An overlooked prescription for happiness
I have a number of crafty co-workers here at Well. Some crochet, some knit, so we’ve decided to get together once a month to craft. I plan to do a paint-by-number kit, something I’ve been meaning to try. (It’s a vacation photo I had printed on a canvas, along with 24 colors.) My colleagues and I are meeting just for fun, but crafting is also good for our health, said Daisy Fancourt, a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London. She has been studying the effect of the arts on people’s health for 15 years. That includes, she said, crafting but also performing arts such as dance and ballet, visual arts such as painting, and the literary arts, like reading novels or poems. Culinary arts such as baking bread count too, she added, and so does going to cultural spaces like museums. Research suggests that experiencing art and creativity, even for a few minutes a day, has tangible effects on our mental and physical health. Doing so helps slow cognitive decline, reduces the risk of heart disease and increases well-being as we age. Reading books, for example, is linked with living longer. Dr. Fancourt calls engaging in the arts “the forgotten fifth pillar of health,” alongside diet, sleep, exercise and nature. Yet, we have reduced it to a form of entertainment, she writes in her new book, “Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives.” And you don’t have to be good at any of these things to reap the health benefits, she added. All you have to do is take part. Dr. Fancourt shared some advice on how to add regular doses of the arts into your life. Look for inexpensive events in your community.Creative pastimes don’t have to be costly, Dr. Fancourt said. If you have museums or other cultural institutions near you, see if they offer any hours free of charge. Check with your library to find out whether it provides free passes to some of these places, too, she said. A church in your area may host instrumental or choral performances, and often they are free or low-cost, Dr. Fancourt said. One of her favorite recommendations is to see plays or concerts put on by the local high schools. Or, you can explore community theater. It’s not as expensive as a professional production, she said, “and it’s a lovely way of supporting local artists.” Slip some arts into your social life.If you tend to meet friends for drinks or dinners, try swapping that activity for something arts-based, Dr. Fancourt suggested. “When I meet up with my sister, we often do mindful coloring,” she said. (My grandfather, I realize, used to do something similar when he had his buddies over to do woodwork in his shed with a cooler of beer.) Dr. Fancourt has started what she calls an “informal book club” with two friends. They set a time and place for dinner and agree on a book to read before they meet. Then they spend a few minutes chatting about the book. This ritual is simple, easy and gives her “extra motivation to read,” she said. Set a creative challenge for yourself.Dr. Fancourt suggested setting a “fun rule for the year” around the arts. Hers is to make her own greeting cards for people instead of buying them. (Who doesn’t appreciate a homemade card?) Or, every night, she said, you can read a poem (such as this daily offering from the Poetry Foundation). If you commute to work by using public transportation, throw a novel or a collection of short stories into your bag, she suggested. “Then your rule could be: I have to read three pages of my book or one short story before I’m allowed to doom scroll,” she said. Bring your art home.Dr. Fancourt said that the more engaged in the arts you are, the more health benefits you will have, but you don’t have to go to a concert hall or a museum. You can stream live recordings or, if you can’t make it to a gallery, check out art books from your library and page through them at home. You can try new dance moves or new recipes at home, too, she said. (Boiling a bowl of your usual pasta “is not art,” she said; but finessing a new dish or decorating a cake might be.) However my paint-by-numbers piece turns out, I’ll remind myself that it doesn’t need to be good — just that I showed up and did it. Like this email?
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