A List of Five Ways to Add More Art In Your Life
Because it's easy to fall into routines based on efficiency and productivity.
Is art the wellness tool we’re all forgetting?
In the late 1990s, an interdisciplinary field called neuroaesthetics emerged. A blend of neuroscience, psychology, and art, it’s the study of how art—from witnessing the paintings on the MET walls to noodle-and-glue crafts at home—can have measurable changes on the brain, body, and behavior.
Art can alter a complex physiological network of interconnected systems, including neural circuitry, circulatory, respiratory, immune, endocrine, and psychological. It lowers stress hormone cortisol. It increases brain flow to the brain's reward center. It even reduces loneliness and promotes social bonding.
And it doesn’t take much: Just 20 minutes of art a day, either witnessing or creating, can have a positive impact, according to the authors of “Your Brain on Art: How Art Transforms Us,” a book in my ever-growing Goodreads queue. (Scroll through their accompanying site for some beautiful UX.)
While the research may still be nascent and art/beauty may forever be subjective and hard to measure, the take-away for me is clear: art can change us in profound ways, whether or not it shows up on an fMRI.
With a job in a creative field and many external creative aspirations, I’m always looking for ways to crank my creative juice faucet up. When I feel like it runneth over, the times when I feel creatively energized and reinvigorated, is when I’m infusing art (in its many, many forms) into my day-to-day.
Five ways to infuse more art into your life:
1. Curate Your Feeds
Follow museums, theaters, performance companies, etc. you like on Instagram and sign up for their email listservs, increasing your exposure to artistic happenings on places you’re already checking. I’ve found this to be the best way to get updated on new exhibits, performances, launches and more, and am more likely to click BUY when I can quickly send to a friend’s DMs or star in my inbox and return to later.
In NYC? I love getting updates from the Gugg, BAM, 92Y, NYCB, NYCC, and The Bowery Presents, to name a few.
2. Nix the Double Screen
It’s so easy to “watch” TV with another screen mere inches from your face, especially if you’re like me and have a hard time sitting idly. Instead of my phone, I find it way more enjoyable (and therapeutic) to bring a craft into the mix. Right now, that looks like needlepoint. In the winter, I was on a bit of a watercolor kick. Maybe for you its crocheting, doodling, or collaging.
3. Meditate
Hear me out: Meditation induces a state of deep relaxation associated with increased brain activity in areas associated with creativity and intuition, like the theta wave state. In this wave state, tension releases and ideas flows. (Did you know that theta brainwaves are abnormal in awake adults but common for kids up to 13? Just some food for thought.)
I have a hard time carving out the time for myself to sit still and breathe, but a class setting is right up my alley. In NYC, I’ve had a few great ones in the sauna at Othership. You can also find some great free ones on YouTube.
4. Upgrade Your Space
Frame your favorite prints. Fill your bookshelf. Buy fresh flowers from the bodega. Light a candle (specifically this one). Never turn on the overhead light.
Your space should be a place for beauty, solace, and inspiration. In our home, I like treating our fridge as a collage, tacking on postcards we pick up at museums or restaurants, hand-written notes, dinner party menus, and film photos. When I sit down at the kitchen island with my notebook, fridge before me, it invites creativity.
5. Go on an Artist Date
I’ve written about my favorite Artist Date before (a practice from “The Artist’s Way”—a 12-week course to nurture creativity) and think that a monthly, if not weekly, solo excursion can be just what you need to refill your creative cup.
Order take-out and paint a little ceramic dish at home; take a dance class; try figure drawing or any of the many classes at an art studio like Happy Medium. Truly whatever floats your boat, but block the time for yourself on your calendar, put down your phone, and tap into your inner artiste.
It’s easy to fall into routines based on efficiency and productivity, but what if you gave yourself permission to romanticize things just a bit more? To buy flowers and paints, museums admissions or tickets to a show?
See you next week. Xx.