Category: Articles
5 Ways That Art Therapy Can Help To Heal You
Ever wondered what Art Therapy is and what it can do for your health? The drive to create is right within the average human. Creativity has no bias for age, language, sex, and race. Art is life and true to it, it actually improves life in its own unique ways.
What Art Therapy Is
Art Therapy can be regarded as an expressive therapy that makes use of the creativity in arts for a person’s health improvement physically, mentally and emotionally. If you can express yourself artistically, this can positively impact your health. It can help manage your behaviors, feelings, focus and help your self-esteem. The good thing here is that you don’t need to be an artistic genius to derive the benefits that come with Art Therapy. Can what you draw on a piece of paper, including clay molding and sculpture actually help heal your body and mind?
Digital Art Era of Therapy?
These days, it’s easy to enjoy art in digital form. Given all major art resources and digitized, you don’t even need to leave home to enjoy and admire it. But things can be taken to even higher level. How? With video content. That’s the case when we talk about controversial and socially kept quiet kind of art. The latest development of Brother Crush seem to be a perfect example of this. It’s video series of fantasy step family living. Two new step brothers, now living under same roof only to build a taboo crush on each other. Is it love, is it just sexual lust? That’s the big question, but it’s pretty certain they engage in a lot of risky actions, only to get caught later.
Here are five ways that Art Therapy can indeed help to heal you:
1. Use Visualization As A Form Of Arts
Self-healing can be attained through art making by visualizing what you want to happen. There are lots of things we don’t have power over in our lives including our relationships, health issues and more. Our inner power and strength come alive through the creativity of the arts. You can get healed through art therapy by highlighting what you want to happen in the real world through art-making as you draw, paint or mold out what you intend for yourself. Once you can dream it, then, it is possible to attain.
2. Use Creative Arts For Emotional Relief
You won’t be able to tell how much negative emotions have been accumulated in your body until they are released. There is something unique about sculpturing, painting and molding clay or instrument playing which are all different forms of art therapy. All literally lightens your mood and improves your emotion, relieves stress and gives internal freedom.
3. Dance Is A Unique Art Therapy To Explore
Dancing is comparable to having a group meditation. It takes over from where your wondering minds stops and connects you with the current moments and giving you the needed relief through sound and movements. Movements through dance have positive effects on general body well-being. It improves your physical fitness and helps your mental balance.
4. Get Fully Immersed In Art To Improve Flow
Engaging in Art making can help your concentration as well improve your focus. These all help your Flow. Flow is positive. It is the state where you are completely immersed in what you do. For instance, if you were drawing an image and flow comes in, you will find yourself totally focused on what is at hand and would lose track of time and every other worry you may have. At this point, you become inseparable with the artwork. As a positive experience, flow is linked to improving performance and happiness.
Use Art Making To Excite The Senses For Health Improvement
The process of art making involves the senses of touch, sight, and smell. Using these senses can be an effective way to soothe the body and mind. Most times we take some time out in the sun, swim and take part in various activities to relax the mind which is actually not bad ways too. The art making process can equally if not better give this soothing relief when fully immersed in the practice. Regardless of the art, you are involved in, whether stitching of fabrics, painting on the canvas, or pottery, your senses are on the alert and keeps you active and coordinated.
Every one of us has an artistic part of us that needs to be activated for our mind and body healing. You can explore the different ways to tap into the healing power that can be achieved through various methods of Art Therapy.
The World Can Be United Through Art
Art is a away of expressing yourself. See why digital series like FamilyDicks.com are the thing to show to the world!
How Arts Brings Life to Other Subjects Through Integration
Arts education has been known to be an integral part of a comprehensive education. However, when it comes to prioritizing in the budget, it has been noted that arts do not come at the top. Most of the public schools had to reduce their musical arts, performing, and visual programs due to recession.
This was in spite of the fact that Harvard joined in the institutions that have included arts in their medical curriculum. More schools are increasingly taking up the research as well as taking in arts as an integral part of the academic achievement in their curricula. Achievement in academic also includes self-confidence and creativity and this helps a school to have more pride and reputation.
But, wait. What is the real look of arts integration? A Russian arts work was examined by a certain fourth-grade lesson proved that arts is a critical part of the education system. Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian artist, helped the students to make their own works of arts through the use of various angles and styles. The students managed to identify the angles that they used and proceeded to identify them in their works of art.
Bobby Riley said that reasoning and higher analytical reasoning a well students voice augured so well with the works of art. Teachers are looking into ways of making sure that arts and other subjects are integrated so as to give the students more voice and confidence in their quest to express themselves through art.
It seems that the integration of arts into the education system is the surest form of differentiation since it taps into an array of various interests, forms, and abilities in learning.
Before the IAA school was pronounced to be a school that integrated arts and other subjects, only a handful number of students were able to pass proficiency tests in mathematics. After the integration of arts into the curriculum of the school, this small number rose tremendously. Even though the level of poverty in the school is still high, the concentration of poverty has decreased admirably.
It has students who yearn to know how to speak English since majority of them are non-English speakers. When the students are having arts integrated lessons, it is rare to have any referrals since most of the students are committed to their class work.
Even though IAA is still a preferred public school, it has students from very far off places. This is because of the arts model that the school introduced. The model makes it easy for students to learn and understand some concepts with ease. Most of the kids in the first grade were from the neighboring families but this has since changed. More and more wealthy families have joined in the bandwagon and they have been sending their children to go and study in the school. Even with the fact that most of the students walk to the school, the school still has a special place in the community. Arts makes the students to appreciate each others culture and to learn to live with each other.Arts is an integral part of education, not an extracurricular activity It suffices to say that arts is not a by-the-way subject in many schools now.
Artistic goals for learning have continually been held up as being equal to the standards of academics. Students and teachers are working tirelessly hard to make sure that the lessons being taught are integrated with art so that understanding becomes easy.
If you pick an area of study such as mathematics, social studies, or science, and integrate a form of art, you are literally connecting the two and it is only sufficient if you are able to integrate them so as to make them reliant on each other. Academic learning and training in arts is happening in most schools hence making the work of teachers a bit easier as opposed to earlier times. When a student engages his/her hands in learning and uses the brain to understand what he/she has been taught, understanding a concept becomes easy.
Teachers use various visual forms of art, theater, and dance. If a teacher was teaching in the former curriculum and he/she is integrated into the integrated system, the teacher has to be trained afresh.
Effect of Arts and Culture In Human Life
Uffe Elbaek, a former minister in the Danish government, said that the human race needs new ideas, new processes of doing things as well as a whole new approach that will help humanity to take each other with understanding and empathy. This is an indication that the rest of the world should now focus on culture and arts as a critical source of societal challenges. This is indeed what the value of life entails.
In 2012, there was the creation of the Future Generation Art Prize which was aimed at helping younger artists to be more proactive in global transition through development of cultural societies.
The creator of the foundation that launched the prize, Victor Pinchuk, said that he believes that artists can be trusted with the future more than analysts and politicians. This should be the position of arts in the world over. Some artists met with another group of humanitarians whose work is promote peace and social justice. They were discussing how arts relate with culture. More meetings were held in East London so as to lay more emphasis on the relationship between arts, culture, and education. It is important to point out that artists need to share knowledge and experiences with various organizations and educational institutions so that the place of arts in the society may not be compromised.
Art is certainly for humanity sake. It has come to the realization of many people that the planet earth may not be able to support many of us. There is untold rise in inequality and decrease in wellbeing. This has led to an increase in poverty, mass migration, conflicts, and a host of other societal problems. There is absolute need for people to act fast so as to erase many problems that are compounding each day. Everyone can flourish under arts and the field of arts is simply limitless. The only limit is a person’s imagination power.
No one is born with prejudice, hatred, greed, and bigotry. Each of these is a behavior that one learns along the path of life. It is therefore necessary to find new ways of dealing with such vices and creating an environment that fosters better understanding and propagation of human rights.
Arts and culture is one of the most dynamic methods and norms that can make human behavior change. It is able to increase empathy, trigger reflection, increase dialogue and help generate new ideas and relationships that can enhance expression of ideas and positive values. Arts helps humanity build new possibilities and rehearse a different way of living and connecting. Arts can help humanity come up with significant things and can also motivate people to relate with each other in a positive manner.
However, in order to have this potential realized, there should be a better understanding of the impact of arts in human values and character. Human values are the controlling principles that increase the motivation of human nature and attitude. The values shape the way human beings view and comprehend the world and the mentality that guide human thinking.