Painting as a self-distancing.

Painting as a self-distancing.

  Throughout our lives, we have many relationships. we meet countless people with our family, at work, at school, at marts and resorts, at theaters and stadiums, online or in-person. In this kind of relationship, we often stand alone with a frustrated heart like a wanderer. It was a well-organized lines, but looking back, it is so entangled that we don't know where to start. We sometimes feel discouraged and lose our energy next to someone who is full of narcissism in a completely different way from our intentions.

​  At this time, we often hear people say to distance themselves objectively, psychologically and physically away from relationships that are psychologically harmful.

  The concept of psychological distancing is meant to describe our ability to “step back and without an immediate response, survey the environment, and reflect on the course of action instead of being dominated by immediate simulation” (Giesbrecht, Müller, & Miller, 2010, p. 337).

Here are some more quotes about psychological distancing below.
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1. Psychological distancing can refer to the temporal distancing of events in time. For example, events in the distant future are treated differently compared to events in the near future (Trope & Liberman, 2003).
2. Psychological distancing describes our ability to separate ourselves from people whom we dislike. Specifically, we create space between ourselves and someone else who we perceive as undesirable (Schimel, Pyszczynski, Greenberg, O’Mahen, & Arndt, 2000).
3. Psychological distancing is rooted in developmental psychology and describes how children create space between their actions and their immediate environment (Giesbrecht et al., 2010).

   by excerpt : ​https://positivepsychology.com/psychological-distancing/

  Meditating regularly can help you develop the ability to distance yourself from your thinking in everyday life. 

 And I often recommend painting as it shows the same healing as this meditation therapy. 

 A reward of creating psychological distancing is that it also helps to develop creativity. By moving away from a more concrete problem to an abstract one, we can ignore some of the parameters or boundaries limiting our solutions and find a creative solution instead. 

 ​ For that reason, there are many examples of artists who have overcome difficulties caused by their personal, social, political, and sometimes family relationships through artistic activities and sublimated them into another form.

  ​In other words, it is to quickly get away from the thought itself that is currently the most painful and complicated, look at the problem objectively, and come up with a more constructive alternative.

  ​When emotions are swirling, when anger rises in the mind and memories of the past swallow up the present, sometimes when anxiety and worry are constantly chasing after a tail, when you are in a state of overthinking, stepping back from all these complicated situations that's important.

  ​However, knowing all this, we know all too well that it is wise to calm the mind by objectifying the numerous conflicts and anguish in one's mind through a third person's eyes, but it is very difficult to put it into practice.

  ​However, writing or drawing can be very helpful in this case. If you look at the effect, first of all, you can reduce stress. Drawing with a pencil on paper creates an opportunity to free yourself from the thoughts that hold you back. You forget your anxiety while you focus on the creative process.  The visual arts use metaphor, symbolism, dynamic and creative methods to express human experiences in ways that language cannot solve and to help them find answers to the conflicts that arise.

 Next, it helps with mindfulness. Mindfulness refers to the ability to fully focus one's body's sensations, thoughts, and emotions on the here and now. You may be distracted when drawing or coloring, but if you keep focusing on art,  negative thoughts and conflicts will disappear. The creative process also provides opportunities for self-reflection. Gaining insight into the source of your worries is important because it is an essential step in solving the problem.

 Anxiety is often accompanied by reflective thoughts known as ‘repetitive loops’ with over thinking.  Repeating the same thoughts only increases suffering, and when you want to get away from painful thoughts and take a break, drawing a picture calms your mind while focusing your attention elsewhere.

  And above all, when you draw, you discover that life itself is like a mosaic. Just as small pieces of thought make one huge picture, by objectifying the abstract unit of thought, you can think about what kind of work the shape of your thoughts can make.