Health & wellness benefits of art
Creating Art Relieves Stress
Activities like painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography are relaxing and rewarding hobbies that can lower stress levels and leave you feeling mentally clear and calm. Creating art gives your brain a break from your usual thoughts, trains you to concentrate on details, and pay more attention to your environment. In this way, art acts like mediation.
Art Enhances Problem Solving Skills
Unlike math, there is no correct answer in art. Art encourages creative thinking and lets you come up with your own unique solutions. Out-of-the-box thinking also stimulates your brain to grow new neurons.
Art Boosts Self-Esteem and Provides a Sense of Accomplishment
You may stick your kids’ artwork on the refrigerator to boost their self-esteem. Hanging your latest work of art on the wall can instill in you the same feeling. Creating art increases the “feel good” neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine has been called the “motivation molecule”. It boosts drive, focus, and concentration. Dopamine enables you to plan ahead and resist impulses so you can achieve your goals.
Art Increases Brain Connectivity and Plasticity
Every time you engage in a new or complex activity, your brain creates new connections between brain cells. Your brain’s ability to grow connections and change throughout your lifetime is called brain plasticity or neuroplasticity. Creating art stimulates communication between various parts of the brain. In this way, creating art has been proven to increase psychological resilience and resistance to stress. It’s thought that intelligence depends more on the number of brain connections than the size of your brain
Art Increases Empathy, Tolerance, and Feelings of Love
A study of over 10,000 students found that a one-hour trip to an art museum changed the way they thought and felt. Students who visited a museum showed increased critical thinking skills and greater empathy towards how people lived in the past and expressed greater tolerance towards people different than themselves. Brain scans revealed that looking at works of art trigger a surge of dopamine into the same area of the brain that registers romantic love.
Source: http://bebrainfit.com/ | The Mental Health Benefits of Art Are for Everyone | Deane Alban