CLASS OVERVIEW

We all feel troubled by life and full of stress from time to time. But sometimes that stress can snowball into what the psychologist Russ Harris calls an Emotion Storm, when we get totally swept away by our negative thoughts and unwanted memories.

These emotion storms disrupt our lives and make it impossible to focus on our relationships, jobs, and daily life. We become completely overwhelmed and unable to get away from the repetitive looping thoughts.

Luckily, there are strategies to hold steady during the storm, called grounding techniques. Grounding techniques are tools to help us self-regulate and reconnect with the present moment. They help ground us in the here and now. There are many common grounding techniques, but as an artist, the act of drawing is what grounds me best.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In this class, I’ll be sharing my own grounding technique I call Grounding by Drawing.

Grounding by Drawing has four steps:

Notice Your Thoughts
Connect to Your Body
Focus on the Present
Engage in Your Life

As you go through the four steps of Grounding by Drawing, you’ll be creating a drawing that will help you move past an emotion storm to notice and reenter the world around you.

WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE THIS CLASS

It’s important to note that coping skills and grounding techniques do not make emotions or thoughts go away—that is not our goal. Emotions and thoughts are like the weather—they come and go. Sometimes we have sunny days and sometimes we have stormy days. But fighting or cursing the weather doesn’t make it change. The only thing we can really do is make room for both sunny days and stormy days.

And that’s what Grounding by Drawing helps us do: it allows us to accept that stormy days happen and gives us a way to take shelter while the storm passes. Under that reprieve from the emotion storm, we are able to think more clearly and act in a way that aligns with our values—a way that helps us move back towards living the life we want to live.

WHO THIS CLASS IS FOR

This class is for artists, creatives, and visual thinkers who are looking for a way to use their art to deal with stress, regulate their emotions, and be more present in their lives.

You do not have to be in an emotion storm right now to do take this class or do the project assignment. In fact, it’s best if you practice techniques like this before an intense storm comes—any coping strategy is easier to do when thoughts and feelings are mild.

Grounding by Drawing allows me to stay steady during emotion storms, and I hope that through this class, maybe drawing can help you do that too.

TOOLS + MATERIALS

The drawings in this class can all done in a sketchbook or piece of paper with whatever drawing tool you feel most comfortable with.

RESOURCES + REFERENCES

ACT Mindfully: Russ Harris, website
The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris
I Am Love: A Book of Compassion, Susan Verde and Peter H. Reynolds
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, Pema Chodron
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn

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WANT MORE?

Check out my other Skillshare classes here!

You can also see more about me and my work on my website: might-could.com.

And you can sign up for my email list for weekly essays on creativity and artmaking!

Thanks so much! <3

Joshua Winthrop

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