Art, Creativity and healing
Art is a great healer. By supplementing apprehension with creativity & inspiration & barter trading of stress with relaxation, art, tempers human physiology & psychology.
Neuro-physicists believe that art, prayer & healing have physiological genesis and are connected temporally & spiritually. They synergize therapeutics with feelings, emotions, visions, creativity, actions releasing healing components for the strengthening the autoimmune system. Aristotle says about the same as, "a pleasurable release of emotion" to effect "the healing and purifying of feelings of pity & fear".
Charles & Anne Simpkinson explain their findings in their book titled Soul Work: A Field Guide For Spiritual Seekers that, "One of the fastest growing areas in psychotherapy is art therapy, based on the idea that all human beings are endowed with the ability to unleash, examine, and transform their emotions through creative endeavor, be it painting, writing, dancing or singing".
Further, scientifically speaking, art improvises human brainwave pattern, Central & autonomic nervous systems, adrenal glands, acetylcholine & hormonal secretions, neurotransmitters, auto-immune system & regulated blood flow to various organs of the body. The created object enlightens the creator inside & outside.
What is more healing is not the outcome of finished work of art, but the process itself. Art involves self-awareness, focus on creativity, activities, exploration, discovery, success delight & in the words of the improvisation expert Stephan Nachmanovitch, "free-play". Creativity commands as much discipline as internal human functioning, including human feelings and mind control. Art or creativity has a different language & expression whatsoever, and culminating into ultimate by evolution, opportunities of self-discovery, listening to our inner-voices & internal visions of change, metamorphosis & relieving the psyche of accumulated thoughts & relaxing the body of the stress.
Creativity, or art, & life, are full of steps such as orientation of the mind & actions to the different world of ideas, making the first step, transformation, creating own brand of process, working towards unknown & undefined, surprises, unexpected failures & unforeseen success through evolution as per our vision. Our control on tomorrow is as limited as on art & creativity. Michelangelo says, "I saw the angel in the marble and I just chiseled, till I set him free". Like creativity, life is meaningless if not interpreted beyond the expected, visible, tangible and explicable aspects of existence. Life must follow art & creativity in visibly & audibly in our transformation. Actually, if we endeavor to develop our acumen & attitude to be creative in every field, life's dissatisfactions could well be replaced by self-replenishing delight.