3 minute read
Medium for Healing
A Medium for Healing: Five Ways Art Heals
By Amber Robinson
As a disabled combat veteran raised by artists, I soon discovered the cathartic link between my personal healing and art. My living room is covered in abstract art, pieces done after each of my respective deployments then into the years after service as a way to deal with PTSD and physical ailments. Each brush stroke is an emotion that had to be expressed, a story my heart and mind needed to tell in color, shape and form, so I could feel whole again. I used paint, but you can also use writing, music, dance or sculpting as your special creative “language for healing”. What do you think your medium, or language, for healing would be? Below are five ways art can heal you, too.
1. Art Lowers Cortisol
Cortisol is a stress hormone produced by the
adrenal glands that helps us handle stress. When we are over stressed, cortisol saturates our system and can become problematic, making us very sick. According to a study published in Art Therapy Magazine, 39 healthy people were tested for cortisol before and after 45 minutes of art making. According to the study, cortisol levels were notably lower after participants spent time creating art.
2. Art Connects Us More Fully to Ourselves
According to that same study, participants reported that art helped them “explore different aspects of themselves.” Thomas Merton, who was a trappist monk and Roman Catholic Priest wrote about social issues, art included. He once said “art is where you can lose yourself and find yourself at the same time.” Through the carefree act of art making, you are creating new pathways in your brain by which you can discover abilities and insights that you didn’t know you had.
3. Art Promotes a Sense of Wholeness
According to a thoughtful blog on the Henry Ford Health System website, art is the only activity that forces us to forge a connection between body and mind. Through those connections back to dormant parts of self, we find healing, or wholeness. As mentioned, art helps to lower cortisol levels, but according to a blog by Oil Pixel, it also releases feel-good hormones called endorphins which help you combat stress and pain. Through that sense of contentment and fulfillment, you are transformed into a more positive, wellrounded human being.
4. Art Connects us to our Inner Child
According to a thoughtful blog on the Henry Ford Health System website, through art and creativity we are able to connect to our “inner child”, usually the part of ourselves that is most pure and unscarred. Mental and emotional trauma can change a person, leaving them with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress, like depression, anxiety and anger issues. The unscarred version of self is always inside of us. Art is like a magical key that opens the door to that person again. Art allows us to be new again.
5. Art Helps Us Express Damaging Emotions
Studies show that whenever we repress, deny, or disallow an emotion to be what it needs to be, our network pathways get blocked. According to a blog on the Arts Academy in the Woods website, sometimes stating how we feel about something isn’t enough for us to properly process it. For emotions to move through us freely they must be accepted and expressed. Art provides a myriad of ways for us to express ourselves when words may fail us. Dance, writing, painting and music are all mediums that can be used to express yourself, when words may not seem like enough.
