You don’t have to be a trained artist to de-stress through painting or other artforms.
In our busy culture, stress is one of the most significant contributors to accelerated brain degeneration. Stress is especially damaging to the hippocampus, the primary part of your brain that is responsible for learning and memory.
There are many ways to “de-stress,” but a recent study shows great value in taking the time to create art and exercise the right side of the brain. For most of us, life is dominated by left-brained thinking. The left side of the brain controls your logical, fact-orientated, numerical, and analytical knowledge. While that’s all good and necessary, we must promote balance by also exercising the right side of the brain.
Taking the time to engage in more right-brained activities can improve cognition, learning, and memory. Consider using more visuals, creative art, and intuitive thinking to help balance both sides of the brain! You can:
- Color
- Sketch
- Cut clippings from magazines to create a vision board
- Build an awesome block tower with your kids!
And speaking of kids, developing creative skills through play is essential to their mental and physical growth! Spending more creative time with the children in your life will benefit their development and even maintain your learning and memory skills. And for children in need of physical therapy, we love what our friends at Free to Move and Play are doing to encourage children to develop, learn, and heal through play! Use the creative spirit of children as inspiration: take the time to have fun, then watch for improvement in your professional and personal life.
If you’ve learned anything from our post, we hope it’s this: It’s not just okay, but good and necessary to play, have fun, and be creative. Never stop learning or trying new things!
If you are looking to have optimal brain function, ask our office how we can help you find ways to heal and de-stress. We offer a wide variety of services to help you feel your best physically, mentally, and emotionally!
