Lately my life has been a little hectic. I found myself in charge of a major fundraiser right at the start of the busy season for photographers. I had never been in charge of a fundraiser like this before. This is a short story of how I used art to heal my stressed out mind.

why?

Not one to back down from a challenge, I looked for a committee to assist me but none was to be found (not to diminish the help I did receive here and there from a few people but largely I was on my own). No matter; I pressed on. This fundraiser benefits a non-profit organization that I care deeply for; after all I helped found it. When the event drew closer I found myself with more and more tasks that needed to be done to make the event a success. As I am prone to do when things get stressful I switched my iTunes to Carol King, sang along off key and pushed on even while my stomach tied itself in knots.

Our event came and went. I had some help on the day of, and by  all measures this event was a total success. The only serious problem was that my mental health had been seriously taxed. I needed to find a way to heal my mind and lower my stress levels. After a quiet day I realized I needed to hit the reset button.

how to push the mental reset button.

I turned to one of my oldest stress-relieving activities; coloring books. Since elementary school I have often kept a coloring book on hand (even at school) to utilize in the in-between times and relieve tensions. Last week I spent the better part of a day coloring, and little by little I felt tension leaving my back. I added coloring into my nightly unwinding routine and the funniest thing happened. Poems I have long loved started popping into my mind. Blog posts started to write themselves (this is significant because blog posts are usually difficult for me to write because I am a visual thinker) and I started to make forward progress on big projects. I have faith that soon my stomach will settle too.

why am I sharing this?

I post this blog entry not as a call for attention, but to show how even basic unskilled art can help your mental health. Engaging in art can help a person reset the stresses that life can pile on.

Before I close I want to share another form of art. This has been a favorite poem of mine for such a long time. If you have never discovered Rudyard Kipling I encourage you to. This particular poem perfectly describes how I try to live my life.

If.

By Rudyard Kipling

(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!