How Art Helps Heal the Mind
Watercolor, Art Helps Heal the Mind, © Lydia Jayne Art LLC
Two weeks ago I put on my entrepreneur’s hat to write. Today, I want to wear my scientist’s hat. Ever since I can remember, both art and science run together in my mind. If I had to guess, I would say being home-schooled by my physicist/engineer dad and art/poetry-loving mom had a great deal to do with that. In any case, the two sides appeared to be at war since I can remember. Numbers vs colors, rules vs rebellion, structure vs freedom: my brain and schedule reflected a split. I won’t bore you with the details here, but if you like that sort of thing, check out this post.
Anyways, my final thesis in graduate school took up the topic of degenerative brain diseases and how art promotes health and wellness in individuals with them. I wrote this while writing and illustrating a devotional. I was also working as an inpatient medical-surgical nurse during the early months of the pandemic. You could say I like a good challenge. More than that, though, I hope you could see how God still works miracles in all our lives today (seriously).
Growing up, I used to wonder, why does art even matter? I was good at it, but I didn’t see any real usefulness for it. All I did was make things beautiful. But I wanted to do something important, like save lives (I wrote a little about why beauty does matter here). So I put art in a box and I pursued medicine. Why paint pictures when I could help keep a heart beating?
Fast forward to my final year of graduate school. I could finally write about a topic I personally needed to understand better: can art ever marry science?
Turns out, they can. And they’re passionately in love.
To get a little specific (though I will try not to go in too deep) Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) are degenerative diseases of the brain characterized by the loss of the ability for memory, cognition, reasoning, and physical function. People with ADRD account for more than 5.7 million people in the U.S.* By the year 2050, 152 million people worldwide will be affected by ADRD*.
Current research shows that people with ADRD who create visual arts such as drawing, painting and sculpture show improvements in socializing and communicating their emotions.* Research reports when people with ADRD spend consistent time creating visual arts, their overall health and well-being is better than those participating in traditional social activities.*
As you can imagine, increased well-being and health for those suffering from ADRD means decreased symptoms. It also means their caregivers stress lessens as well. Art therapy also offers healthcare professionals more treatments to improve the lives of their patients.
I discovered, to my joy, that art and science could not only work well together, they melded together to improve lives in tangible ways. The research amazed and inspired me. I suppose it’s why I opened an art business after spending almost a decade keeping my art in a corner.
Do you know someone who could use some more wellness and joy in their lives? Maybe it’s you? If I may make a suggestion, pick up a few art materials and play around. Even though it’s my job, I still goof around with art-making too. One piece of advice, when we do this, the goal isn’t to create with pressure to make anything perfect. We can give ourselves freedom to do it with the unbridled joy of preschoolers. They simply enjoy that they’re making something with their own two hands. I think that joy is part of the secret why art can help us heal. As Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine.”
*There’s a lot of information regarding this topic and I would love if it you reached out to me for the references of things I’ve found useful. Comment below or email me your questions!