THE MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF ART

Art is a desire to express ourselves, an innate gift that every person possesses. Many people think that they are incapable of any artistic qualities. They perceive art as the ability to make inspirational, breath-taking paintings or sculptures. This is a common misconception that has yet to be debunked. Art can be as simple as the way you dance moving your limbs in different patterns or the way you cook that is unique to you and that you find satisfying. Art is the ability to do something in a unique way that ultimately gives you satisfaction. This, however, does not mean that you are going to always be successful. It takes cumulative steps of learning and discovering more about yourself because that is what art, essentially, is you.

What are the benefits of painting as an art?

Ask any painter you know this question and they will probably give you the same answer, freedom. When you are in front of a canvas with a palate of colors you almost always have a feeling of getting lost and finding yourself at the same moment. It offers you the platform for analyzing your emotions and applying them as paint on the canvas, a little red here for some anger, some white there for hope and some black when you are feeling some uncertainty. All this is done without any logical thinking because art is just that. Opening yourself up and pouring your heart onto the canvas.

This then infers that art has a lot of mental benefits that have been tested and approved by therapists all over the world. Here is a list of various mental benefits of engaging yourself in art.

Painting as a stress reliever

Painting is a great stress reliever. Whoever has tried painting will tell you about its calming nature and its ability to push away all worries and stressful thoughts from your mind leaving you calm and at peace with yourself. People have more than 60,000 thoughts a day with 95% of them being repeated. Think of all those worries that most people have in their minds and imagine what an amazing thing it would be for you to sort them out or just push them away for an hour or two.

Most painters admit to being in the zone, a place where your thoughts don’t impact you in any way. It is some sort of hypnotic trance that allows you to organize your thoughts and emotions in a way that allows you to deal with them without getting entangled in the process.

Unlocking your creative side

Art encourages out of the box thinking which in turn allows you find solutions for various types of problems. When you paint you meet different types of obstacles such as: creating depth and perspective, mixing different colors to get your desired hue and other challenges that stimulate the brain making it more active. This process helps in the creation of new neurons that enhance brain function. Think of it as the gym for your brain.

 

Painting as a boost for self-esteem

Finishing your masterpiece can boost your self-esteem and increase your feel-good attitude by giving you a sense of accomplishment. Creating art and in this case, painting, releases Dopamine a feel-good enzyme that makes you happy and stress free. Study shows that putting up children’s paintings on the fridge increases their feel-good factor. This increases their self-esteem helping them grow into strong confident adults.

These mental benefits associated with painting are just a few of many. The benefits of art cannot just be explained in words, they are supposed to be felt and experienced. You can only, truly, know them if you pick a brush and a palette of colors and immerse yourself, heart and soul, on a canvas. Paint away!