CNA – When Dr Frank Clark was in medical school studying to be a psychiatrist, he decided to write his first poem.
“All that chatter that is in my head, everything that I’ve been feeling, I can now just put it on paper and my pen can do the talking,” he said, recalling his thoughts at the time.
Back then, he was struggling with depression and had been relying on a number of things to keep it at bay, including running, therapy, medication and his faith.
“I had to find something else to fill the void,” he said. It turned out that poetry was the missing piece in his “wellness puzzle.”
“I saw an improvement in my mood,” said Dr Clark, who now sees patients in Greer, South Carolina. “It gave me another outlet.”
The notion that art can improve mental well-being is something many people intuitively understand but can lose sight of – especially if we have become disconnected from the dancing, creative writing, drawing and singing we used to enjoy as children.
But there’s a “really robust body of evidence” that suggests that creating art, as well as activities like attending a concert or visiting a museum, can benefit mental health, said research director Jill Sonke of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
Here are a few simple ways to elevate your mood with the arts:
TRY THE THREE-DRAWING TECHNIQUE
Psychiatrist and the founder of The Center for Mind-Body Medicine Dr James S Gordon pioneered something called the “three drawing technique.” It is featured in the new book Your Brain On Art: How The Arts Transform Us.
“In my experience, art like this goes beyond words in helping us to understand what’s going on with ourselves and to understand what we should do with it,” Dr Gordon said in the book. You don’t need to be good at drawing – stick figures are okay.
Start by quickly drawing yourself; don’t overthink it. The second drawing should show you with your biggest problem. The third drawing should show you after your problem has been solved.
This exercise is meant to encourage self-discovery and help give people agency in their own healing – and you can do it with or without a therapist, said assistant professor of neurology Susan Magsamen at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a co-author of the book.
COLOUR SOMETHING INTRICATE
If you are one of the many people who have turned to adult colouring books, it may not come as a surprise that research suggests this activity can help ease anxiety.
Colouring within the lines – of an intricate pattern, for example – appears to be especially effective. One study that evaluated college students, and another that assessed older adults, found that spending 20 minutes colouring a mandala (a complex geometric design) was more helpful at reducing anxiety than free-form colouring for the same length of time. Clinical psychologist Susan Albers at the Cleveland Clinic and the author of 50 Ways To Soothe Yourself Without Food, described colouring as a “mini mental vacation”. When we focus on the texture of the paper and choose the colours that please us, it becomes easier to tune out distractions and stay in the moment, she said.
“It’s a great form of meditation for people who hate meditation.”
ENJOY MORE MUSIC
Listening to music, playing an instrument or singing can all be beneficial, research shows.
A 2022 study, for example, surveyed more than 650 people in four age groups and asked them to rank the artistic activities that helped them “feel better” during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. The youngest participants, aged 18 to 24, overwhelmingly rated musical activities as most effective. Across all age groups, “singing” was ranked among the top activities.
Other studies have found that singing reduces levels of cortisol, a hormone that the body releases when it is under stress. As one example, mothers who had recently given birth and regularly sang to their babies had less anxiety.
Magsamen noted that music can be effective at reducing stress because things like rhythm and repetitive lyrics and chords engage multiple regions of the brain.
“I sing in the shower,” Magsamen said. “I sing at the top of my lungs to the radio.”
