Treat your consumption of art the way you treat your consumption of food and you’ll soon see how a diet of music, art, theatre or literature can make you feel happier and healthier
Work out your 5-a-day. Decide on a simple rule you can apply to your life to make sure you engage with the arts every day. Maybe it’s 10 minutes of creative writing or sketching, or listening to a new audiobook or piece of music. A daily creative practice will activate some of the core mechanisms like stress reduction, self-esteem boost and give you a cognitive workout.
Plan your art treats like you would a restaurant. Set aside the time to go to a gallery or museum once a month. Book tickets for a show or play as a treat to look forward to. These activities will bring important ingredients like socialising and novelty that are beneficial to health.
Experiment with flavours. Try to mix things up with diverse activities that will give you the greatest possible exposure to the different benefits.
Be mindful. Take time out to savour even the background arts experiences. When you switch the radio on, sit down and listen for a few minutes, when you’re making art, spend at least some of the time being entirely present, thinking only of what you’re creating.
Avoid the UPFs (ultra processed foods). Screen-based arts are proliferating but the evidence base for them has been weaker. Use them strategically but try to make your art engagement real not virtual where you can.
Identify your chicken soup. We all have a food that we believe will get us better – work out what your equivalent is for when you’re stressed, tired or unwell and use music, books, arts or craft activities to look forward to and lift your mood.
The above blog is an extract from our feature ‘The Art of Living’, which is all about how the arts can help you to survive and thrive. You can read the rest of the feature in our October issue, which is in shops now.
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