Art as Therapy: Coping With Feelings of Grief During the Holiday Season
The holiday season can be a challenging time for most anyone as the stresses of finances, increased demands of time and tasks, and unrealistic expectations show themselves in a grand way. Furthermore, if you are a person that is working through feelings of grief at this time, everything can become compounded.
The holidays can create feelings of depression, loneliness, and anxiety for the bereaved as they remember past events. Holidays by nature are filled with nostalgia, tradition and ritual, but for those grieving, this can bring up conflicted feelings of both comfort and distress as the absence of the deceased becomes more apparent. As the rest of the world is celebrating, it’s important for grieving individuals to acknowledge their emotional pain and get through the season with a minimum amount of stress. Being able to express ones grief verbally can be difficult. Art expression, as a non-verbal modality, can be an effective way of working through and containing grief when words fall short.
Throughout history, art making has been a means by which humans have expressed their grief. Whether through burial ceremonies, shrines, or memorials, the symbols that represent loss have been important for coping and relieving emotional distress.
Creativity can be a way to feel the sadness, anger and loss as well as the remembrance of times past in all their imperfections and grace, while taking time to understand oneself in the context of the whole. Overwhelming thoughts and feelings can be captured in the images thereby creating a new sense of control, organization, and containment. Focusing on the images or symbols enables a person to express stressful emotions without having to refer directly to details surrounding the loss.
Art making as a healing process allows for many positive effects to happen physiologically. The promotion of feelings of joy, peacefulness, and calm come about because of the release of the pleasure inducing chemicals called endorphins, the mood enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin, along with the lowering of heart rate and respiration. Alpha brainwave patterns are also initiated which are the patterns that present themselves during moments of prayer and meditation. The process of making art also provides a kinesthetic release that enables a person to channel her emotions and physical energy outward rather than suppressing and tightening within.
There are a variety of ways to use art and imagination as a tonic in the recovery from loss and grief. One of the ways that is helpful is by keeping a feelings art journal. This can be an excellent way to track what is happening within on a daily basis. Experiment with color, lines and shape to follow emotions, being aware of body sensations rather than focusing on thoughts about the current emotional state. For example, if you are feeling sad, try to sense where that sadness lies in your body and express this sensation as spontaneously as possible.
Another way that is helpful in containing grief is by using imagery to soothe and restore the spirit. Gather objects and images (photos, magazines, calendar photos) that bring forth feelings of appreciation, pleasure, compassion and gratitude and use these as inspiration for your own art. While this art making is meant to be enlivening in the moment of making it, it is also meant to remind and inspire you when times feel challenging in the future.
Art as therapy is medicine for the soul. And while creativity can be a wonderful companion on ones healing journey, know your limits. It may be important to seek out a professional therapist, support group or pastoral counselor that can help you further with the trauma or loss and can be the witness to your art expressions and emotions.
Tanya Vallianos
http://www.articlesbase.com/psychology-articles/art-as-therapy-coping-with-feelings-of-grief-during-the-holiday-season-603416.html
How to Relieve Depression Naturally
Depression is a mood disorder that ranges from mild to severe. All of us have experienced a form of depression at some time in our lives. It can accompany loss, stress, unresolved anger, fear, shame, disappointment and other emotional dynamics that are a part of our life situation. Depression is experienced by children, adults, and elderly regardless of economic status, gender, or culture. Depression affects physical health, relationships, awareness, weight, memory, decision making ability, energy level, interest, and sleep. In addition to emotional experience, depression can result from diet, nutrition, and other physical biochemical origins.
In severe, special cases of depression associated with extreme mental disorder, synthetic, chemical based drugs called antidepressants are required and necessary for relief of depression. However, most of us do not fall into this category and too often these synthetic antidepressants are prescribed for us who suffer from common daily disappointments in our lives. For most common experiences of depression, antidepressants are not often necessary. Synthetic Antidepressants have been known to have some harmful side effects, prompting the FDA to recommend that manufacturers add this warning label to their products: “Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in short-term studies in children and adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone considering the use of {insert established name} or any other antidepressant in a child or adolescent must balance this risk with the clinical need. Patients who are started on therapy should be observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidalty, or unusual changes in behavior”.
This is not to suggest that ignoring the feelings of depression will make the feelings go away. Since depression can have physical biochemical origin and depression from emotional stress can cause biochemical change in the body, it would follow that common, not severe, depression would respond to clinically proven all natural remedies as vitamins, herbs, supplements, minerals, amino acids, aromatherapy, and all natural formulas designed to relieve the pain of depression. Other treatments e.g. psychotherapy, exercise, acupuncture, yoga, meditation also aid in the natural relief of depression.
Deficiencies in vitamins and minerals can trigger depression as well as depression decreasing the availability of vitamins and minerals essential for the maintaining our body’s health. These vitamins and minerals include vitamin B6, folic acid, vitamin B12, vitamin C, magnesium, calcium and trace minerals. Supplementing our bodies with these vitamins and minerals can relieve and perhaps prevent depression as well as greatly improving our health generally.
Adding amino acids to our diets can go a long way in relieving depression and promoting general health. For example, SAMe (S-Adensoyl-L-Methionine) is an amino acid that can be found in all cells of our body. It is a natural antidepressant that has additional value of protecting the liver and cardiovascular system, synthesis of natural melatonin that assists sleeping well. Phenylalanine is another amino acid that makes the neurotransmitter, i.e. substance that conducts messages to and within the brain, norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is diminished in the brains of people who are depressed. The amino acid L-Theanine naturally reduces anxiety associated with depression and is not addictive or habit forming. Another amino acid that naturally relieves depression and stimulates alertness is L-Tyrosine.
5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophane) is a naturally occurs in our bodies and helps the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Adequate amounts of serotonin is vital for a feeling and sense of emotional well being. 5-HTP can cross the blood brain barrier which makes it unique in the facilitation of serotonin. 5-HTP has gained a great reputation in the natural treatment of insomnia, depression and obesity.
For many people who suffer common depression, a effectively created herbal formula is very beneficial for the natural relief of depression. St. John’s wort (hypericum perforaturn), commonly referred to as “Nature’s Prozac”, helps naturally relieve mild or moderate depression, stress, anxiety, and tension. Gingo biloba is used as an alternative treatment for moderate depression in elderly people because depression is an early sign of cognitive decline or cerebrovascular deficiency. Valerian root has a natural calming effect for anxiety and depression. Passionflower is an efficient natural sedative for calming and sleeping well. Black Cohosh, used by early Native Americans, soothes the body and reduces spasm. These are just a few of the examples of herbs and herbal formula that treat moderate depression effectively and naturally.
Hormonal imbalance can lead to moderate depression. A common treatment is natural progesterone for women. Other natural substances help balance hormones e.g. flax oil, black cohosh, dimpro, promensil, essential fatty acids, red clover, virtex berry and many other naturally derived supplements.
Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils and other natural aromatic compounds from plants to effect emotional and physical health The oils are referred to as “essential” because they are the “essence” of the plant. Olfactory sense has a powerful effect on our emotional and physical health. Aromatherapy can be used to alter mood, inspire confidence, ease moderate depression, and increase energetic feeling. In some nations essential oils are used for their antiseptic qualities to treat infection. In France, many aromatherapy essential oils are perceived in a similar way as prescription drugs are in the United States. Aromatherapy comes in many forms, e.g. essential oil, mists, sticks, candles, infusions, massage creams and oils, mineral bath formulas, and absolutes.
One on the most popular aromatherapy aromas is lavender. Lavender essential oil has a calming scent which makes it an excellent tonic for the nerves and helps in treating migraines, headaches, anxiety, depression, nervous tension and emotional stress. Its refreshing aroma removes nervous exhaustion and restlessness and increases mental activity. Lavender essential oil induces sleep and hence it is often recommended for insomnia. Lavender essential oil is also an excellent remedy for various types of pains including those caused by sore muscles, tense muscles, muscular aches, rheumatism, sprains, backache and lumbago.
In summary, many of us suffer mild to moderate depression for a variety of reasons. Our experience of depression is not so severe or of long duration to justify the use of powerful synthetic prescription drugs or antidepressant drugs with their potential of hazardous, harmful physical and behavioral side effects. We have available to us, a vast variety of effective, efficient, all natural vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, aromatherapy, hormonal balancers, and other safe natural modalities for relieving mild to moderate depression.
Jennifer Kays
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/how-to-relieve-depression-naturally-210518.html
Anxiety and Herbs – How to Treat Anxiety Naturally With Herbs
In today’s stressful day and age, many people suffer from severe anxiety disorders. Unfortunately, many of these individuals begin a routine of strong anti-anxiety medications in a search to cure their problems. However, often times anxiety can be dramatically lessened with the use of natural herbs. In this brief article, I’m going to go over a few of the reasons why you should consider trying natural herbs to cure your anxiety, before resorting to expensive and potentially harmful drugs.
So what herbs actually help with anxiety? There are several in fact. The more popular herbal supplements used to treat anxiety are St. John’s Wort and Kava.
St. John’s Wort helps in reducing stress and feelings of depression. You can find St. John’s Wart at any drug or grocery store, although I would recommend purchasing it online as you’ll typically find it cheaper on the Internet.
The second popular herb used in treating anxiety, Kava Kava, has a soothing effect on the body and has been shown to improve sleep. Even though Kava Kava has a calming effect on the body, it isn’t too strong to take during the day in smaller doses.
For many who suffer from anxiety disorders, the thought of taking more medication actually produces more of the anxiety that these medications are supposed to help. So they turn to natural remedies, and find relief from anxiety in herbs.
Hopefully this article has given you a couple all-natural alternatives to the anti-anxiety medications normally prescribed by doctors. These herbal supplements offer a much cheaper, natural way to treat anxiety and have show impressive results in doing so. If you or someone you know is being put on expensive prescription drugs to treat anxiety, give these herbal remedies a try first. You might just be surprised at the results!
By: JP Richardson (Get FREE Anxiety Treatment)
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