How does stress affect your life and painting?
OK, here’s the scary thing! Evidently, stress causes the body to create excess amounts of cortisol. Cortisol damages the brain and leads to premature brain aging. But I think there’s something even worse that happens.
When you’re stressed, you don’t think clearly. Perhaps cortisol is affecting that area of your brain as well.
It’s the same thing with painting. You can get stressed just as easily. Your paint starts slipping, or you can’t get the brush stroke to apply paint as you want. Isn’t it funny how an avocation that’s supposed to help you relax can stress you out as well?
I think part of it has to do with our wanting to do the best we can. We wrote before that no one wakes up in the morning and says, “Today I will do less than my best. I’ll do the least I have to do to just get by.” (OK, maybe some folks say that, but most don’t.)
If you can’t calm down when you start to get stressed, it’s going to affect your painting. And…it’s going to affect you — and not in a good way.
Sometimes you need to get up and walk away. Take the dog for a walk. Have a cup of hot tea. Take a nap! The painting can wait!
Take frequent and regular breaks when you are painting. Painting is not a marathon sport. It’s not an endurance contest.
We segment our course videos so that you can take a break. That way you can come back to your painting refreshed. You are ready to tackle the problems painting throws at you. We’re going to talk a lot more about these issues in upcoming posts, so stay tuned.
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