Prompt #41 - I'm pissed off... now what?
Some drawing techniques for anger and frustration
We talk a lot about positive emotions in this newsletter. About awe, and flow, and gratitude. But let's face it, we can't all be zen like a trained Buddhist monk at all times.
Sometimes, we get angry. We get frustrated, annoyed, irritated. And that's ok. The negative emotions are just as much part of it, as the positive ones.
The trick is to learn how to notice and deal with these emotions when they come up, so they don't make you lash out and behave in a way you might regret later. Because even though I've often felt like flipping a table in a meeting, it's rarely a good idea to do so.
Today, we'll walk through a few drawing techniques you can use to channel your anger onto a page, and hopefully get through to the other side.
I can recommend doing these in order, as turn from letting out “the big anger” to progressively calm. But you can also pick out individual ones as you need. You want to use a pencil or ballpoint pen, something that won't break if you apply a lot of pressure ;)
#1 - Turn it black
Working from one top corner of the paper, press down hard and move fast in back and forth lines all the way to the bottom corner on the other side. Then start in the other bottom corner, and work your way across in the other direction. Keep layering until you feel some of the aggression ease up.
#2 - Angry Squiggles
Put your pencil on the paper, press down hard, and mentally go AAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHGH while you angry squiggle across the page. It helps if you can actually AAAARGH out loud a bit while you're doing it.
#3 - Nope nope nope nope
The situation you find yourself in is unacceptable? Just cross it out with some Nope-Crosses and Xs.
#4 - Time to breath
Breathe in, put your pencil down and draw some (still moderately pissed off) lines up and down while you breathe out slowly. Breathe in again while you move your pencil over, breathe out and move the pencil up and down again. Repeat as long as you need (or run out of paper).
#5 - In and Out
We're starting to find our cool again a little bit in this technique. Start in the bottom corner, draw upwards for a count of 2 to breathe in, and downwards for a count of 2 to breathe out. In and up, down and out.
#6 - Triangle Breathing
Another breathing technique to calm down the nervous system. Drawing a triangle, start in one corner. Draw up for a count of 4 while you breathe in, draw down for a count of 4 while you breathe out, draw across for a count of 4 while you hold your breath. Keep going around the triangle as long as you need.
#7 - The Squares of Control
Now that we've calmed our nervous system down a little bit, we want to try and regain a bit of control. Draw multiple lines of (more or less) equal squares, filling each one in as you go along.
#7 - Calm like the Ocean
Draw some “ocean wave” lines, starting at the top of the page. Make them stormy! Now move down the page, drawing parallel lines to your initial waves. As you move down the page, your lines should get progressively less "stormy”, and even flatten out if you keep going long enough.
This is a good metaphor for our emotional state. No matter how rough the seas get, how angry we might be, eventually our internal stormy ocean will calm down and turn back to a gentle sea.
I hope this emergency response kit will help you out the next time you're overcome by anger and frustration.
Just keep swimming drawing!
Love, Lorena
If you want some more artsy stuff for happiness you can:
Really interesting this topic! Especially the relation between drawing and human emotion.