Creativity and Mental Health During Times of Stress!
Art and Healing through Process Art
EVERYONE is experiencing vast amounts of stress at this moment. That stress is coming from so many sources ranging from health to financial to political. In addition, parents are having to home school their kids while working from home with no foreseeable relief in the near future.
How during times like this, do we find some sense of equanimity, ease, relief from the relentless anxiety? Is it even possible, just for some moments?
As a creative coach in The Art Process Studio, I have experienced first hand the powerful, calming nature of creativity and its effects on the body and mind. I have witnessed this through my own art-making, in the students that I teach online and in the homeless population with whom I have worked. There is a palpable change in energy that occurs even just a few minutes into the art experience. Because of my extensive meditation background, I bring whoever works with me into the present moment by guiding them through a process oriented art experience. They become so involved with the mixed media process, that they forget about the end product (and their stressful lives) while feeling the relief that comes with just immersing themselves in the creative act. The healing aspect of art is about the experience of creating and not the end result.
There was an Experience Life Study that was done that I found not at all surprising. To measure cortisol levels (an indicator of stress), researchers collected saliva samples from participants before and after creative work. The results, published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, titled “Reduction of Cortisol Levels and Participants’ Responses Following Art Making,” found that 45 minutes of creative activity significantly lessens stress in the body, regardless of artistic experience or talent.
REGARDLESS OF ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE OR TALENT!!!!! Did you hear that? Reaction to stress within the body may increase your heart-rate and elevate blood pressure. When people participate in art they have related feelings of relaxation and a sense of liberation, not unlike the effects of meditation. This experience is across the board from those who are just starting out to those with more art experience.
In a US National Institutes of Health, library of Medicine article investigated the link between engagement in the arts and holistic health, I came across this paragraph:
Chronic diseases are associated with psychosocial difficulties such as depression and chronic stress, contributing to negative cardiovascular outcomes. “Engagement with creative activities has the potential to contribute toward reducing stress and depression and can serve as a vehicle for alleviating the burden of chronic disease.”
I wrote a previous BLOG and fascinating link to a documentary on creativity and mental illness that you can access HERE.
“Kathy calls her classes The Art Process because she truly focuses on the process and not the final product. This is such a liberating and relaxing way to express our creativity. A day with Kathy in her beautiful studio erases weeks of accumulated stress. I truly consider this self care.”
click to watch
my meditative process