Let’s Art About It LLC is excited to partner with the 4th Annual State Bar of Michigan Business Law Symposium to introduce you to unique techniques to relieve every day stressors through our Resilience Challenge! This page contains articles and research explaining how exercises like this, which are informed by the fields of Organizational Psychology and Art Therapy (you don’t have to like art to benefit!) can impact your brain, help manage stress and anxiety, build resilience, and reduce burnout. Post-challenge follow up information includes exercise instructions to use anytime in the future, as well as additional ways we can help.
ABOUT THE RESILIENCE CHALLENGE
INTRODUCTION
In this Challenge, you will need a minimum of one sheet of paper and pen to participate, but can use anything available when trying this at work or home! Try to think of the exercise as more about making marks with the supplies rather than creating “artwork”. The appearance of your work does not matter, but rather the stress relief benefits of engaging in the experiential.
ADDRESSING BURNOUT
The experiential learning component of this Challenge was prepared with the aim of helping you avoid falling into burnout by guiding you through art therapy based strategies that can increase your emotional awareness, and help you energize and renew.
DEVELOPING RESILIENCE
Learn about the eight core components of resilience as identified in research (by PSI), that the Resilience Challenge aims to help develop through art therapy based strategies.
The Resilience Challenge was developed for the 4th Annual State Bar of Michigan Business Law Symposium by:
Shazia Siddiqi, MA, LPC, ATR-BC: Board Certified Art Therapist., Licensed Professional Counselor. Adjunct Professor at Wayne State University. Founder/CEO of Let’s Art About It LLC
Dr. Shaun Wehle, PSY.D., HSPP, LCAC: Licensed Clinical Psychologist & Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. Senior Consulting Psychologist at PSI Services LLC. Co-Founder/Partner of Let’s Art About It LLC
The Science
EFFECTS OF ART THERAPY ON STRESS AND ANXIETY
The findings of this study suggest that art therapy is a preventive measure for a person to understand stress situations and to manage their anxiety, react adequately, and cope with stress, thus improving the quality of life by creative means.
HOW MAKING ART HELPS YOUR BRAIN
For a lot of people, making art can be nerve-wracking. What are you going to make? What if it ... sucks?
Studies show that despite those fears, "engaging in any sort of visual expression results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated," says Kaimal. "Which means that you feel good and it's perceived as a pleasurable experience."
BRAIN RESEARCH SHOWS ARTS PROMOTE MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health issues affect nearly half of the global population, at some point, by age 40. Add to that, recent challenges of the pandemic for maintaining mental wellness, managing fears and uncertainty, and one thing is clear: it’s time to think differently when it comes to how we engage our minds.
Follow Up
CHALLENGE INSTRUCTIONS
Download instructions for the Resilience Challenge here. We hope you’ll continue to use this resilience exercise for stress and burnout relief anytime you need it. Remember, you don’t need to set time side to do this. Try it in under a minute for a breather during your work day!
INTERPRETATION GUIDANCE
Need some individual help interpreting your art or artmaking process to find greater meaning? Send your Resilience Challenge facilitator/ art therapist Shazia an email with a photo of your creation and any thoughts you would like to share. You will received a response within 2-3 business days!
Book a Workshop
Join businesses including DLA Piper, Google, Mitsubishi, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise who are bringing our transformational workshop experiences to their employees to:
Articulate what words can’t, bringing complex or difficult thoughts and feelings into view
Provide a sense of calm when feeling overwhelmed
View challenges from a more manageable "bird's eye" perspective, facilitating self reflection, communication, and problem solving
Identify and renew individual and collective strengths and vision
Facilitate mindfulness and emotional balance, positively impacting depression and anxiety
Build deeper and more authentic connections to self and others to promote a culture of belonging, increasing social interaction and reducing loneliness
Improve brain cognition, reduce blood pressure and inflammation, and bolster the immune system
Engage multiple senses to address “Zoom fatigue”
Challenge rigidity through playful exploration to increase creativity and happiness.
(A portion of the workshop is dedicated to optional sharing and processing artwork with the group.)