Use Donna's Story to Help You Move Forward
This week, the focus is on art therapy.
Hi there!
When Donna received her bipolar disorder diagnosis, she felt like her life was crumbling.
Everything in her universe seemed out of control. She didn’t know how to handle the news and feared she was doomed to a life of misery.
A young mother with two children under the age of five, she didn’t have time for mental illness. For a while, she thought everything was hopeless.
With time and patience, Donna learned the best way to manage her mental health was to keep moving forward.
She started by educating herself about bipolar disorder and seeking out support from loved ones and professionals. She went to stay with her mom for a few weeks so her mother could watch the kids and give Donna time to accept her new reality.
It didn’t take long for Donna to realize that living with mental illness didn’t have to mean giving up on her dreams or goals. In fact, it was quite the opposite; embracing her condition helped her achieve more than she ever thought possible.
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
- Albert Einstein
Discovering art therapy
One effective tool that helped Donna move forward was art therapy.
Donna always liked painting while in school, but as an adult, her life was too busy. However, when she started using art therapy as a way to express her emotions, she found it to be incredibly helpful.
Donna started with finger paints and got her kids involved.
As her little ones made a huge colorful mess all over her mom’s back patio, Donna learned she could laugh again. For the first time in months, she felt real joy as she pulled her toddlers, covered in red, yellow, and blue paint, into her lap.
Little Becky and Kyle only knew they were in mama’s loving embrace, but Donna realized she was having a breakthrough. Her entire world changed that day.
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Moving forward
Not only did art allow Donna to process her feelings in a healthy way, but it also helped her tap into her creativity.
She started painting every chance she got and gave away her creations as precious gifts to her friends and family. One of her masterpieces still hangs in my living room.
Art therapy is a way to express your feelings in a creative way. You can do it by painting, drawing, or sculpting. Creating art can help you feel better and process your emotions.
To start art therapy, you can look online for classes or find a therapist who specializes in it. If you don’t have access to a therapist, there are ways you can use art for self-therapy. For example, you can use a sketchbook to draw out your emotions or write down your thoughts in a journal.
You can also use color schemes to help you express yourself. For example, you could use reds and oranges to express anger, or blues and greens to express sadness.
For art therapy exercises to try at home, check out this post at Psych Central.
Using color to find the light
Donna started by playing with colors, and those first pictures she made with finger paint were almost entirely red. As she continued moving forward, more colors found their way into her art and her life.
For those more inclined to writing, using creative writing prompts is a great way to work through emotions and past trauma. I wrote an entire novel to help me overcome my feelings from childhood trauma. While the book is not great, it helped me process a lot of the garbage in my head.
Since I know the therapeutic value of writing, I include both journal and creative writing prompts in every positivity newsletter.
For the rest of this week, you are going to experiment with art therapy. Try each exercise and then explore how you feel in your journal.
Today, I challenge you to explore writing. Yes, you already journal, but I want you to try creative writing. You have two options.
Write a short story that starts with someone winning the lottery. Explore how the money changes their life.
Write a poem. It can be long or short, but explore what you are feeling right now in poetic prose.
(Paid Subscribers) Tomorrow, we’ll examine another artsy option.
Monday’s Journal Prompt: How do you feel about art therapy? Do you think it will help you feel better or have less anxiety? Why do you feel that way?
Until next time, keep fighting.
Scott Ninneman
Did you enjoy reading this post? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and hit the restack button to spread the word. 🧡
Additional Reading
The book that started it all…
Scott Ninneman is the author of Speaking Bipolar’s 30 Days of Positivity and the writer behind SpeakingBipolar.com. Living in the mountains of southeast Tennessee, he spends his days crunching numbers as a tax preparer and his nights caring for his mother and writing stories about bipolar life. (And he loves pandas.)
Disclaimer:
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I love the way busy mum Donna just grabbed the nearest finger paints for her children and started with those! I can relate to that! It’s so important to find a creative outlet and it’s easy to let your own needs slide when you have two young kids. This story made me smile 😊