Making Time For Your Art

Make time for your art for your mental health’s sake.

In the course of living your adult life, your schedule can often start to feel like a hectic obstacle course. It can be a struggle to fulfill all your duties and still have time left over to live your life how you want. It’s all too easy to let your artistry fall to the wayside, especially when it doesn’t generate any income.

Here are five ways you can make time for your art in your busy schedule:

Schedule It In

The simplest solution is to treat your artistic expression like another one of your responsibilities. Schedule a time, daily or weekly, where you can work on art that gets you excited, and respect it as though it were one of your chores that needs to get done. Prioritizing the things in life that make you happy, like making art, will help you find more balance. 

Give yourself permission to be a beginner 

When you pressure yourself to make the perfect piece of art, you will never want to make art. It will become less of a therapeutic outlet or hobby and more of a chore. Your art doesn’t have to look exactly the way you envisioned it to. It’s about the process, not the finished product. Free yourself from unrealistic expectations, and allow yourself to be enthused by the freedoms that being a beginner can offer you. It feels vulnerable to not know what you’re doing, or to not be perfect, but it will always lead you to new opportunities for growth.  Releasing yourself from the pressures of being perfect will make it easier for you to make time for your art.

Make Time For Unconventional Art

Art is more than just words in a book, paint on a canvas, and perplexing line breaks within a poem. If it feels like you don’t have time to work on your regularly scheduled artistic expression, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon your pursuit of artistry. Art can be any piece of self-expression made with intention and gusto. If we accept a broader definition of art, we can make art no matter how much time or effort we have. Your art can be the song you sing along to on the car radio, the card you wrote for a loved one’s birthday, or the playlist you made for your commute to work.

Make Time For Social Art

Making art can be vulnerable. I think many people get frightened at the prospect of appearing vulnerable, and wind up only making art when they’re isolated. Art does not require you to sequester yourself in an office, or seclude yourself to a desk. In fact, art can be vulnerable, collaborative, and emotionally safe, all at the same time. You might not be able to make time to lock yourself in a tower to type away at your manuscript, but you can definitely plan to make an artistic collaboration with your friends or loved ones. This could be as complicated as putting on a stage show, or as simple as pulling out two pencils and a piece of doodling paper. Be bold enough to pursue a potentially bad idea. Be encouraging of every line that goes on the page. Convince each other to keep creating. 

 If you feel stuck on your healing journey, working with a therapist can help. Based on your needs, our intake specialist will help you get matched up with your perfect therapist. Click here to schedule a consultation.

Starting with a creative written voice and a BA in English from ASU, Alli Cravener has become so much more than Integrative Counsel’s voice! Not only is she a writer who is passionate about connecting concepts and content, Alli is also currently a grad student working towards her Master’s in Counseling. She is also the editor-in-chief, office manager, AND intake specialist at Integrative Counsel. When you call us, you’ll talk to Alli! Alli’s interests include painting, history, learning about other people, and wearing the color pink. She likens herself to a “mouse in a palm tree”, and she loves it that way.