Expressive Art: Bringing Home the Inner Healer

There is an emerging movement around the world to use expressive arts in healthcare settings because of the numerous benefits to overall wellness. Large research hospitals such as Duke, Stanford, Ursaline, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Sloan-Kettering and Northwestern, and others, have long understood the value of bringing the expressive arts into the hospital proper. Medical science is finding that artistic activities can actually prolong patients survival rate by reducing stress levels, increasing relaxation, improving immune system functioning, reducing and improving blood pressure, heart rate and respiration, and reducing pain.

The body is the vessel through which thoughts, sensations, emotions, and all of life are experienced. Our bodies literally contain cellular memories of all growth and regeneration. Consciously tapping into the wisdom of our bodies is a process by which we exchange with dialogue through a new and different language. As we get more fluent in this language we begin to realize that we truly hold within ourselves all the answers to our deepest questions, as well as the ability to heal ourselves from emotional and physical illness. Creative arts expression is one modality that can trigger and enhance this natural process.

Imagery is the most fundamental language we have. All of our brain processes are initiated through images and this is the way in which the mind communicates with the body. Our thoughts have a direct influence on the way we feel and behave. Negative and anxiety-ridden thoughts cause stress on the physical body and can influence the health of a body. Our imagination can be a powerful tool to help combat stress, tension and negativity. Visualization and art-making can be used as a means to harness the energy of imagination. It is a transformative experience when a negative, angry, and destructive image is replaced by a positive, peaceful, and loving image. The body and the spirit responds vibrantly to this new awareness.

Quite simply, there are three reasons as to how and why imagery and imagination (the beginning of all artistic manifestations) are healing:

1) Our bodies do not discriminate between sensory images of the mind and what it is that we call reality.

2) In the altered state of creating imagery or imagining in our minds, we are capable of more rapid and intense healing, growth, learning, and change.

3) We feel better about ourselves when we have a sense of mastery over what is happening to us. There is a feeling of control.

Ultimately, art making is a language unto itself, helping us say the things that we don’t have words for, working through difficult experiences and making sense of them, and connecting us to a higher place of awareness. This way of working with images has been prominent for humans throughout history. Mask making, ritual pottery and objects, costumes, cave drawings, hieroglyphics – all are visual records of self-expression and communication through art. Art has long been associated with spiritual connectedness. Artistic forms such as Hindu and Buddhist Mandala paintings, Native American sand painting, Christian iconographic images, and Australian dreamtime paintings, have always been powerful expressions of meditation, prayer, and healing.

The beauty of using art as a means of healing expression, is that one does not have to be an accomplished artist or knowledgeable of art media. The focus of this form of art making is on the process, not the product. Through the activity of making art, an individual is able to gain insight into one’s inner self and uninhibitedly explore untapped feelings. The finished product is a two or three-dimensional record of the individual’s insights, feelings, and perceptions. It can be touched, looked at, and shared with others. The benefit of working with images is that one is less likely to censor oneself. We’re accustomed to using words to communicate and more adept at filtering out information that is more challenging or threatening. With art, however, a slip of the brush is more likely to reveal unspoken thoughts and feelings – the results can be surprising, and the discoveries that the art provides can be illuminating!

Expressive art is a wonderful and gentle means of connecting to and uncovering challenging and repressed emotions that have been a factor in the development of chronic illness. Releasing these feelings through the creative process relieves stressors from the immune system, clears the mind, and nourishes the soul, allowing the body to fight off disease and begin the healing process. It is an activity that can be explored by anyone, with talent or not, young or old. It is our birth-right to create our optimum health.