With the rise of mental health awareness in our society and mental health issues increasing, it is important to know ways to help yourself and others when dealing with mental health issues. One way that can be very helpful for many is art. So, what is art? Art is a compilation of different things. It can be a drawing, a sketch, a painting, a piece of music, scrapbooking, graphic design, and more. The term ART is very flexible in its definition therefore making it easy for most people to find at least one form of art that they enjoy doing. Keep reading to take a look on how you can use art to increase yours, or others, mental health.
How does art help decrease mental health issues?
1. When you create art it actually releases a hormone called dopamine. Dopamine can also also be known as the happy hormone. When the boost of dopamine is released into the body, it tells your brain to act in a happy, pleasurable way which can fight feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. It also increases your drive and energy, makes you feel good about yourself, and it improves your concentration. A low level of dopamine has been connected to mental health issues such as depression, addiction, schizophrenia, and more. So an increase in dopamine, is an overall win for people suffering with mental health problems.
2. Another way that art helps your mental health is how art can help you to understand your mental health in a different way. The creative process that goes into making art, increases your self awareness of emotions, feelings and more. The way that this works is when you create things, you turn your feelings into a visible item. When your feelings are turned into a materialistic item, it gives you a better way to understand your feelings because it shows them you visually. This helps people who might not fully understand what the emotions that they are feeling and then it helps them to heal the negative feelings or emotions.
3. Art also can help you get feelings out. We are taught, as a society, to hold in our emotions, for the comfort and benefit of the people around us. This will then translate into people holding in all their emotions, wether they realize it or not, throughout the majority of their life. Often times, this is worse in females than males. When you bottle up your emotions, it effects your hormones, specifically cortisol. It also lowers immune responses, allows for mental illness to develop, and it intensifies the emotions that were bottled up. So one way to get our emotions, is creating art. Wether you realize it or not, when you create art, you are releasing your emotions by putting them outside of your brain.
FOR YOU TO DO:
If you're struggling to figure out where to start or you are in need of some inspiration, no worries, we are here to help you out. We have created an easy, adorable art project to do.
HOW TO DO IT:
1. Think about a quote, a belief to remind yourself, or something else that will inspire you this fall.
2. Grab a piece of paper and write your quote down.
3. Then you can collect leaves, scrap paper, sticks, or whatever else you choose to surround your quote.
4. Once you have the outer additions, place them on the paper, surrounding the quote and paste them to the paper.
Now you have created your unique piece of art and you have boosted your mental health by doing so!
HERE IS OUR EXAMPLE FOR YOU:
Our quote was, "TODAY I LIVE IN THE PRESENT". Around our quote we decorated one side with leaves, sticks, acorns, and small pine cones (pretty much anything fall like, that we found outside) and the other side with scrap, torn-up book papers.
OVERALL:
Overall, mental illnesses are dangerous and scary but creating art can battle those scary mental health issues. Not only will you enjoy creating the art because of the dopamine release, but you will also benefit your mental health by creating the art. We hope you found this post helpful for you and you will pass on this information to other people. REMEMBER: ART IS FLEXIBLE!!! There are many ways to create art so there are many options for people to find one that they truly enjoy doing or creating!
Comentários