What do you do when you get upset about something that has happened in your life?  Do you yell and scream?  Do you keep it inside and let it fester? 

When I was first married, I would work out my anger by cleaning house.  My husband would come home from work and notice that I’d cleaned and maybe re-arranged a room and ask, “What’s wrong?”  “What did I do wrong?”

When we moved from an apartment to our first home, I would play the piano…very loudly.  I would start off loud and then after awhile, the emotions would just be released and the music became calmer.  I would say softer but I’ve never been a very soft-handed piano player!

Keeping things bottled up inside is not good for your health or the people around you.  I’ve read that writing things down is very helpful.  I believe this but sometimes I don’t want anyone else to be able to read my thoughts. 

Writing Things Down

Now when I just can’t seem to forget about something and need to get it out, I go to my art journal and start writing things down.  I call it “throwing up on a page”!!!

I fill the page with things that are bothering me and then I turn the page upside down and continue writing over what I’ve just written.  By the time I’m finished, you can’t really even read what’s on the page but I’m not finished.  I like to turn something that’s ugly into something that’s not! 

After I’ve written everything down, I cover the page with gesso, acrylic paint or collage.  Here are a few examples:

The heart journal page I did at a time when my heart was truly broken over a situation.  I just kept rewinding the events over and over in my mind until I finally said “enough”.  I wrote everything down and then, because I was on vacation and didn’t have many art supplies with me, I used markers, watercolor and collage from a magazine that I’d purchased at the airport. 

Daily Planner Page

Recently, I was having a really bad week and so I included this technique in the weekly planner that I keep. I wrote everything down that was bothering me and then covered it all up with paint, collage and stickers. I wanted to make the page bright and colorful, not dark and gloomy like my mood was that week. No one would ever know that it’s there. Did it help change the situation that I was in? No, not at all, but it helped me to get rid of feelings that I just couldn’t seem to get over.

To be honest, sometimes I can’t remember what I wrote on a certain page but…I can honestly tell you that it helped me get rid of the frustrations that were bothering me.  I encourage you to give this a try and see if you don’t feel better after you let everything all out! Paint over it, tear it up and/or use it as collage on a mixed media page or art journal. It doesn’t matter how pretty it turns out…what matters is that you get everything out and you don’t let it fester!