They say art heals . It sits like a soft balm on your aching area and makes you feel alive again. That is exactly what happened to me when the Delta wave of Covid happened in India . It was the summer of 2021 . Just like the entire world, this time too I felt I could make through another lockdown at home .
How Wrong I was!
I have been in the software engineering industry for last 15 years . Working from home has been a norm even before Covid struck the world. I had already worked remotely a lot of times in the past . I was pretty confident that the lockdown and this whole work from home thing is going to be a piece of cake for me.
Little , did I knew that constantly locked up at home , managing a 5 year old alongside home chores along and a demanding 9-5 job would leave my mind broken .
I call it broken. Because honestly doing daily chores with a full-time tech job and not having to go to work once in a while left me that way. Rewinding to that time even if it means writing a blog today , sometimes gives me chills. I wasn’t me . I use to snap at my parents , my sister – It was like something had gotten inside me . The house chores, my full time job- these are the only things I was doing religiously and not questioning them . Daily chores because I felt it was lame to load the other members of the family with all the work. The full time job because it was paying my bills (who wants to snap at their bosses anyways !) .
It was then, that my friend suggested me to try brush painting. Paints is something I had never tried in my lifetime , and to be honest I wasn’t sure this time either . And that is when it struck me , that may be this is universe’s way of helping me , may be there is healing pouring in from spaces I never knew existed .
So life happened ! I attended a brush painting class from the very friend who suggested it in the first place to give a try! Just before the class, I prepped myself upby buying color tubes , brushes and an art file . The sheer joy of seeing new stationery was the first high point in the last couple of days. It transported me back to the days when we used to get books for the new session upon getting promoted to a new class . The exhilaration was something and it makes me wonder, how such small things can ignite delight in a human brain.
Post the completion of the brush painting class, I vowed to myself to continue the practice of painting. The goal was not to become Leonardo Da Vinci in a day .But spending at least an hour everyday to feel more relaxed and safe . So everyday apart from my regular 9-5 job , I had an hour of painting session to look forward to.
The feeling of seeing an art work get completed is no less than imagining yourself as the next M/F Hussain .
ART AS A HEALER
One must be thinking how can art heal a person? What exactly does it do in terms of brining the joy back to human brain and heart! Remember I spoke about snapping at my parents? Brush Painting helped me by allowing to release those pent up emotions that had clogged inside and were waiting to come out ! Having a creative outlet did wonders for my mental health. I still remember whenever I used to paint , my heart used to feel emotionally very free . It assisted me in un-wiring and bringing myself out of the rut – something that was pulling me down and causing constant distress.
I wont shy from saying that constantly sharing my art work on social media gave me another push to keep doing what I was doing .And in between doing all this , the art only improved !
Roughly 3 years into embracing art as a way of life , I can safely say it has been my healing cushion. I am glad I tried it . This beautiful activity held me like a baby and healed me and made me what I am today ! A better version of 2021.
