How Art Can Affect Your Brain
Art is one of Humanity's oldest outlets. There are Cave Paintings chronicling the lives of people so ancient they predate Civilization by at least 20,000 Years. It still holds strong today and it has some interesting effects on the Human Brain.Stress:
It has been shown that engaging in creative activities can help with high levels of stress and anxiety. This mainly takes place in the form of Art Therapy. This is open to everyone of any artistic skill level. This in turn allows people of any skill level to benefit from this relatively new therapy.Focus and Processing your Emotions:
Engaging in the creation of art in its various forms can actually help improve your focus. It can be easy, as you create a piece of clay pottery or a simple doodle, to get lost in the creative process.
Sometimes you can lose hours and your Brain activates a variety of neural networks and sends you into a more relaxed state. Allowing you to come back to issues feeling refreshed and at ease.
As well as your focus you can also use the same artwork to express and also process complex emotions. Sometimes words can’t handle what needs saying and art has the ability to transcend language. Not everyone in the world understands the word sad, but everyone understands a sad face.Increasing Blood Flow to the Brain:
Whereas the previous two topics focus solely on the Neurological side of the Brain, this looks more at the physical side. Blood Flow increases by up to 10% in the Brain when shown beautiful artwork.
This was studied at University College London by Professor Semir Zeki. They began the study by showing participants a series of 30 Paintings. Each of these from a group of well known artists. The experiment was personal as each Participant reacted in varying levels to different artworks.
This ‘Pleasure Response’ is fairly similar to that of when you look at a loved one. So even looking at art is good for you.Viewing VS Creating Art:
There is no real winner here, both have their unique merits. Examining artwork is easily done and researching local museums is worth it if you want a calm relaxing day. Gaining access to art materials is just as easy, all you need is a pen and paper.
Viewing art can trigger the Pleasure Response and Creating Art relaxes you and improves your focus. Perhaps the best move is mixing the two and enjoying the art you create. Anyone can draw, paint or create pottery. The people who made those Cave Paintings just enjoyed themselves and that’s the main take away from this Blog Post.Sources Used:
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