Art can make life worth living. Its beauty can invoke a wide range of emotions: happiness, sorrow, love, anger, and much more. Did you know, though, that art can improve your quality of life as well? By surrounding yourself with art, you can make your life much better than it was before. Here are a few ways it does so.
Healing and Therapy
Art is a form of expression, and that expression doesn’t have to lie solely in positive emotions. It’s a common method of therapy for many people, as art can be soothing and reduce people’s stress levels while giving them a chance to express themselves in their chosen mediums. Under the guidance of a trained art therapist, people can work through their medical and mental health problems while finding emotional, creative, and spiritual growth. No artistic skill is required—all that matters when making art is healthily expressing yourself and your emotions.
Learn About Happiness
Surrounding yourself with art can teach you about what you love. What aesthetics do you like? What pleases you to be around? Find images that interest you, whether they be magazine clippings or photographs, and organize them into categories. You can do the same with small objects, such as buttons or stones, and organize them similarly. Once you have your collection, examine all that you’ve collected: is there a common pattern? A common color? Why do you like these things so much? This will tell you your personal aesthetic; knowing that will make it easier to surround yourself with things that make you smile.
Art is Like Falling in Love
As mentioned before, art invokes many emotions. These emotions tend to make observers feel good about themselves, so much so that it’s comparable to falling in love. Looking at great work affects the same part of your brain that’s affected when you fall in love, creating a feeling of desire and affection that releases dopamine into your system. Viewing art is a pleasurable experience, which makes your quality of life happier.
Personal Experience
Through art, everyone is touched in a personal way that’s different from everyone else. A personal experience touches each person who observes art: the sounds, shapes, colors, and images they see or hear connects to their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions with their own experiences and reality. It’s a deeply personal experience—no two people view a piece of art the exact same way.