Underrated coping skill: crafting

This is the fifth post in the Grey Thinking series, Five of the most underrated coping skills.

I’m not sure that “crafting” really encompasses the coping skill that I want to mention, but it’s the best term that I could come up with.  When I say “crafting,” I mean any of the following:

1. coloring
2. making collages
3. sudoku /crossword puzzles
4. word searches
5. computer solitaire
6. kitting
7. drawing / painting
8. origami

…see my point?  Semi-creative (and low-stress) activities that keep your hands busy.  I don’t know what it is about keeping my hands busy, but it really helps with the anxiety.

Personally, I prefer coloring & sudoku… mainly because they don’t really require any thought.  I can stress out about drawing because I don’t know where to start or I am worried about screwing it up.  With coloring… it’s way harder to screw up and limited decisions have to be made.  I know people who really get a lot more out of art than just being distracted and it can really be therapeutic for them.  I have days like that, but usually I’m just looking for a good, basically mindless activity.

Chronic anxiety is better

Coloring aside (and other “active meditation,” I guess), there is something that I hate about meditation (guided imagery especially). Deep breathing maybe helps me when I’m starting to freak out, but I think that’s because I’m telling myself “chill, take a moment, calm down, relax, collect yourself, you’ll be okay.” However, breathing deeply does stop my heart from beating so quickly.

Meditation is different though. I think it’s frustrating and I feel so impatient with it. It’s supposed to be calming, but really it just wears on my attention span and my nerves. It’s like when you’re stuck sitting at a red-light in the middle of the night, and are the only car there. You are watching that light and a minute goes by…. another minute… and you start thinking, “Seriously? You have to be kidding.” Another minute goes by and you are convinced the thing is broken. FINALLY the light changes.

I’ve had several therapistic explanations for this:

1. I think I am a human doing, rather than a human being.
2. I am uncomfortable sitting with myself.
3. Meditating is letting my guard down and I am afraid to make myself that vulnerable.
4. That’s my eating disorder talking (which I don’t think is really even relevant in this situation, but I swear there are therapists who say this about everything)

I think I can sit with myself and be calm. I love long car rides, coloring, napping, walking the dog… if you don’t count any of these “sitting with yourself and being a human being,” then what else besides meditation fits into this category?

When I am feeling panicky and anxious, meditation is about the last thing in the world that I want to do. It sounds so wrong when you state it this way, but some degree of anxiety is less painful than meditation! I think it’s great that meditation is calming and refreshing for some people… but I am convinced that meditation is not for everyone, and that it’s not necessarily a symptom of mental illness.

The magic of coloring

I’ll admit it — sometimes I color. I print out some coloring pages and whip out the colored pencils and plug away for a couple of hours. Often I feel ridiculous afterwards — I’ll sit there looking at my finished pictures and think, “What the heck do I do with this now?” Then I’ll think about how coloring is the least productive thing I could possibly do (aside from possibly watching television). Couldn’t I have done a Sudoku puzzle? There is at least some thinking involved there.

But nope, when I’ve had a really stressful day all I really want to do is color in front of the TV (while watching House, of course). Much to my relief, I am not the only person who does this. Apparently a lot of people (over the age of 10) have used coloring as a coping tool. In fact, I’ve know therapists that give their patients Mandalas to color.

So, I decided that I needed to know exactly WHAT about coloring was helpful…. and this is what I found:

Active meditation, sometimes called moving meditation, is easier to learn, but just as powerful as the Eastern techniques you may be more familiar with. When practicing active meditation you will chose a simple movement, like coloring, drawing, or even walking, to give you stronger focus. The repetitive motions act as a constant reminder allowing you to easily shift your attention back to the meditation, back to the moment, before any fleeting thoughts take hold. Negative images, past regrets and future worries are simply pushed aside as you take the time to enjoy the present.

— Michelle Normand

I think that I like coloring because it is the easiest fun thing that I can think of doing. It requires less mental energy than sudoku (even really easy sudoku) and never feels like a chore. I don’t have to even be creative like with drawing. I can zone out and just color between the lines. There’s also something about keeping my hands busy that relieves anxiety.

I love the idea of counting coloring as “active meditation,” because it seems to justify taking time out of my day to color. The next time my fiance jokes about hanging up my pictures on the refrigerator, I can say, “Hey! This is a kind of therapy.”