I facilitated the Absorb and Release art activity with a group of middle school students in January. I modified the activity to invite students to reflect on the past few years, not just COVID 19, and think about what they have absorbed from their experiences and what they might want to release. Using a sponge illustration and pastel colors, students filled one side with words, symbols, or drawings representing thoughts and feelings they’ve been carrying, and the other side with things they’re ready to let go of.

At first, students approached the activity playfully by adding doodles, emojis, and short phrases. But as they kept working, the atmosphere slowly shifted. It got quieter in that thoughtful way where you can tell students are really reflecting. Words like “ICE,” “family stuff,” “overstimulation,” and “feeling stressed” appeared.

One student paused for a while before writing “being too hard on myself.” On the release side they wrote “fear of messing up.” When we talked about it afterward, they said that writing it down made them realize how much pressure they were putting on themselves.

What struck me most was how something so simple created space for honesty. Not everyone shared out loud, but you could see students recognizing pieces of themselves in what others had written. Moments like this remind me that when young people are given a creative and safe way to reflect, they will often tell the truth about what they’re carrying and sometimes naming it, can help them begin to let it go.