Art makes us Feel

Creating art is fun and enjoyable for many as they let their imaginations flow as many bring their inner thoughts and feelings into some form be it visual art, writing or performance art. 

Making use of our imagination to create ideas and thoughts that are aligned with the activity of bringing them into form can have a variety of benefits. 

Expressing Your Creative Side

Creating and making art engages your creative mind and can stimulate emotional and at times areas that can improve creativity and assist with more emotional balance. 

Creating art can produce a broad array of benefits that can assist us in a variety of areas including more positive feelings as the art is being created.  Improved attention and focus can also be a benefit when creating art.

• Our thinking and cognitive areas are engaged as we visualize images and ideas as they are incorporated into a work of art.
• Creating art can help with balancing emotions in many areas for many and even when going through emotional stresses in life.  Making your art can provide many avenues to express your feelings and connect your ideas and memories. 

Expressing Emotional Balance

Just viewing or reviewing your completed piece of work that you have created can make you feel good and can improve your quality of life to some degree. 

• This action can release hormones that can make us feel good such as dopamine that can increase how confident we feel.  These can be similar feelings as a child when we were so proud to show the adults in our life the art that we created. 
• Creating a work of art you are proud of can provide some level of achievement and feelings of completion on an emotional level. 
• Creating art can assist in managing stress in our lives.  Engaging in and creating your art can help to relieve emotional tension and reduce stress. 

When stress is reduced many who create art can go into a “zone” where ideas and their creativity appear to “go with the flow” and many lose track of time.

Art – Feeling Good About Yourself

Creating art is one activity (among others) that can assist you in feeling good about yourself.  Whether the art you create is visual art, writing or performance art expressing your creativity can help in a number of ways including –

• Bringing order to inner ideas that are seemingly chaotic as you apply these ideas into a form of art.
• Potentially assisting you in feeling some predictability in the form of having control of some things in your life.
• Creating and forming images from our imagination and focusing on our creativity can help to block distractions. 
• Some people can feel they are allowing their thoughts to slow down and concentrate in specific areas and others can feel they are in a meditative mode as they create art.

Experiencing other benefits when you are involved in something you really enjoy such as creating art are many. 

• Creating art can keep your mind sharp.  Being involved in creating art (among other disciplines) can allow new conceptual exercises for the brain which is necessary for healthy exchanges in learning. 
• Creating art can help to keep the mind engaged and razor sharp over time.

Many who create art can find themselves more relaxed as they focus their attention on what they are creating.  Some can discover new creative perspectives.  This focus can make them feel more present. For those who identify as artists and those who do not who may doodle here and there – no matter your skill level, everyone can benefit from making art.

Some acknowledge themselves as artists and others who create art may not imagine themselves as artists – in either instance releasing your creativity can be important toward feeling healthy in a number of ways.