It is known that art has a positive impact on our mental health and the reasons why it represents a powerful tool that helps us in our well-being, not only are there several, they also mean a great help to achieve a mental and emotional balance.
This is not just a collective belief, it is a fact that has been studied by different universities and organizations that support the positive impact of art on our mental health, an example of this is the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the different disciplines covered by art can help us in different ways each. Dance is probably one of the best known, since, apart from being an art, the body is exercised and therefore becomes a very complete ally that not only helps us deal with stress and anxiety, we also release endorphins that automatically make us feel better.
On the other hand, writing has been consolidated as a therapeutic tool that can be very effective to stimulate creativity, but mainly, to channel feelings, process them and express them. Sitting down to write carefully and concentrated about our emotions allows us to develop patience with ourselves, which is definitely also reflected in other aspects of life. Also, the more we get used to processing our feelings, the better we get to handle them.
Although creativity is essential in the arts, this is not a criterion or a strict parameter that gives validity to the art we perform in a therapeutic way. On the contrary, it is part of the world of possibilities that opens up the art in which we cannot fail when we try something for our own good.
Creativity is a resource that we can develop through the exhibition and practice of the arts, but at the same time, another very important resource can also be awakened and this is, artistic sensitivity. By carrying artistic in the name, it does not mean that this sensitivity is limited only to art, on the contrary, it makes art a point of connection between our feelings and the world.
Artistic sensitivity allows us to experience different emotions through art and get to know ourselves better. By being moved by art we can learn to identify and manage emotions, receive inspiration, comfort or hope. Therefore, it is recommended to visit galleries and museums, art transforms us in different ways and it is proven that it helps to lower levels of stress and anxiety.
The visual arts also have a great power that widely benefits our mental and emotional health, since it allows us to express themselves in a non-verbal way, therefore, we can communicate emotions that are difficult to explain in words or sensations that we find difficult to share. On the other hand, we can create resilience and tolerance by practicing with the visual arts, since along the way it is inevitable to make mistakes and little by little we are better managing the negative emotions that develop from it. In turn, improving over time brings gratification and motivation to continue obtaining results and these are aspects that we can apply to different circumstances in life to better manage adversity.
In the field of therapy, art is not only a personal tool, but also a professional one, for example, psychologists usually use it often and the versatility of art allows them to work with it in the way that suits them best and that suits each patient. A somewhat popular way of using art is as a projection tool; this serves for psychologists to make interpretations of what happens to their patients through what they do. This is very useful in patients with limitations to express themselves verbally.
Even if verbal expression is possible for some, sometimes it is necessary to be able to express yourself in another way when the words do not reach us or we are overwhelmed by what happens inside us.
At the end of the day, artistic creation is a reflection of our internal world and its interpretations of the external, many artists are clearer examples of this than others and the representation they left of their internal worlds, is still admired and studied, even after his death, like the unforgettable Francis Bacon. This was a plastic artist who used painting as a channel of expression of his raw and complicated inner world. Bacon had a childhood complicated by the appearance of the First World War and his adolescence was not better, due to a strong rejection of his parents for his sexual orientation.
For him, the best way to express his pain and his way of seeing the world was art, therefore, he consolidated a unique and disturbing style that represents him in an extremely personal way (there is no other like Francis Bacon). This practice was so important to him that throughout his life he made more than 500 paintings and an even greater number of drawings, proving how creation was indispensable to him. Like it did for him, art can provide comfort and help anyone.