P O W E R S T H AT B E
Just What the Doctor Ordered
NEW STUDIES REVEAL ART’S SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH AND WELLNESS By Elizabeth Chubbuck Weinstein Jordan LaHaye • Photos by Olivia Perillo abuse, and serious thoughts of suicide.” During a so-called “normal” year, anxiety levels for many of us tend to increase during the holiday season, affecting even the calmest of temperaments. Now that a new year has dawned, perhaps creativity offers a path towards a healthier 2021. Our unique capacity to imagine something and make it real is what sets us humans apart from other living beings. One need only look back at history to find a veritable list of ingenious and creative accomplishments: from the 20,000 year-old cave paintings in Lascaux, France to the 1851 opera Rigoletto to 2020’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, our creations originate within our minds. Humans are hardwired with the instinct to create. So, it should come as no surprise that our brains automatically respond positively when encountering aesthetic stimuli. When we engage in creative activities or simply have aesthetic experiences, we stimulate the vagus nerve, the main component of the parasympathetic nervous The study of neuroaesthetics explores the impact of artistic beauty on the human psyche and biological well-being. Various entities, including museums, hospitals, and arts-based nonprofits, are engaging in the interaction of the arts system, which is responsible for and wellness. Photo courtesy of the LSU Museum of Art. all bodily activities that occur magine visiting your doctor, dose of “happy”. The prolonged stresses when we are at rest. Sometimes referred and instead of prescribing you of the COVID-19 pandemic are taking to as the “rest and digest” system, it some sterile unpronounceable a toll on all of us, affecting not just the is the opposite of the sympathetic bottle of pills, he or she said health of our bodies but also the state nervous system which controls our simply: “Visit your local art museum.” of our mental and spiritual wellbeing. “flight or fight” reaction to dangerous or A group of physicians in Toronto are According to a Household Pulse Survey threatening situations. The vagus nerve doing just that, as part of a community conducted by the National Center is the longest cranial nerve in our bodies access program begun two years ago by for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the and carries an extensive range of signals Census Bureau, around thirty percent between the brain and many important the Royal Ontario Museum. Seems far-fetched? Increasingly, of the country is experiencing symptoms organs, including the intestines, research is showing that having an of clinical depression, compared to stomach, heart, and lungs. This means aesthetic experience such as gazing at around seven percent reported last year. the vagus nerve helps control mood, a painting or listening to music—or In addition, the survey showed that immune response, digestion, and heart better yet, engaging in a creative activity around thirty-six percent of people are rate, all of which have an impact upon like singing or drawing—provides a feeling more anxious about life right now mental health. The expanding field of study host of therapeutic benefits, ranging compared to around eight percent last from lowering stress and healing mental year. The Centers for Disease, Control examining the effects of art on our health anguish to improving memory and and Prevention (CDC) reported on a is called neuroaesthetics. This study fostering empathy. In fact, when we similar study performed last June which is at the intersection of psychological perform art-related activities, studies concluded that adults are struggling aesthetics, biological mechanisms, show that the pleasure centers in our with “considerably elevated adverse and human evolution. Scientists in brains actually “light up,” meaning that mental health conditions associated with this field are studying what happens to serotonin, better known as “the happy COVID-19,” ranging from “anxiety/ our biological circuitry when people depression symptoms, trauma/stressor- experience or create art, using mobile chemical,” is released. These days we could all use an extra related disorder symptoms, substance devices and “smart” wearable sensors
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to measure the amount of change that occurs in respiration, temperature, heart rate, and skin responses. Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, an initiative of the Brain Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In an article titled “Your Brain on Art: The Case of Neuroaesthetics” for the journal Cerebrum, she states: “The field of neuroaesthetics offers research-based evidence that a variety of arts-based approaches may work to improve quality of life, mobility, mental health, speech, memory, pain, learning, and more. Such interventions could potentially lower the cost and burden of chronic disease, neurological disorders, and mental health issues for millions of people.” These alternative practices are catching on. Mikhayla Harrell, Museum Educator at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, advocates for routinely stimulating the vagus nerve as an effective means to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Harrell is also a longtime instructor of yoga, which utilizes mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork techniques to help promote the “relaxation response” produced by the vagus nerve. Harrell says, “When we look at art, listen to music, or move our bodies in an artful way, we soothe the nervous system and then we are able to respond rather than react. People can program themselves [to relax]. It’s called ‘toning’ the vagus nerve.” When this nerve is toned, we manage stress better, have less anxiety, get more sleep, and generally attain all the good things that come from being more relaxed. Harrell brought a holistic mind-body approach to her work at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, which since last March has been offering free virtual wellness programs such as “Art & Zen” and yoga. In November, Harrell and her museum colleagues staged a Virtual Wellness Summit in conjunction with the exhibition Entwined Ritual Wrapping and Binding in Contemporary Southern Art. Tagged as “A Soothing and Uplifting Day of Free Art and Mindfulness Programming,” the presentation of virtual talks, tours, and guided art-making activities explores the connections between art and healing. In addition to art museums, cultural organizations representing a wide array of artistic disciplines offer wellness programs, often in partnership with
