Heart Strings Drawing

Many people hold stress in their heart, which is both physically and mentally dangerous. Drawing a heart and adding metaphorical color provides an opportunity to heal emotions by creating a tangible way to confront the stress in your heart. A way to tackle stress is to develop coping tools such as gratitude, support from friends, talking to someone, forgiveness, helping someone else, or making an art date.

BENEFIT: Improves emotional regulation and coping skills

Exercise time: 1 hour

MATERIALS: Printed image of an outline of a heart 1 sheet of 18-by-24-inch heavy-weight drawing paper Scissors Glue Colored pencils Acrylic paint Paintbrushes Cup of water

STEPS: 1.Print out an outline of a heart from the Internet or, if you prefer, draw a large heart on the sheet of paper with the colored pencils. If you’ve printed a heart from the Internet, cut out the outline and then use glue to paste the heart on the paper.

2.Inside the heart, write the feelings that your heart is holding at this moment. Using acrylic paint, match the emotions you feel to the different colors.

3.In the area surrounding your heart, list the coping skills that will help you to heal. If you like, you can draw heart strings (lines) coming out from your heart, and then list the coping skills on those lines.

Questions for Discussion:

·What feelings has your heart been holding?

·How long have you been feeling this way?

·What does your heart need from you? ·How will you incorporate new coping skills into your life?