Everyone can experience the benefits of art in some way, especially in improving mental health and brain function.

Art helps decrease stress and anxiety, increase focus, improve mood and enhance problem-solving capabilities.

In an American Medical Association podcast episode, psychiatrist Frank Clark said, “I don’t think you have to be a Walt Whitman or a Picasso, so to speak, or a Monet, to be engaged in the benefits of art. Just a couple of minutes a day can be therapeutic for people.”

One doesn’t need to be able to create masterpieces of art to experience benefits.

Coloring pages are a great example because they are affordable, quick and easy for anyone to do even without any prior art experience.

Every day, we engage with art without realizing it. 

Simply looking at art or seeing your favorite color can help improve your mood.

The term “art” can also include literature, dance and music which many people have access to and enjoy daily.

In my personal experience, art has helped relieve anxiety and increase my creativity and problem-solving abilities.

I often use it as a way to clear my mind when anxious.

The ability to draw or paint my feelings helps me express myself when words cannot.

Art also helps my brain because it breaks me away from more thoughtful and academic pursuits to instead focus on creation and the world around me.

It takes me out of my mind and into a visual world where I see what I imagined with each pencil or pen stroke.

There is something extremely pleasant about drawing my favorite characters from books I have read or shows I have watched.

Another art form, writing poetry, has been a great way to get my thoughts and feelings out of my mind and onto paper.

In a 2023 article titled “What Art Does for Your Brain,” psychologist Jill Suttie said, “Appreciating or making art involves using many parts of our brain — from those that process our senses to those involved in emotion, memory, and cognition.”

This means that art not only helps mental health but stimulates the brain and helps with memory retention and brain function.

Engaging with art helps open the mind to possibilities and think creatively.

This benefits us because solving problems is a part of everyday life, and we often need to be creative and think outside the box to do so.

We need to be able to imagine the solution.

Many studies also show how beneficial art is for mental health and the brain.

A study by the Psychology Department at Brooklyn College found that “drawing, regardless of emotion regulation strategy used, reduces anxiety.”

Another study posted in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association discovered that creating art “resulted in statistically significant lowering of cortisol levels.” 

This means that actively engaging in art lowers stress levels due to decreasing the stress hormone cortisol.

Psychologist Michael Posner conducted research in 2009 on art’s effect on focus and cognition.

He said, “It is increasingly clear that with enough focused attention, training in the arts likely yields cognitive benefits that go beyond ‘art for art’s sake.’ Or, to put it another way, the art form that you truly love to learn may also lead to improvements in other brain functions.”

So, next time you find yourself feeling down, need some mental stimulation or simply feel like trying something new, give art a try. The results might surprise you.