Art Journaling for Chronic Illness

Before chronic illness became part of my story, I was a doer who could push through anything to get things done and be productive. I liked checking things off my to-do list. I like having the energy to create whenever inspiration struck, even if that was 3 a.m.

These days, things look a little different.

Living with chronic illness has taught me that energy isn’t something I can always count on. Some mornings I wake up feeling ready to tackle projects and spend hours in the studio. Other days, my body has completely different ideas. The worst part is, I have no idea which day these will be.

On the days when I don’t have the energy or my pain level is to high to work in the studio or stand in front of my easel, I still wanted to create, because the worst part is most days my brain has all these ideas, it’s my body that can’t keep up. So I focused on creative activities I could do from bed, the couch or my chair. Things that were simple for me, didn’t create additional pain and things I could do without making a giant mess or carrying around tons of supplies. Art journaling quickly became my go to creative outlet. But I did have to alter how I’d always done it. I was use to having a large desk with tons of paper, stickers, ephemera all spread around me where I could work on full page spreads. In bed or curled into the couch that just wasn’t possible. I also found that I wanted to take my art journal with me to doctor appointments because all the long wait times gave me time to create instead of doomscrolling. So I created a method of organizing my supplies into plastic folders and instead of working on full spreads I would just work on adding background paper, or an ephemera layer. I would work layer by layer and just jump around the many different pages of my art journal.

What I love most about art journaling is that it doesn’t ask much of me. It doesn’t require perfection. It doesn’t even require me to feel inspired or productive. Because it simply invites me to show up and to add stickers to the pages, or to glue down magazine pages or paper bits.

Art journaling offers permission to create imperfectly. Because it’s no pressure and the pages are always in a stage of flux. Even when a page appears done to me, one day I’ll come across the perfect sticker or ephemera bit and it belong on that page.

When living with chronic illness, there can be so much pressure on our limited energy. Hobbies can even feel frivolous or unimportant because we’re just trying to survive, but I’ve discovered that these small creative moments often become the very thing that got me through the difficult days. Art Journaling gives my hands something gentle to do when my mind feels overwhelmed and frustrated. The most beautiful thing is the journal adapts to me instead of asking me to adapt to it.

Over time, my favorite part is watching the pages fill up. It brings me such joy to flip back through old journals and realize that the layers tell a story about all I’ve survived. When I look through my journals now, I don’t see perfect artwork. I see evidence of a life being lived. Maybe not the way I used to and maybe not the way I’d thought I would. I see hard days, healing days, joyful days, and ordinary days. I see proof that creativity remained a part of my life even when chronic illness changed so many other things.

If you are struggling with chronic illness, grief, low motivation, limited energy, or simply struggling to find a creative hobby that work with your crazy life and limited time, I can’t recommend art journaling enough. Start small, just add one layer at a time across many pages.