6 reasons to start painting from the point of view of modern science

Have you ever wanted to paint? Buy all these canvases, easels and paints, and then start painting masterpieces that are understandable only to you alone? If you have experienced such aspirations and each time put them on the back burner as inappropriate and untimely, then it is completely in vain. Modern science claims that doing fine arts is not only natural for any person, but also very useful.

1. Being creative reduces stress and anxiety

In the course of the study, the results of which were published by G. Kaimal, K. Ray, J. Muniz. Reduction of cortisol levels and participants’responses following art making / Art Therapy in Art Therapy magazine, scientists invited the participants to paint. Already after 45 minutes, the subjects showed a significant decrease in the level of cortisol, the stress hormone. The psychological impact of various types of creativity is so pronounced that it is becoming more widespread as a therapy for victims of domestic violence, people who have suffered from criminal acts or suffered bereavement.

2. Drawing improves brain function

Art acts on our brain at the neural level. In 2014, the journal PLOS ONE published a scientific work proving that fine art can improve A. Bolwerk, J. Mack-Andrick, F. R. Lang, A. Dörfler, C. Maihöfner. How art changes your brain: Differential effects of visual art production and cognitive art evaluation on functional brain connectivity / PLOS ONE connections between neurons in the human brain. According to scientists, this helps us to better focus on the subject and learn new knowledge faster.

3. Fine art helps to overcome sadness and discouragement

Focusing on creativity really helps you forget about a lot of problems. If you want to escape from sad thoughts and experiences, then pick up an easel, paints, pencils and crayons. This was again confirmed by the experiment, the results of J. Drake, E. Winner. Confronting sadness through art-making: Distraction is more beneficial than venting / Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts which were published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Its participants were invited to watch the film "Project Laramie", which usually evokes very negative and even depressive emotions. After that, the audience was divided into two groups. In one, people began to discuss events from the film, while the participants in the second were asked to draw a landscape. Subsequent testing showed that the emotional state of the "artists" very quickly returned to normal, while the rest of the participants experienced depression and anxiety for a long time.

4. Thoughtless sketching helps you focus

Do not think that you can only get benefit from serious painting. Sometimes even mechanically scribbled scribbles on paper can help out in a difficult situation. For example, if you are sitting in a meeting or boring lecture, take a piece of paper and start filling it with some patterns. It is important to do this in a completely unpredictable manner, without any idea or purpose. According to the authors of the study J. Andrade. What does doodling do? / Applied Cognitive Psychology, this simple trick will help your brain stay focused and remember 29% more than if you just sat and listened.

5. Want to solve problems - draw them

Scientists have long noticed that it is much easier to find a way out of a situation if you describe it on paper. But the authors of this scientific work J. W. Pennebaker, J. D. Seagal. Forming a story: The health benefits of narrative / Journal of Clinical Psychology went further and asked participants to draw their main problems. The results exceeded all expectations: more than half of the participants said that after the art therapy session, their problems seemed to them not so big and in some ways even funny.

6. Drawing helps to achieve flow state

The concept of flow was proposed by Mihai Csikszentmihalyi and is defined by him as a mental state in which a person is fully involved in what he is doing. It is characterized by active concentration, full involvement and focus on success in the process of activity. Creativity is one of the classic ways to achieve this state, when the creator is not interested in any particular final goal, but is fully focused on the process itself.