How do Arts Support Good Mental Health?

Art is more than just an expression of emotion; it is also a tool for transmitting ideas. It can provide therapeutic relief, serve as a means of self-expression, or simply allow you to appreciate the beauty of life. Art allows us to document history, embody society’s values, and comment on political or social events.

Sparketh highlights the importance of mental and emotional wellness for people from an early age. Art can be an effective tool for self-care, assisting individuals in processing life events and developing positive mental health practices. Growing up may be difficult, and children and teenagers frequently struggle with communication and dealing with confusing or distressing situations. Regular artistic expression can help foster positive emotional and mental habits, especially in children and teenagers. Art helps young people process, analyze, and articulate complicated thoughts and feelings, and it can benefit their mental health in a variety of ways.

1. Art provides a constructive outlet for negative emotions.

Art can be a useful constructive outlet for negative emotions, particularly for children and teenagers who have not learned to express themselves vocally. Art requires the artist to bring their feelings out and make something with them, allowing them to process and express their emotions. The option of shutting down or acting out can help them deal with their emotions and create something new. Art may help children cope with their emotions and express themselves.

2. Art promotes self-expression and regulation.

In addition to providing a constructive outlet for complex emotions, art can help children and teenagers understand and regulate their responses. The contemplative element of creating art, similar to taking a deep breath, allows for reflection on what is going on inside. When children and teenagers use art to express complex emotions, they may discover that the process of creating allows them to relax and become more objective about their thoughts and feelings.

Furthermore, it may be easier for children and teenagers to draw or paint their emotions rather than try to express them verbally. Being able to rely on a tool like art to process what they are feeling may be an essential mental health tool, as well as a core aspect of emotional development, for kids and teens.

3. Art allows children to communicate more comfortably.

Art makes it simpler not just to communicate with ourselves about tough thoughts and feelings but also to talk about them with others.

Art has always been a vital instrument for communication. This isn’t only true for visual art; it applies to almost all art genres. For millennia, people have used visual art, performing arts, and creative writing (such as stories, poetry, and song lyrics) to express things that were difficult to express (or potentially difficult for others to hear) directly. One of the reasons why art therapy is so popular among therapists who work with children and teenagers is its ability to express challenging concepts more comfortably. Sometimes art is simply a more comfortable way for children or teenagers to speak, and learning to communicate is an essential component of everyone’s mental health toolkit.

4. Art teaches children about different perspectives.

Learning to perceive things from multiple perspectives (and even reframing our own) can be quite helpful in understanding how we think and feel. Furthermore, it can help you maintain strong relationships with people, which is beneficial to your mental health! Making art on a regular basis is a terrific approach to practicing “shifting perspective” and becoming comfortable with looking at familiar things in a new light.

When you are concentrated on creating art, particularly precise drawings, you begin to see things differently. Going into “art mode” might temporarily alter your perspective and style of thinking. Art classes can enhance this perspective-shifting experience by teaching children about art history. Some programs (such as this one on Sparketh) allow children to experiment with styles from many creative movements, giving them a deeper understanding of other worldviews and historical viewpoints. Painting may provide a variety of strong hands-on lessons in altering perspective, whether by encouraging children to explore a new painting style or simply by paying greater attention to details.

5. Art can help build confidence and identity.

Everyone deserves the freedom to choose and be creative. However, children and teenagers do not have as many opportunities to make their own decisions. When children create art, they experience the satisfaction of making their own choices (in a safe environment) and creating something wholly unique as a consequence. Creating art provides enormous freedom and a sense of fulfillment. As children and teenagers practice painting regularly, they begin to find which options work best for them and which do not, which can help them learn more about their distinctive art style. For many artistic children and teenagers, this can be critical to developing confidence and an independent sense of self.

Art helps children and teenagers discover more about themselves and feel secure in their identities by strengthening creative thinking abilities and delivering a valuable sense of success. One of the most challenging aspects of growing up is figuring out who we are and feeling comfortable about it.

6. Art promotes cognitive superpowers.

Art has been demonstrated to provide numerous cognitive benefits for people of all ages, including improved focus, mental flexibility, memory, and critical thinking skills. Because painting is a complex cognitive activity that requires constant decision-making, research suggests that creating art rewires your brain (see this Dartmouth College study for more information).

Essentially, the decisions you make when making art on a regular basis generate new connections between the brain’s hemispheres. This is supposed to increase psychological resilience and boost memory. Dr. Arnold Bresky used art therapy with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients and reported a 70% success rate in memory improvement!

There is still much to learn about why art appears to give our brains superpowers, but the fact remains: it does. This is something that children, teenagers, and adults (including the elderly) should and should think about when it comes to self-care and mental health.

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