Mental health refers to the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being that is, how people think, feel, and behave. It is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, copes with the normal stresses of life, works productively, and is able to make valuable contributions to his or her community.

Looking after mental health can preserve a person’s ability to enjoy life. Doing this involves reaching a balance between life activities, responsibilities, and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Conditions such as stress, depression, and anxiety can all affect one’s mental health and disrupt their routine.

Art Therapy can be used as a complement to the traditional mental health treatment. The aim is to manage behavior, process feelings, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase self-esteem. Self-discovery: Creating art can help you to acknowledge and recognize the feelings that have been lurking in your subconscious.

Artist Copyright : Shruti Vij : [Dreamscpaes by Fashion Herald]

Why art is good medicine

Decades of research has demonstrated that in people with dementia and other progressive neurological diseases, the ability to create art remains long after speech and language has diminished.

Research has also shown that creating visual art can reduce stress and promote relaxation in people who are hospitalized or homebound due to illness.

Creating art not only heals the mind and the spirit but also the body since all are interconnected. It works on multiple levels to help a person to relax as well as restores and rejuvenates, bringing them joy and increasing their energy and enthusiasm for life.

1. Creating gets us out of our everyday minds.

Studies have shown the therapeutic benefits of making art. It is a meditative practice, putting you in “the zone”, with many of the same benefits of meditation, helping you to take your mind off of daily struggles and issues, lowering your blood pressure, pulse rate, and breathing rate, and making you mindful of the present moment.

2. Art is an emotional outlet.

Sometimes we don’t know how to articulate our, often because it barely makes sense to us. But maybe we can express that in a color, or a dance sequence, or a musical note. Art transcends words and reaches the parts of our spirits that have no language. Sometimes all you need to do is let that fear out where you can see it, onto a canvas or a blank page, where it’s easier to deal with than when it’s lurking in the back of your mind.

3.Art helps us solve problems

Making art allows you to play, giving you the freedom to explore and experiment with new techniques, materials, and methods, while also helping to stimulate new brain

Creating is problem solving. You want things to look or sound a certain way, and you figure out how to do that. Something isn’t right, so you find a way to fix it. Even if you screw up the whole thing and end up painting over your work, tearing up the paper, or starting over from scratch, look around you.

Artist Copyright : Shruti Vij : [Dreamscpaes by Fashion Herald]

Art helps people to cope during Covid-19

The arts help people to cope in dark times – even during a pandemic that prevents us experiencing art and culture alongside others in the same physical spaces. Art is a form of healing and recovery, and provides solace and therapy during times of stress.

It helps safeguard mental and spiritual health, and reduce barriers between people, cultures and languages. We look at art usually from the entertainment point of view, it is during such trying times that we realise its true purpose of connecting souls and bringing succour when little else can.

Though the COVID-19 crisis has had a severe emotional and economic impact on the artistic community, artists are regrouping and reinventing themselves for this new normal. Artists are finding creative ways to keep people connected during a pandemic that keeps us apart.

Many galleries now have online viewings, and artists are resorting even more to social media for showcasing their offerings. Musicians and singers have live-streamed concerts from home, with online audiences quick to show their appreciation with a deluge of likes, shares and comments.

People themselves have become amateur artists by sharing videos of their creative works – ranging from cooking and dancing to drawings and graphic art.

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Shruti Vij ( Writer / Painter )

For Dreamscapes – The Top Online Publishing Platoform For Poets, Writers & Painters In India

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