Art and Mental Health

When I was 15, I started doing theatre. You could say the timing was a bit late, considering it had been my passion since I was a little girl. Looking back, I can say that I have always been an artistic kid. I remember making crafts from colorful paper, shaping clay to make little animals, and drawing myself as people I wanted to be in the future.

The arts have always been a way of escaping the real world for me. For some reason that I couldn’t explain, I was always the happiest version of myself when I was expressing myself through art. As I grew older, I started to dig deeper into this topic. Why was art so calming to me? Even when I messed up the whole canvas, in contrast to my usual perfectionism, I still had fun.

The scientific explanation is that creative arts tend to decrease cortisol levels, which is the primary stress hormone in the human body. Drawing, doodling to be specific, increases your concentration incredibly. Have you ever been in a boring class and suddenly found yourself drawing or sketching in your notebook? Although it is commonly viewed as distracting, studies (Andrade et al.) have shown that doodling can actually help you focus on your primary task rather than shifting your focus away from it.

I would describe art as some kind of trance, a good one. It allows you to process and express your emotions in both non-verbal and verbal ways. Things you can’t even admit to yourself, you may find yourself discovering while you are drifting your brush across an empty canvas. You can find yourself in a character you are playing, find yourself on stage.

Performing arts specifically, when done with a community, can help you build social connections; real ones. Having people with similar ambitions around you can help you feel less alone and more supported in your life and your path.

Art is not just aesthetics, paintings on a wall, or some dance moves that many people may not understand. It is how you express yourself, how you talk without actually doing so, how your body explains your thoughts, how you open up to yourself and others. Art may be the most humane thing one can do.

So, in your busy day-to-day life, finding time to have a little break and do art can help you maintain your mental health, learn more about yourself as a person, and even increase your productivity in your work and studies.

By Zeynep Bayındır

More on this topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CELlPQyGHok