Ultimately, says Kaimal, making art should induce what the scientific community calls "flow" - the wonderful thing that happens when you're in the zone. So that means that no matter your skill level, you'll be able to feel all the good things that come with making art. The paper also showed that there were no differences in health outcomes between people who identify as experienced artists and people who don't. They found that 45 minutes of creating art in a studio setting with an art therapist significant lowered cortisol levels. Shots - Health News Start Fresh: 6 Tips For Emotional Well-Being In 2020 Cortisol is a hormone that helps the body respond to stress. In a 2016 paper in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, Kaimal and a group of researchers measured cortisol levels of 39 healthy adults. This research suggests making art may have benefit for people dealing with health conditions that activate the reward pathways in the brain, like addictive behaviors, eating disorders or mood disorders, the researchers wrote.Īlthough the research in the field of art therapy is emerging, there's evidence that making art can lower stress and anxiety.
And indeed - the researchers found an increase in blood flow to this part of the brain when the participants were making art. They measured blood flow to the brain's reward center, the medial prefrontal cortex, in 26 participants as they completed three art activities: coloring in a mandala, doodling and drawing freely on a blank sheet of paper. She and a team of researchers discovered this in a 2017 paper published in the journal The Arts in Psychotherapy. "Which means that you feel good and it's perceived as a pleasurable experience." Studies show that despite those fears, "engaging in any sort of visual expression results in the reward pathway in the brain being activated," says Kaimal. What are you going to make? What kind of materials should you use? What if you can't execute it? What if it. It activates the reward center of our brainįor a lot of people, making art can be nerve-wracking. "It is preparing us to imagine possibilities and hopefully survive those possibilities." "This act of imagination is actually an act of survival," she says. Through that session and through creating art, says Kaimal, the student was able to imagine possibilities and see a future beyond the present moment in which she was despairing and depressed. NPR Ed Art Studio Helps Adults With Disabilities Turn Their Passion Into A Career
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