Engaging the Arts Helps Us to Thrive

by Suzanne Murray

I’ve long known that being creative has increased my sense of well being and satisfaction with my life dramatically. I have also seen this in the people I’ve worked with in my writing classes and creativity coaching over the years. Now I am reading fascinating book titled Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross that documents research showing how much this can be true for everyone.

Out this year, the book draws on cutting edge neuroscience and medical research to provide a wealth of information and insights on how engaging with the arts offers tremendous benefits to our physical, mental and emotional well being. This includes our appreciation of the arts, like visiting a museum or attending a concert, as well as our personal creation of art.

This relationship to the arts doesn’t have to be complicated or take a lot of time for us to feel the affects. You don’t have to be “good” at it. The authors site that “just twenty minutes of doodling or humming” reduces stress and improves our physical and mental state. Using a very broad definition of the arts there are countless ways for us to reap the rewards including music, singing, dance, movement, theater, poetry, writing, pottery, gardening, cooking, mask making, painting, collage and drawing.

Neuroscience shows that we are actually wired for the arts. We now know that our brains have the capacity to physically rewire and create new pathways in response to environmental stimulation throughout the whole of our lives. Being creative, as well as appreciating the arts, provide new experiences and an enriched environment that are good for the brain.

I’m only a third of the way through the book but wanted to share just how much evidence they show for the importance of engaging the arts in our lives. Creativity offers tools that can help us in these challenging times. A few examples of the research results include: In working with the arts our physical health improves including increased longevity; there are successes in dealing with pain; teens who read, even comic books, are less likely to get involved with drugs; the arts help mental health professionals get to the core of trauma to facilitate healing. It appears the arts are every bit as important to our well being as a good diet and exercise.

I think one of the reason engaging with the arts is so effective is that it brings us into the moment and satisfies some deeper part of our self. Like meditation, this relieves stress in the body and helps quiet the mind allowing us to feel connected to something larger than our everyday self. In this relaxation we can find a place to thrive.

How Ireland Supports Creativity

Every May for a number of year I have lead a small group of travelers to explore the music, myths, magic and mystery of the place, the people and the culture.

I am always struck for the support for the arts in Ireland and just discovered a poetry walking tour in Galway City that honors a couple of dozen prominent Irish poets.

One of my favorite stories about the support for creativity in Ireland comes from an experience I had in the village of Doolin, County Clare which has been the epicenter for Celtic music revival in Ireland. Some of the best musicians in the country live there and play in the pubs.

One evening I went up to McGann’s pub to listen in. At one point a young boy about ten years old joined the group with his tin whistle. I learned that his parents brought him now and then, a two hour drive from their home, to encourage his desire to make music.

As he began to play the entire pub went quiet and as he continued one of the experienced musicians picked up his own tin whistle to support the lad through the places he couldn’t quite carry the notes on his own. At the end of the song the entire pub erupted into wild applause.

What if we all got that kind of support for our creative urges? What difference would it make? In Ireland with this kind of encouragement people come together in pubs all over the country to make music. It is a vibrant part of the culture. Three years after first hearing the boy with the tin whistle I was back in Doolin in a different pub and the same boy stepped up to play with a great deal more skill than before.

It’s not just music that is supported. In Ireland up until recently writers didn’t pay income tax and still artists don’t pay tax on what they make on the sale of their work. This honoring of the writers and poets has produced per capita more Nobel prize winning writers than any other country. With a population of 4 million, Ireland claims four Nobel laureates in literature along with a number of other writers of great stature.

How can we find ways to support our children, our grandchildren and ourselves in this vital part of being human. How can we honor the creative gifts that each of us hold in our own way and the world so deeply needs now.

What if it was as simple as a willingness to open up and play with however the creative process calls to us. Can we honor these creative yearnings and find community that supports our explorations. What would this look like for you? How would it feel?

Can you sense of joy fluttering in your heart at your willingness to play and create for no reason and see where the process leads. That will help you unplug from the pressure of feeling like you have to produce something. Rather being creative feeds our spirit and inspiration and support can show up for us in wonderful ways.