Art and Mental Health are two amongst the most trivialized things in today’s era. People tend to misconceive the whole concept of art and undervalue the existence of mental health. And somehow, this commonality of being underrated is what makes the two complement each other for the best.
The combination of Art and Mental Health might sound bizarre initially but makes perfect sense after gaining a clear perspective. And to perceive it clearly, let’s begin by separately understanding their essence.
What is Art?
The concept of art has been changing over the centuries and we can go about it in several ways. Art can often be contemplated as any and every kind of activity or creation that helps us express ourselves and intrigue other’s sense of emotions. It can be deep literature or mere scribbling, music production or sculpting, writing short poems to even dancing. Basically, everything that lets our feelings out through an activity can be considered as art.
What is Therapy?
Therapy is a process of treating one’s mental health, tension or stress rooting because of discrete life crisis be it relationships, career, self-doubt or any other hidden emotion you failed to understand. There are different types of therapeutic methods and of diverse degrees depending upon person to person. Also, it’s not mandatory to suffer from a mental disorder or any sort of psychological distress to be eligible for therapy.
Turning back to the subject, by now you might be able to draw the link between art and therapy. Amongst the multiple elements of art, one is that it’s the solution to all your confusing situations where you find it hard to express and explore yourself, the kind of situation which leads to disturbed mental well-being. Mental health is something which is even ignored by us at times. But we all need to acknowledge it before it takes over our mind. Your problem can simply be the issue of low self-esteem or high self-doubt and you don’t really need to see a therapist but just apply the concept of performing arts in the context of therapy. Choose any approach or media like journaling, sculpturing or maybe just colouring your heart out, what truly matters is that you feel comfortable and easy while doing it.
Self-expression through creativity can be very revealing and soothing. Creating art helps you take a stop and have a look back at what is up with your life and how is it affecting your choices and also lets you recognize feelings existing in the back of your mind. The therapy of art eases your emotions and releases your stress while working as a remedy to your depression.
What’s important to remember is, you don’t have to be an artist to perform art therapy but just honest with yourself and the inborn artist in you will wake effortlessly. All the answers you need lies within you and art is the door that lets you enter this lane of solutions. As it is beautifully said, “Art Therapy transforms your pain into beauty”.
