Many who don’t consider themselves to be gifted artistically feel that there is no point in creating art since they won’t be satisfied with the results. Another myth is that you have to work with an art therapist to get any therapeutic benefit from creating art.
But we are all born with an innate desire to express ourselves and art encompasses a wider range of activities than you might imagine. Here are some of the best ways in which creative expression can benefit mental health — making you a happier, healthier person.
How Creating Art Relieves Stress
Activities like painting, sculpting, drawing, and photography are relaxing and rewarding hobbies that can lower your stress level and leave you feeling mentally clear and calm.
This meditative-like state focuses your mind and temporarily pushes aside all your worries.
Hundreds of years ago, Leonardo da Vinci noticed that:
“Painting embraces all the ten functions of the eye; that is to say, darkness, light, body and color, shape and location, distance and closeness, motion and rest.”
Creating art trains you to concentrate on details and pay more attention to your environment.
In this way, it acts like meditation.