This article from Lifehack about how a Study Says Art Makes You Mentally Healthier, Even If Your’re Not Good At It really rang a bell with me because I’m an artist who can barely draw a stick figure, never really painted, barely made clothes and jewelry with not much training and also who has a cortisol issue.
What the article found is that no matter your age, gender or experience with art, using three creative expressive mediums, 75% of the participants demonstrated lowered cortisol levels.
So even though you might not have the gift of an artist who can paint exactly what they see, there are many different forms of art – sculpture, abstract, collage, multi media, body art, photography and more. Art is an expression where beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No matter your skill level, you should give art a try like I did. Get out there and scribble on a sketch pad, get some aggression out by slapping some polymer or pottery clay around, even make a child like mess of some paint, slow things down by taking photos of nature with your phone or learn and get creative with video editing, audio or graphic design. Who needs a prescription when you have art? If we can be mentally healthier being creative, let’s go do some art!