We often think of self-care as bubble baths, long walks, or early nights—but sometimes, self-care looks like a blank page and a splash of colour. Art is more than a creative outlet. It’s a gentle, accessible way to tune into yourself, process your feelings, and reconnect with the present moment. You don’t have to be “good” at it. You just have to show up with a pen, a brush, or your fingers in a lump of clay.
Here’s why making art is one of the most underrated forms of self-care, and why it's well worth choosing, when you choose yourself:
1. Art slows you down (in the best way)
When life moves too fast, art invites you to pause. Whether you’re blending watercolour, doodling in a sketchbook, or collaging scraps from a magazine, art asks for your attention—and that focus gently pulls you into the now.
This presence can help reduce stress. A 2016 study from Drexel University found that just 45 minutes of making art significantly lowered cortisol levels (the hormone linked to stress), even in participants who didn’t consider themselves artists.
It's a wonderful tool for mindfulness. I've spent ages trying to master meditation and that calmness eludes me. If I sit down with a paint brush I get straight in the zone and enjoy a quite peace that feels like a sanctuary.
2. It’s a way to express what’s hard to say
Not everything we feel can be neatly wrapped in words. Sometimes emotions are messy, tangled, or buried deep. Art offers another language to decipher our feelings.
Putting emotions into colour, texture, or shape helps you move them through your body and out into the world. It doesn’t need to make sense to anyone else. You’re giving your feelings a place to land, and that’s incredibly healing.
When you understand your feelings better, you have more chance of working what to do to manage them.
3. It connects you with yourself
Making art can feel like a conversation with your inner self—the parts of you that get overlooked in the busyness of life. The act of creating helps you check in: How do I feel? What colours am I drawn to today? What do I need to release?
This reflective process builds self-awareness and strengthens your emotional resilience. In fact, research published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association found that art-making increased participants’ sense of self-worth and self-reflection.
What other activities encourage us to spend time listening to our deepest thoughts and feelings? The ones that we are often too busy to hear?
4. It brings joy—without pressure
Creating just for the joy of it is rare in adulthood. But there’s something wonderfully childlike about splashing paint or sketching without judgment. It’s play. It’s freedom. And it reminds you that not everything needs to be productive to be worthwhile.
Even five minutes of colouring or mark-making can lift your mood. You don’t have to share it. You don’t even have to keep it. It’s about the process, not the product.
And the more you can relax into the process, you can let go of a little of your perfectionism, learn to go with the flow. This is something that can benefit lots of different aspects of your life, and your mood.
5. It’s something you do just for you
In a world full of shoulds, art is a little rebellion. It’s time carved out for yourself. It’s permission to be messy, imperfect, experimental. That’s powerful.
So whether you’re painting, gluing, scribbling or shaping, know this: you are caring for yourself in one of the most beautifully human ways possible. You’re creating space to feel, to express, and to just be.
And that’s exactly what self-care is meant to do.
Why Making Art Is a Form of Self-Care For Everyone
This post is a collaborative effort between AI and myself in order to work a little bit faster.
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