from another mom.  She talked to her kids at dinner or before bed and they "gathered a dozen roses" - which meant that they talked about the good things that happened that day.  It can be something really small or something bigger, but the idea is that the human brain tends towards a negative bias.  It is far easier to focus on what is wrong than for what has gone right.  To be mentally healthy we need to see the day how it really is.  Not the huge EVERYTHING IS AWFUL mentality when one thing goes wrong.  Or expecting the worst to come next if things are going well.  It is important to acknowledge the thorns, it is true, but it takes even more practice to acknowledge the roses -the positive things- in our lives and focus our thoughts on goodness.

Then I heard a quote from "The Secret Garden" movie (the version I loved as a kid!) that said, "Where a rose is tended a thistle cannot grow." In that story she learns to see the goodness and light around her.  At first she is only sour and miserable, watering the thistles in her mind instead of tending the roses.

There is something called "toxic positivity" though as well, so we can't just deny everything bad and just "think positively" to be healthy.  That can't help you recover from trauma or be mentally healthy either.  We need to be able to process our pain and disappointments and loss and grieve, but it is far too easy in general to get stuck in that negative place.  How do you climb out of the despair and hope again?

Thus, roses are the perfect reminder, the sweetness and beauty of the rose, but the prick of the thorns.  The thorns do not make the roses any less lovely.  It is a both/and-- life is full of pain and beauty, and we can choose to pay more attention to one or the other.  This book was what I wanted for myself.

I am practicing what I preach!  While coloring and having that brain break space it is a great time to process thoughts.  Sometimes I draw a line down the middle of the right hand page where the journaling is and list out my Roses and Thorns.  Other times I write quotes I want to remember or just free write.

Roses have been a huge theme for me this year.  I published these coloring books on Amazon in February 2020 to be ready for Valentine's day, but then the Pandemic hit.  We live in a big crowded city and little apartment so a lot suddenly changed.  Quarentine also happened at the same time that we had over a thousand dollars stolen from us.  It was stressful on many levels, so I just never got around to blogging about it till now.  My husband is still working from home, but we have created some good routines and have found rest and joys even during this time.  Thankful that he CAN work from home and that we already homeschool.  We have gone through a lot of financial trauma and other hard things our entire marriage.  Having space (finally) to pull back has been helpful and healthy and I'm grateful for that.

I have several rose plants in my little potted garden and they have gone in spurts of looking amazing and healthy to being infested (the dirt in the pot) with fire ants!  EEK! Still a great metaphor for life, right?

I have used crayons and paint pens and also left over craft paint to color my roses!  I love trying new ways to color these and letting the book get all messy and used and "imperfect" like any good visual journal should be.  Visual journals are a great way to allow for freedom and play and to unwind from the expectations of others or yourself.  When people talk about "staying in the lines" as they color a coloring book, I just want to ask WHY?  Really?  Why is that even a thing?  Why can't you color a rainbow over the whole page and not stay in any line whatsoever?  Art is NOT like flying a plane.  You don't (and probably shouldn't) try to land it perfectly.  The whole point is freedom and play and enjoyment.

  I realized recently that while I am not a perfectionist myself I am very sensitive to the opinions of others.  So if someone else is a perfectionist and I feel like I am doing my art for them, or maybe that it will be judged, it is really hard to simply be.  Enter coloring books and visual journals! -- Making messes and playing and just enjoying this process like a little kid who draws stick figures can.

My giant red roses smell so good!

I like using crayons for that child-like experience and imprecise feeling of not staying in the lines.  Pealing away the need for perfection is also mentally healthier than expecting too much from ourselves or other people.  A coloring book can be a great way to practice this mindfulness and freedom of accepting ourselves.  What happens if you color it a weird color? Nothing.  Nothing bad happens because it doesn't matter in the slightest how you choose to use this.  Upset?  Scribble all over it!  Really.  You have permission to totally "ruin" the book.  Dog ear the pages.  Let the ink bleed through.  Journal out your frustrations and then glue the pages together so that you can let that go.  Our feelings come and go like waves.  They do not last forever.  Learning to ride the waves and process without judging ourselves is a way to become mentally and emotionally healthy.

I got a set of water soluble pastel color sticks for my birthday this past March.  I turned 39 and can easily say that it was the hardest birthday ever.  Just, all around it was hard, BUT I have been loving and enjoying using these.  You can use them like crayons or you can add water and they sort of turn into water color paints in a way.  So, blending them with water and then even adding more color is a thing.

They come in different amounts and can be found by clicking Here if you want some too! 

Above and below are examples of how you can use the roses in the book as a pattern for other things!  To do some real water color painting you have to use the correct paper, so that is what is going on in the picture above.  And below is an outdoor pillow for my bench that I made.  I don't know why I decided to do this.  I had to recover my outdoor bench (because the seat tore) and I guess I just thought this would look nice out there too.  It definitely goes with my little garden of roses, herbs, and bird feeders.

In our busy world, it can be so difficult to find a time for rest.  We experience our lives, but also need to process what has happened and what could be. Our culture prizes busy and doing and spinning on that hamster wheel, but that does not make a healthy human. Learning how to live in a place of quiet alert and ease without being emotionally overwhelmed or tuning out of our lives is vital for a healthy mind, and even our body as well because physical illness and hormones are effected by our stress level. 

We don't have to be a victim to our own lives.  We can learn how to choose moments of rest.  Maybe coloring and art isn't your thing, but I hope by reading this you can glean some ideas for your own way to gather the roses in your life and water the goodness and beauty. If that sounds too hard right now, just be open for even a tiny joy to surprise you and acknowledge it's presence in that moment.

A Ted Talk by another artist who has found healing through practicing her art.