How Art Can Help You Become A Better Person

Adding more art to your life can help you grow as a person, making you kinder and more empathetic, and improving the overall your quality of your life

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In a new survey, 84 percent of those surveyed said that Americans are angrier today than a generation ago. Whether you look at politics, schools, homes, the workplace, or the Internet, it’s clear that people are becoming increasingly disconnected as stress, insecurity and other worries are causing people to lash out. Can you relate?

If you are looking for a healthy outlet to mitigate your own stress, the answer can be found in art.

Not only can art help to improve your mental health, it can also increase your happiness, self-worth, and actually help you become a better person.

Here are some of the tangible benefits of embracing art:

Boost Self-esteem

People who lack self-confidence may either withdraw further into themselves or act hostile towards others. Moreover, they may experience having physical health symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, or sleeplessness.

But if you want to improve your health and change the way you treat others, try learning a skill such as drawing. Knowing how to make simple drawings — such as a representation of a moonlit sky, a caricature of a bunny, or a sketch of a nature scene — can help you to gain confidence in yourself while feeling a sense of accomplishment. Once you’ve mastered the basics, challenge yourself by posting your art on social media or talking to an expert about your art. Placing yourself in situations where you can grow allows you to have more faith in yourself, and being less insecure will translate to better behavior towards other people.

Reduce Anger and irritability

Feeling a little bit of stress can be healthy as it enables us to focus and face the challenges of everyday life. However, if stress causes you to be angry or irritable, then you need to take a look at your home or work environment to see what’s causing you to have these negative feelings.

Artistic activities such as painting, sculpting, doodling, or coloring can be highly relaxing.

Taking time to decompress and unwind is also essential to relieve stress and reduce the toxic energy that’s inside of you. In fact, spending just 45 minutes doing any of these artistic activities can help to reduce stress and relieve your tension, anger, and anxiety.

Increase Empathy

You don’t have to create art to experience the benefit of art. Even appreciating art created by others can help you become a better, kinder person. Looking at a certain piece of art can evoke emotions within you, which in turn helps you to understand yourself more as you explore why you feel or act a certain way.

Appreciating another person’s work also enables you to understand the artist’s emotions or feelings while they were creating the piece which helps you develop empathy.

This allows you to be more attuned to other people’s feelings, maybe think twice before saying or doing anything that can hurt or offend someone else.

So, if you are looking for ways to become the person that you always wanted to be, be sure to make time for art every day!

You may also enjoy reading Journey to Abstraction | A Calling to Create Abstract Art, by Rekheya Bhattacharya