When Did You Stop Making Art? Why Art is Good For Your Mental Health

At one point in our lives, we all made some kind of art. Whether that was when we were a child, or more recently as a hobby, or maybe you do it as a career. Whatever your relationship with art has been, it’s important to try and incorporate it into your life in some way or another.

So Lets Re-discover Art

The Many Benefits of Art

For many of us, we may not have touched art since school. But why did we leave it there? It has been well proven that creativity boosts our mental capacity. This means that we can be more productive with our day to day lives. Alongside this surrounding yourself with creativity and art can have a positive impact on your mental health. 

Improve your Mental Health with Art

Art has many benefits for our mental health. It allows us to sit down, relax and shut off our mind for a while as we focus on the task at hand. This gives us some much needed respite from the stresses of out daily lives. Alongside this we can use art to express our emotions and thoughts; giving us an outlet for those stresses within our lives. 

Create a Beautiful Environment

Once you have got to grips with creating art that you like and enjoy, you can start to display it. Use the art you create to decorate your environment. This creates a positive, personal atmosphere for you to exist in and feel at home. This way you can connect with your environment and hopefully feel more relaxed when you are spending time in it. 

I have spoken about the importance of interior design in a previous post. Interior design has an impact on our mental health. If the environment we exist in does not bring us joy then we will find it difficult to exist in it and enjoy our time spent at home. 

Not only can you make your personal space look inviting and beautiful, but you can also change the energy within a room. If you are negative within a space then it will always have that connotation for you. Through creating and decorating with art you can create positive connotations for your home, making it more enjoyable to exist in.

Where To Start?

1. Keep it Simple

It is important to start with the basics if you are new to art. There is no point in throwing yourself into a difficult project if you are just going to get fed up and abandon it. Stick with the things that you can do easily, as remember this is not a chore but rather an enjoyable way to spend your time. Of course if you find the challenge enjoyable then by all means take on something a bit more complicated; but this is an activity that is meant to help you relax. 

2. Get inspired

If you are struggling with where to start then I would recommend taking to Pinterest or instagram for inspiration. I have a board dedicated to art inspiration that helps me dream up new projects for me to undertake. Of course there are always other social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, but I find Pinterest to be a more accessible platform for this type of thing. 

3. Stock up on art supplies

It is important to get some basic supplies such as pencils, pens, colouring pencils and paper etc. Of course you can always branch out into paints and sketchbooks etc, but these are the basics. This way you are set up to begin easily.

Of course, art doesn’t have to require any particular skill. Just buying a colouring book and spending some time colouring it in can be considered art. This means that anyone can get involved whether you think you are good at art or not.

Tips and Examples from Myself

I have always known that I enjoy creating art. I didn’t take it as a subject in school from the age of about 13, but I continued to practice it at home as I found it relaxing. Recently I decided that I would like to get better at it and so bought a new sketchbook and some pencils and paints and started learning from Pinterest and some Youtube tutorials. I thought that this period of isolation would be the perfect time to try and improve my skills. Now I am by no means amazing at art, but I enjoy what I create and I see improvements all the time. 

Final Thoughts

It is important for us to rediscover our love of art and enjoy the benefits that it brings. However, we must remember that we are not trying to create museum worthy pieces. Therefore if something goes wrong or we don’t like something we have created, it is important not to stress about it, but rather enjoy the process and carry on.

Set some time aside in your busy week to sit down and enjoy some creativity, and maybe make something beautiful along the way.