Awhile back I mentioned how I started using the Freeform app on my phone to do small, “raw” drawings as a form of therapy. I had called this “visual journaling” at the time, but really, it’s just drawing…
When I first talked about it, I referred to it as just something I would do every now and then on the side, but recently, it has actually become my primary form of self-therapy. Lately, for reasons I don’t quite understand, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I would do if I were a kid again in certain scenarios, or what I’d do if I had a kid of my own, in said scenario. I could be wrong, but I think it’s my subconscious telling me to “connect” to my core child within, somehow, and since I used to draw practically all the time as kid, I figured that doing so again made sense. Also, some thoughts and feelings are just easier to express as images rather than words anyways…
Applications like the aforementioned Freeform make drawing on the spot easier than ever now. That said, I think using traditional means of drawing are perfectly fine too. In fact, I would even recommend just imagining drawings in one’s mind. Similar to the mental journaling I’ve talked about before, actually. Sometimes even just drawing and/or imaging a singular word or acronym can be enough to put oneself at ease in the moment, depending on the situation…
Now that I’ve been doing these Freeform drawings for awhile, I can admit that I’ve already forgotten what some of my own drawings were supposed to represent in the first place. I don’t really see this as an issue, though. As long as a drawing was able to help you get through a stressful situation back when said drawing was first made, it doesn’t matter if you then forget whatever the initial stress trigger was down the road. In fact, forgetting stress triggers is a good thing. And if those same triggers come back later on, just make new drawings…
I can also admit that all of my drawings look childish, but again, I don’t consider this a problem. It’s not like I’m planning to ever share any of these. Besides, the whole point of this exercise is to feel connected to the innocence of one’s youth, so having drawings that look rather childish is kind of the point. That said, if you have the talent to draw something that looks more “adult,” then by all means, go for it…
I should probably also take this opportunity to address the stigma associated with drawing. While said stigma does indeed exist, like most things, you just have to learn to not care about it. Again, a lot of this is about connecting back to childhood, and one of the good things about being a little kid is that, at that age, you don’t really give a fuck what anyone thinks (yet). In a lot of ways, our childhood is our “core.” The kid you once were is you in your purest form. This doesn’t mean to always be childish, mind you. There’s a time and a place for everything. I guess if the childhood logic doesn’t work for you, then another way of thinking about it is to remember that drawing is one of humanity’s oldest forms of self-expression and/or therapy, dating all the way to cave drawings…
As always, I hope my constant rambling about mental health on this blog is able to help someone, somehow…
Peace!
PS: Something I almost forgot to mention is that some humans apparently have a hard time “visualizing” things in their heads. For these people, I recommend sticking to journaling/poetry, or something like music, since that’s another one of humanity’s oldest artforms.
