Content reviewed by Christian Losch, LCSW, LCADC, CEO of Pinelands
Dealing with emotions can be challenging enough on its own. However, if you are in the midst of addiction recovery, you may feel as though handling your emotions is a daunting and never-ending task. While tending to your emotions will always be necessary, this does not mean that how you process them has to be monotonous. Below are seven fun and creative ways to process your emotions, no matter what they entail.
#1. Give Yourself a Themed Stretching Session
Before beginning your stretching session, choose a theme for your session. For example, if you are a Harry Potter fan, perhaps you can turn on the Harry Potter soundtrack, light some candles, and dress up as your favorite character. Afterward, you could watch a few of the films to keep the fun going. Any theme that makes you feel happy and relaxed can be applied.
Once you have established your theme, you can begin stretching. Stick to simple, familiar stretches to not cause confusion or stress. Notice how the muscles and tendons throughout your body feel as you move. Perhaps you experience significant relief in one area, while in another, you feel tension. Feel free to flow through each movement as you please.
During this process, let your thoughts and feelings freely come and go. If you notice that tension in a particular area of your body causes you to remember a sad memory, let yourself feel that emotion. Allow your body to feel the sadness while also giving your body what it needs at that moment by massaging the area or stretching it differently. Doing so can remind you that you are showing up for yourself and your body.
#2. Make Glass Art
Before beginning this activity, you must take the necessary precautions to ensure the safety of yourself and others. Be sure to wear goggles and gloves, and only do this activity in an open space where no one can get hurt that is easy to clean up.
Once you have taken the necessary precautions, go to the safe area and begin throwing the glass (away from you) on the ground. This process can be beneficial for releasing frustration, anger, pain, jealousy and other emotions. After gathering all the glass, you can carefully craft your art on a poster board. You can design these broken pieces together, thus creating a new image. This can be healing because it can show you that you can be crafted anew into something even more beautiful even though you have felt broken along your recovery journey.
#3. Make Your Life Into A Short Film
Using something as simple as your cell phone, you can film short snippets of your day. These snippets can be happy, sad, annoying and everything in between. Use a free computer system or app to glue together and edit all of these pieces. You can even add songs or other sound effects to capture what you are trying to express. Doing this activity can help you see the events in your daily life that cause you grief, joy, anger, etc. Then, you have the freedom to show these events and alter them to reflect how you feel about them. By modifying the coloring, speed, light and sound, you have the power to show the world how you perceive the events that take place in your life.
#4. Build a Quote Wall
This activity is perfect if you have an empty wall in your living space that you are trying to decorate. Simply gather quotes that you feel express yourself or your life experiences, put them on sticky notes or fancy paper and stick them to your wall. You can even decorate the paper on which you write the quotes. Do not feel pressured to fill up the entire wall at once. You can continue adding to the wall as time goes on or as you discover new quotes.
#5. Reconstruct an Old Book
Using a book you no longer read, tear out each page individually as precisely as you wish. The act of tearing these pages out can be a great way to release tension. Once all the pages are out, color each page using pens, markers or paints to match how you are feeling at that precise moment. This may be an ongoing process, but once you are finished, you can punch holes in each page and bind them all together using yarn.
#6. Have a Sing-Along Party for One
While in private, pick a few of your favorite songs to play out loud. These songs should match or express some of the emotions you may be feeling during that moment. Whether you consider yourself a good singer or not, let go of your fear and sing as passionately as you desire. Doing so can help you acknowledge and release whatever emotions you may be bottling up.
#7. Be a Fake Lyricist for Your Favorite Artist
Pick an artist whose voice you really love or find resonates with you the most. Write lyrics that are raw and authentic to your feeling in that moment. Be as genuine and heartfelt as you can because there are no limits on which emotions you can and cannot express. You do not need to follow a specific flow or structure as you craft your lyrics. Do whatever makes sense to you and depicts your emotions accurately.
Processing through emotions on a daily basis can be difficult and even grueling at times. However, there are creative ways to make this process more fun. Some of these include giving yourself a themed stretch session, creating glass art (safely), making your life into a short film, building a quote wall, reconstructing an old book, having a sing-along party by yourself and creating fake lyrics for your favorite artist. Even though these can be fun ways to process your emotions, you may need extra assistance at times. Through our treatment modalities at Pinelands Recovery Center of Medford, we can ensure that you will gain the skills necessary to process your emotions and continue to grow. Not only can we give you these skills, but we can make sure you have fun while doing so. To learn more about how we can help you, call our facility today at (877) 557-5372.