Why Making Art is One of the Best Things You Can Do For Your Emotions

Creative practice builds emotional resilience, one brushstroke at a time.

If there was one word to describe the world over these past few years, it would be tender. What do I mean by that? I mean things could snap at any minute, it’s a delicate sitution – globally, personally, collectively. It’s understandable we are carrying emotions close to the surface! Emotions we can’t quite name as we try to navigate feelings that seem too big for words. Naming your emotions and giving them your voice is healthy and OK – art and creativity are a safe space to explore it.

Where do you put your emotions during these times? Your paintbrush, your sketchbook, your notebook, your dance class, your watercolours – these are powerful holders of emotion and available to you right now.

I’m looking at the research on creativity and emotion while I finish up this trimester at uni (I’m doing Psychology Honours) focusing on the evidence-based intricacies of how your participation in creative activities regulates your emotions and protects your mental health.

I’d love to share some of that with you…

Your brain knows how to do art/creativity.

When you engage in creative activity, something remarkable happens. Your brain activates the same neural circuits involved in emotional regulation , the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These regions are responsible for how you process, manage and respond to your emotions and they are also part of the neural pathways you use when you make art and engage creatively. Your prefrontal cortex is what makes you human and has provided you with the ability to develop your unique personality, do hard things and process the world around you, which of course leads to how you process the complexity of emotion. Crucially, your prefrontal cortex also acts as a kind of emotional hand brake, helping you pause, reflect and choose how to respond rather than just react, it makes art and creativity excellent lubrication for your feel good emotions.

How you feel or respond to an experience is the job of the amygdala. The amygdala is your emotional catch all, it carries the load, the full spectrum of the emotions you experience, positive, negative, small, big, you name it, the amygdala attaches emotion to your memories doing the initial emotional heavy lifting until your wider brain networks take the baton and emotion turns into behaviour – your physical emotional reaction. It’s all one big trigger warning combined with a whole bunch of your psychological, social and biological apsects which ultimately determines how you express your emotions within yourself and to others.

Let’s get to the emotional art stuff

Doing a creative activity is training your brain to handle emotions better. The research I’m currently looking at identifies emotional regulation as one of the core things through which arts engagement improves wellbeing –  remember it’s the good oil for your prefrontal cortex. The research shows that when we engage creatively, we activate three distinct types of emotional regulation strategies:

1. Avoidance strategies 

Making your art creates a psychological safe space. Your attention shifts away from distressing thoughts and your nervous system gets a chance to settle. Think of that feeling you get when you are so absorbed that everything else just… fades and flows.

2. Approach strategies 

This is where things get really interesting. Creative activity helps you reflect on and reprocess emotions from new angles. I call this re-imagining. One of my biggest aha moments was seeing in the research that these approach strategies mirror what happens in cognitive behavioural therapy. When you are making art you are literally rewiring how you relate to your emotional experiences. (This is so exiting to me as a future creative psychologist).

Reimagining gives you greater use of cognitive reappraisal and its one of the core strategies activated by creative engagement and importantly is associated with higher life satisfaction, more positive emotions, and lower levels of anxiety and depression.

3. Self-development strategies 

I’ve talked a lot in previous blogs and in my book about making something from nothing and art making does this by building a sense of competence, purpose and agency. In this way you are managing emotions, and strengthening your whole sense of self.

For all of us navigating the beautiful, complicated, sometimes overwhelming experience of being human right now, art and creativity build the agency for better emotional regulation, providing the ability to feel safe in the face of uncertainty and fear – and it’s happening without you even realising it. I love that for us all!

Watercolour painting. Sketching. Collage. Doodling. Dancing. Writing –  whatever you choose as your magical creative jam – these are all ways to treat yourself and are your nervous system’s  best friend.

What this means for your creative practice

You do not need to be making masterpieces – life is the masterpiece, if you need a daily reminder of this, download my FREE “Life is the masterpiece, you are the artist” printable poster. You do not need a studio or expensive supplies, what matters is regular, intentional engagement with your creativity.

Think of it as your arts prescription, something you give yourself, consistently, because you know it works.

When you sit down with your art (maybe even watercolours ), it goes beyond making something pretty, even though pretty is pretty great! You are building emotional resilience, one brushstroke at a time.

Right now, that feels like exactly what the world needs more of  – so let’s spread it around

Come and paint with us.

Be well & creative, queen!

Amanda ♥

Want to explore this further? I run watercolour workshops and offer coaching designed around exactly this –  art making and creativity as daily practice in the expression love, essential for wellbeing. Reach out >> here.

WATERCOLOUR WORKSHOPS

Discover your inner artist in the world of watercolour painting as our VIP (very important painter) and join one of our Watercolour Workshops at the Lorn Rose Farm in the Hunter Valley, NSW.