Option # 14 in the March This or That? Challenges gives you the choice of creating a layout inspired by either the phrase Green Thumb or Feeling Blue. Next week, we’ll talk about kit options for green thumb layouts; but if you’re in the mood for some art journaling, creative therapy, or to dig deep and pour out the sadness, anxiety, depression, adversity, or grief from your heart to the page, this post is for you.

When you create a scrapbook page about your emotions, your struggles, your anxieties or your grief, you are actually participating in a form of art therapy. “Art therapy improves the mental health of people who are dealing with addictions, anxiety, attention disorders, grief and loss, dementia, depression, eating disorders, physical illness, PTSD, trauma, relationship issues and much more,” writes Mary Ann Cohen.

An article in Psychology Today asserts, “Art therapy helps [people] explore their emotions, improve self-esteem, manage addictions, relieve stress, improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, and cope with a physical illness or disability.” Marriage & family therapist Douglas Mitchell writes, “The simple act of a scribble on paper can likely bring to light darkness, ignite conversation, or be a release for a depressing thought.” And best of all, creating art has been shown to stimulate the release of dopamine. the feel-good neurotransmitter.

I pored over the Shoppe to find kits and cards you can use to create layouts about “feeling blue”: adversity, sadness, depression, anxiety, moods, and grief. Have a look – and be sure to scroll to the end of this post, where you’ll find a series of quotes on this topic you can use on your next layout.

Quotes about Adversity, Sadness, Depression, and Anxiety for your next layout:

Sometimes when our emotions are intense, it can be hard to find the words to express how we’re feeling. That’s when using someone else’s words can be most helpful. Here are a series of quotes – some attributed, many anonymous – you can use on your next art journaling layout:

Adversity:

• A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.
• Learning is a gift, even when pain is your teacher.
• On particularly rough days when I’m sure I can’t possibly endure, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100%, and that’s pretty good.
• Stay strong, your story isn’t over yet.

Sadness:

• Feelings are much like waves. We can’t stop them from coming, but we can choose which ones to surf.
• People cry, not because they’re weak. It’s because they’ve been strong for too long.
• “It’s in the darkest moments that we find our greatest strengths.” -Steven Atchson
• Being strong doesn’t mean you don’t feel pain. It means you feel it and try to understand it so you can grow from it.
• These painful feelings aren’t permanent. There are better times ahead.
• “The worst kind of sad is not being able to explain why.”
• “People keep telling me that life goes on, but to me that’s the saddest part.”
• “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.- Margaret Mitchell

Depression:

• I have depression. But I prefer to say, “I battle depression” instead of “I suffer” with it. Because depression hits, but I hit back. Battle on.
• And if today all you did was hold yourself together, I’m proud of you.
• “I am bent, but not broken. I am scarred, but not disfigured. I am sad, but not hopeless. I am tired, but not powerless. I am angry, but not bitter. I am depressed, but not giving up.”
• “Depression is being colorblind and constantly told how colorful the world is.”
• “I wanted to write down exactly what I felt but somehow the paper stayed empty and I could not have described it any better.”
• “Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A bruise in your mind. You just got to be careful not to touch it where it hurts. It’s always there though.” – Jeffrey Eugenides
• “I miss me. The old me, the happy me, the bright me, the smiling me, the laughing me, the gone me.”
• “When you have depression simply existing is a full-time job.”
• “Nobody ever tells you that emptiness weighs the most.”
• “I’m exhausted from trying to be stronger than I feel.”
• ”I know what it’s like to be afraid of your own mind.”

Anxiety:

• “Worry is a down payment on a problem you may never have.”
• “No matter how irrational I may sound, it’s real to me.”
• “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” – Kahlil Gibran
• “How do you run away from things that are in your head?”
• Anxiety is not being able to sleep because you said something wrong two years ago and can’t stop thinking about it.
• I literally have to remind myself all the time, that being afraid of things going wrong isn’t the way to make things go right.
• “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.”
• “Anxiety is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.”

Do you have a favorite quote about feeling blue? Share it in the comments below!