In 2010, the American Journal of Public Health published a review titled, The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health. You can find it here.
In that article, researchers analyzed more than 100 studies about the impact of art on your health and your ability to heal yourself. The studies included everything from music and writing to dance and the visual arts.
As an example, here are the findings from five visual arts studies mentioned in that review (visual arts includes things like painting, drawing, photography, pottery, and textiles). Each study examined more than 30 patients who were battling chronic illness and cancer.
Here’s how the researchers described the impact that visual art activities had on the patients…
“Art filled occupational voids, distracted thoughts of illness”
“Improved well–being by decreasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones”
“Improved medical outcomes, trends toward reduced depression”
“Reductions in stress and anxiety; increases in positive emotions”
“Reductions in distress and negative emotions”
“Improvements in flow and spontaneity, expression of grief, positive identity, and social networks”
I don’t know about you, but I think the benefits listed above sound like they would be great not just for patients in hospitals, but for everyone. Who wouldn’t want to reduce stress and anxiety, increase positive emotions, and reduce the likelihood of depression?
Furthermore, the benefits of art aren’t merely “in your head.”
The impact of art, music, and writing can be seen in your physical body as well. In fact, this study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine used writing as a treatment for HIV patients found that writing resulted in “improvements of CD4+ lymphocyte counts.”
That’s the fancy way of saying: the act of writing actually impacted the cells inside the patient’s body and improved their immune system.
In other words, the process of creating art doesn’t just make you feel better, it also creates real, physical changes inside your body.
Create More Than You Consume
The moral of this story is that the process of making art — whether that be writing, painting, singing, dancing, or anything in between — is good for you.
There are both physical and mental benefits from creating art, expressing yourself in a tangible way, and sharing something with the world. I’m trying to do more of it each week, and I’d encourage you to do the same.
In our always–on, always–connected world of television, social media, and on–demand everything, it can be stupidly easy to spend your entire day consuming information and simply responding to all of the inputs that bombard your life.
Art offers an outlet and a release from all of that. Take a minute to ignore all of the incoming signals and create an outgoing one instead. Produce something. Express yourself in some way. As long as you contribute rather than consume, anything you do can be a work of art.
Open a blank document and start typing. Put pen to paper and sketch a drawing. Grab your camera and take a picture. Turn up the music and dance. Start a conversation and make it a good one.
Build something. Share something. Craft something. Make more art. Your health and happiness will improve and we’ll all be better off for it.
Arts
and creativity are essential elements in our life and I believe everyone should
consider it seriously. Have you ever seen even one person who has never
had this itching desire to create something, to draw or paint, to sing, to
dance, to paly an instrument, to write a poem, a story or to make a craft? I’ve
never seen even one person who has no yearning for art making but I have seen
many fearful people afraid of talking or even thinking about arts. Many blocked
artists think they are not talented enough, not having enough time, too old to
start, have too many responsibilities, or those who reject art-making even more
harshly, believing arts gets you no where, or it’s just wasting time.
Limiting beliefs, fear of failure and rejection make us to restrain our imagination and ignoring our inner artist and our
deep desire to create.
Since
2015 I’ve been running Art workshops called Art-Empowers for general participants encouraging
everyone to create freely and experience the benefit of the craft. The aim is
to empower people through Art and bringing awareness to mental health and
wellbeing. Through different practice including interactive theater games,
story telling, drawing and digital media everyone has the opportunity to
discover inner talent while enjoying the creative process.
“Inside you there’s an artist you don’t know about… say yes quickly, if you know, if you’ve known it from before the beginning of the universe.” Rumi
Dr
Christina Davis discuss her recent research the Art of Being Mentally Healthy
“Do you relax by playing a musical instrument,
reading a novel, singing or painting? Have your mind and body ‘worked out’
while dancing? Do you delight in a good concert, play, movie or exhibition?
Stop and think about how these behaviours affect your mental wellbeing. With an
emphasis on enjoyment, relaxation, social inclusion and the ability to improve
resilience, confidence and self-esteem, an arts-mental health paradigm has the
potential to deliver major public health benefits.
The Art of Being
Mentally Healthy was recently published in BMC Public Health.
The award-winning study is the first internationally to quantify the
arts-mental health relationship and provides evidence of an association between
mental wellbeing and 2 hours per week of arts engagement in the general
population.
For the purpose of the study, ‘Arts engagement’ was
defined as the art people do as part of their everyday lives for enjoyment,
entertainment or as a hobby (i.e. recreational arts rather than art therapy).
A random sample of 702 Western Australian adults
aged 18+ years were invited to take part in the study via telephone survey
(response= 71%). The survey took 15 minutes to complete and included questions
about mental well-being and arts engagement over the previous 12 months.
After adjustment for age, gender, location, income,
education, marital status, children, general health, sports engagement,
religious activities and holidays, results showed that:
•people with 100 or more hours
per year of arts engagement (i.e. at least 2hrs per week) had significantly
better mental wellbeing than those with none or lower levels of
engagement.
•The relationship between arts
engagement and mental wellbeing was nonlinear with evidence of a minimum
threshold at 100 or more hours per year (i.e. at least 2hrs/week).
This is the first study to quantify the
relationship between recreational arts engagement and mental health in a
general population.
The quantification of the arts-mental health is
relationship is of value to:
1artists, health professionals,
clinicians and researchers interested in utilising the arts as a method for improving
mental health in the general population;
2artists, health promoters,
policy makers, arts organisations and health organisations in the development
of population based health messages, policy and practice; and
3members of the general public
in maintaining or improving their own wellbeing.
Arts activities and events have the potential to
contribute to health promotion strategies and have implications for innovative
public health policy and practice.
A good story can make or break a presentation, article, or conversation. But why is that? Here I would like to share the science of why storytelling is so uniquely powerful.
In 1748, the British politician and aristocrat John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, spent a lot of his free time playing cards. He greatly enjoyed eating a snack while still keeping one hand free for the cards. So he came up with the idea to eat beef between slices of toast, which would allow him to finally eat and play cards at the same time. Eating his newly invented "sandwich," the name for two slices of bread with meat in between, became one of the most popular meal inventions in the western world.
What's interesting about this is that you are very likely to never forget the story of who invented the sandwich ever again. Or at least, much less likely to do so, if it would have been presented to us in bullet points or other purely information-based form.
For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods. Recently a good friend of mine gave me an introduction to the power of storytelling, and I wanted to learn more.
Here is the science around storytelling and how we can use it to make better decisions every day:
Our brain on stories: How our brains become more active when we tell stories
We all enjoy a good story, whether it's a novel, a movie, or simply something one of our friends is explaining to us. But why do we feel so much more engaged when we hear a narrative about events?
It's in fact quite simple. If we listen to a powerpoint presentation with boring bullet points, a certain part in the brain gets activated. Scientists call this Broca's area and Wernicke's area. Overall, it hits our language processing parts in the brain, where we decode words into meaning. And that's it, nothing else happens.
When we are being told a story, things change dramatically. Not only are the language processing parts in our brain activated, but any other area in our brain that we would use when experiencing the events of the story are too.
If someone tells us about how delicious certain foods were, our sensory cortex lights up. If it's about motion, our motor cortex gets active:
"Metaphors like "The singer had a velvet voice" and "He had leathery hands" roused the sensory cortex. […] Then, the brains of participants were scanned as they read sentences like "John grasped the object" and "Pablo kicked the ball." The scans revealed activity in the motor cortex, which coordinates the body's movements."
A story can put your whole brain to work. And yet, it gets better:
When we tell stories to others that have really helped us shape our thinking and way of life, we can have the same effect on them too. The brains of the person telling a story and listening to it can synchronize, says Uri Hasson from Princeton:
"When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story, and their brains synchronized. When she had activity in her insula, an emotional brain region, the listeners did too. When her frontal cortex lit up, so did theirs. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners' brains."
Anything you've experienced, you can get others to experience the same. Or at least, get their brain areas that you've activated that way, active too:
Evolution has wired our brains for storytelling—how to make use of it
Now all this is interesting. We know that we can activate our brains better if we listen to stories. The still unanswered question is: Why is that? Why does the format of a story, where events unfold one after the other, have such a profound impact on our learning?
The simple answer is this: We are wired that way. A story, if broken down into the simplest form, is a connection of cause and effect. And that is exactly how we think. We think in narratives all day long, no matter if it is about buying groceries, whether we think about work or our spouse at home. We make up (short) stories in our heads for every action and conversation. In fact, Jeremy Hsu found [that] "personal stories and gossip make up 65% of our conversations."
Now, whenever we hear a story, we want to relate it to one of our existing experiences. That's why metaphors work so well with us. While we are busy searching for a similar experience in our brains, we activate a part called insula, which helps us relate to that same experience of pain, joy, or disgust.
The following graphic probably describes it best:
In a great experiment, John Bargh at Yale found the following:
"Volunteers would meet one of the experimenters, believing that they would be starting the experiment shortly. In reality, the experiment began when the experimenter, seemingly struggling with an armful of folders, asks the volunteer to briefly hold their coffee. As the key experimental manipulation, the coffee was either hot or iced. Subjects then read a description of some individual, and those who had held the warmer cup tended to rate the individual as having a warmer personality, with no change in ratings of other attributes."
We link up metaphors and literal happenings automatically. Everything in our brain is looking for the cause and effect relationship of something we've previously experienced.
Let's dig into some hands on tips to make use of it:
Exchange giving suggestions for telling stories
Do you know the feeling when a good friend tells you a story and then two weeks later, you mention the same story to him, as if it was your idea? This is totally normal and at the same time, one of the most powerful ways to get people on board with your ideas and thoughts. According to Uri Hasson from Princeton, a story is the only way to activate parts in the brain so that a listener turns the story into their own idea and experience.
The next time you struggle with getting people on board with your projects and ideas, simply tell them a story, where the outcome is that doing what you had in mind is the best thing to do. According to Princeton researcher Hasson, storytelling is the only way to plant ideas into other people's minds.
Write more persuasively—bring in stories from yourself or an expert
This is something that took me a long time to understand. If you start out writing, it's only natural to think "I don't have a lot of experience with this, how can I make my post believable if I use personal stories?" The best way to get around this is by simply exchanging stories with those of experts. When this blog used to be a social media blog, I would ask for quotes from the top folks in the industry or simply find great passages they had written online. It's a great way to add credibility and at the same time, tell a story.
The simple story is more successful than the complicated one
When we think of stories, it is often easy to convince ourselves that they have to be complex and detailed to be interesting. The truth is however, that the simpler a story, the more likely it will stick. Using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way to activate the brain regions that make us truly relate to the happenings of a story. This is a similar reason why multitasking is so hard for us. Try for example to reduce the number of adjectives or complicated nouns in a presentation or article and exchange them with more simple, yet heartfelt language.
Quick last fact: Our brain learns to ignore certain overused words and phrases that used to make stories awesome. Scientists, in the midst of researching the topic of storytelling have also discovered, that certain words and phrases have lost all storytelling power:
"Some scientists have contended that figures of speech like "a rough day" are so familiar that they are treated simply as words and no more."
This means, that the frontal cortex—the area of your brain responsible to experience emotions—can't be activated with these phrases. It's something that might be worth remembering when crafting your next story.
Writer Lisa Unger has expressed a very positive attitude about it: “I live for the blank page.” With 14 novels, she certainly has the experience.
But what if you feel more intimidated and fearful than excited about starting on a creative venture?
Writing anxiety such as writer’s block can be fueled by self-talk and emotional habits such as responding to a blank page the same way you have in the past.
Author and writing coach Christine Kloser, host of The Transformational Author Experience, quotes some of her students about this experience:
“I have general feeling of anxiety when I sit down and open up that blank page.”
“I feel like I can’t keep excitement in my stories.”
“I keep asking myself is this good enough.”
“I don’t think have anything new or valuable to share, although I know my experience has been profound.”
Kloser points out there may be a fear of writing some kinds of material:
“Sometimes what you write will make you cry and a few of you write me about how you have this fear of the emotions that the writing brings up.
“You’re writing about perhaps some clearing some things that had happened in the past that were really painful to go through and the releasing of them on the page for the purpose of serving your reader through those same, narrow paths.”
Preparing for the meeting with the blank page
Kloser thinks there is a value, even necessity, for preparing ourself internally, and thinking of this as a “meeting, and it is a meeting with the blank page when you get there – it is not just, Oh, this is something I have to do…
“Sitting with a blank page is like meeting with a dear friend. It’s like meeting with someone who you love, care about, and who you want the best for.
“When you sit down to the blank page, it is not the cold, stark, distant, scary, vast nothingness. It is a meeting, a meeting of souls, a meeting with a loved one, a meeting with someone you cared about and you have something to communicate to.”
Begin with quiet
She has interviewed some of the bestselling authors in the world, and says, “In my experience most of them, I can’t say all, but I can say a good portion of them begin their writing with quiet first.
“They begin their writing not in the chatter, not in the pressure, not in the fear, not in the self doubt. They begin the writing actually in the quiet, in the question, in the opening to what it is that wants to come through you.”
She is also editor of a book series with interviews of transformational authors from around the world: Pebbles in the Pond.
by Douglas Eby
Wednesday, 2 March 2016
Why Getting Uncomfortable is the Key to Personal Growth
“The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” – Jon Krakauer
Not everyone is open to new experiences. There was a time in my life where I wasn’t willing to step into my anxiety and push my limitations. I only did what felt comfortable and only tried when I knew I wouldn’t fail.
Sure I felt safe and secure in my comfort zone, but I also didn’t feel fulfilled and wasn’t living up to my potential.
I was stuck in a rut and living a life on autopilot.
We all get used to doing things a certain way and have a routine that makes life more efficient. That isn’t what I’m referring to.
Having a routine and some form of structure is obviously important for many reasons. Building healthy habits and creating discipline can require some rigid routines.
However, when we stop trying new things and settle for a life of discretion and caution, we might wake up years later wondering how life past us by, and why we’re still in the exact same position we have always been in.
I believe we all need a little adventure and some intentional “growing pains” to really make the most of our life. As the saying goes, “no pain, no gain.”
The most simple and basic way to transform and change into a more powerful person is to stretch ourselves.
So, how often do you push yourself past your comfort zone? How often are you willing to fail and do things that scare you?
This can include all sorts of things, from taking up a new hobby, learning something new and exciting, meeting unfamiliar people, or traveling somewhere that takes you out of your comfort zone.
There are two main routes to grow as a person. One route is through knowledge and learning, and the other route is through experience and practice.
Learning, reading, or taking classes can help us to gather more information but we must use the information. What do you need to learn to help you grow? What knowledge or information can help you shift perspective and expand your outlook on what is possible?
Both learning and experience are important, however experience in my opinion is the true way to make change and grow as a person.
Just like the actor who takes on a challenging role that they have never done before, we too have to stretch ourselves to do what we are afraid to do.
We have to do some research, learn what we need to learn, and then ultimately take this knowledge and apply it in our life. The rubber has to meet the road and we must take action to make progress.
It can be scary to doing something new that will stretch our current limits.
We may feel afraid that we will fail or that other people will disprove of our decision, but when it comes down to expanding as a person stepping into this unknown territory is how we can climb past our plateaus and onto new heights! What can you do to move out of your comfort zone? What can you do that will really allow you to grow as a person?
As the New Year approaches it can be a powerful opportunity to start doing what you have always wanted to do, but have been afraid to try.
It can be a perfect catalyst to push past the resistance that holds you back and make the choice to start growing into your potential.
By JOE WILNER
Thursday, 25 February 2016
This bold statement that “making art…may be as important to your health as balanced nutrition, regular exercise, or meditation.” may had not enough support as there were few studies at that time. But researchers over the past few years proved that, "Creativity is a wellness practice and we now know there are numerous reasons to make it part of your “wellness resolutions.”
In 2010, a review of existing literature on the benefits of the arts (music, visual arts, dance and writing) by Stuckey and Noble considered more than 100 studies, concluding that creative expression has a powerful impact on health and well-being on various patient populations. Most of these studies concur that participation and/or engagement in the arts have a variety of outcomes including a decrease in depressive symptoms, an increase in positive emotions, reduction in stress responses, and, in some cases, even improvements in immune system functioning; visual art therapy, for example, is trending toward many of these health gains and more. Even engagement in the arts as a viewer can have an impact, but if you really want to benefit from the arts for wellness, studies continue to show that your active participation is the best bet (Bolwerk et al, 2014).
As of 2015, additional studies indicate that creative self-expression and exposure to the arts have wide-ranging effects on not only cognitive and psychosocial health, but also physical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, various forms of dementia and cancer. One of the most compelling studies was recently conducted by the Mayo Clinic and proposed that people who engage in art activities (painting, drawing and sculpting; crafts, like woodworking, pottery, ceramics, quilting, quilling and sewing) in middle and old age may delay cognitive decline in very old age. These findings underscore the idea that it is possible to build a “cognitive reserve” through engaging in novel, creative experiences that have a protective effect on the brain. According to the principle investigator, “Our study supports the idea that engaging the mind may protect neurons, or the building blocks of the brain, from dying, stimulate growth of new neurons, or may help recruit new neurons to maintain cognitive activities in old age” (American Academy of Neurology, 2015).
In brief, creativity is increasingly being validated as a potent mind-body approach as well as a cost-effective intervention to address a variety of challenges throughout the lifespan. While there are limitations to many of the existing studies such as sample size and research methodology, the overall outcomes complement what has been intuited by humans over millennia—that creative expression is good for us in one way or another. These simple wellness practices come in many readily available forms including the formalized approaches found in the creative arts therapies and expressive arts therapy, participation in arts within healthcare settings, and a variety of creative activities for personal self-care.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi said during his seminal TED talk in 2004
(link is external)
"When we are involved in creativity, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.” Building on Csikszentmihalyi's observation, I’ll venture to make one more bold statement about the power of creative expression and the arts as wellness practices—it does not fully manifest from completing an adult coloring book sheet. It's our capacity to actually "create" is where we begin to live more fully, experience transformation, and recover the core of what it means to heal. It is your authentic expression through art making, music, song, movement, writing, and other forms of arts-based imagination that are central to the equation of why creativity is a wellness practice. So go make something and be well.
