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Ayanna Abdouch

Cunningham

British Literature

15 March 2019

Blog 4: Conclusion Reflection

In this project my partner, Julie Ovalles, and I were hoping to establish a decrease in

stress and other symptoms of mental health by using art and music therapy. It has been proven

that social media plays a big role in the lives of teens when it comes to mental health, and these

modalities are known to help reduce the chances of mental health progressing. We then figured if

we do art and listen to music to keep us occupied it will keep us away from our phones and

social media. In the process of doing this project I hoped that I could learn new ways to decrease

stress or anxiety. At the beginning we planned to paint at least 5 times in different places. Some

obstacles that we encountered was the terrible weather conditions so we couldn’t paint outside

and how hard it is to find time to do so much for this project when you already have too much on

your plate. First things first, we had to get all of our supplies to paint, then we had to choose

where we would like to paint. Since the weather was so bad we always either ended up going to

Sycamore Canyon or doing it in my backyard. We would brainstorm what we would like to paint

before we actually started painting. In the end everything came out well, as the pictures show on

my evidence page. One thing I feel like I’ve accomplished was that ever since we started

painting I am getting better at managing my emotions in serious situations. One thing that I

learned was that listening to different types of music while you paint can really change your
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mood. In stressful situations it used to take a while for me to hold my composure and now I have

learned to control that a lot better since we started this project. I am very proud of our first

paintings that we did because they are very intricate and more in depth and thought out than the

other 2. One thing that I wish we would have done differently was interview people who could

have better informed us on mental health. I believe that we did take steps towards solving a

problem because our project really shows how creative you can be without hiding behind a

phone screen and that it is important to branch out and do new things rather than sit on social

media all day. If we had more time and resources I would definitely consider learning more

about mental health itself more in depth than just the research that we did. To the incoming

seniors of next year, my advice to you is to not stress about the “big bad” Senior Capstone, I

promise it really isn’t that difficult as long as you stay on top of your work and make it fun!