I started this coloring project in August of 2022. Maybe I chose a coloring page about joy because it wasn’t a very joyful season in our home, and I needed an escape. However, I soon found that doing something creative is a form of self-care I needed.

💜We were preparing to move my sister into a nursing home because Alzheimer’s had progressed beyond our ability to care for her at home properly. But I kept plugging away at this coloring project over the next several months, even though there was little joy in my circumstances.Doing Creative Things Helps Manage Our Hard Emotions

I finally finished it on April 1, 2023, and while I’m still processing grief after losing my sister a few months ago, doing things like this is helping me find my way back to joy.

🙂Working on something for the sheer joy of creativity can help give you a break from hard-to-process emotions like grief, loss, and anger.

Doing something creative is a form of self-care that helps put things in perspective and may provide more clarity to your situation. So, I hope you’ll try it, and it helps you find your way back to joy. Just remember…

🖌 You don’t have to be an artist to practice creativity as self-care.

🖍 Using a coloring book takes the heat off so you can focus on color choices and technique.

🖍 Soon, there is joy in the doing, and that’s freedom and hope. Own it!

Can you see how doing something creative can, for a little while, shift our focus away from something painful to something that isn’t?

❤️ I’m sorry if you are in a hard season of life right now. Doing something creative is not a cure for your circumstances, but it is a form of self-care that I hope you will try. I think you’ll find it helpful.

🥴Have you tried coloring or painting lately? How did it make you feel?

Here are a few creative things you can start doing:

  • Watercolor painting
  • Paint by number
  • Cook a new recipe (Have you ever thought of cooking as creative?)
  • Decorate for the next upcoming holiday
  • Arrange cut flowers from your garden (or from the florist)
  • Plan out your garden on paper
  • Crochet/knit

Please, let me know in the comments what creative activity helps you manage hard-to-process emotions.

I’ve created some coloring pages to get you started. Just click the link below to download and enjoy.

The coloring pages are a companion to a short devotional I wrote about the renewed hope spring represents (click here to read).

This is an expanded post from my Instagram feed, where I post more often. There’s a link in the sidebar to take you there. 

I’m also posting on Five Minute Friday.

By the way…

Happy Easter

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