Create to heal

Art as medicine for body and mind

🏷️ Categories: Art, Happiness, Creativity.

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Yesterday, I felt it again.

After writing in my journal, I felt relief. As if someone had come and rearranged the pieces inside me. It was... peace. Has something like this ever happened to you too? After painting, writing, or playing a melody, we feel better — and it’s not just about being proud of the finished artwork. It's something deeper than that.

It's an idea that always comes back: Creating is a way of healing.

While we make art — painting, writing, dancing, or molding clay — something within us settles. Something finds its place. So I decided to look into what science says about art and health.

And yes, they confirm what you and I had already felt: Art is medicine.

Art soothes the mind and body. It strengthens you. It heals you.

Here’s why you should create more art.

Create to Heal

In 2009, the American Journal of Public Health published an article titled The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health, where they reviewed over 100 studies on the effects of art on health. Not in theory —

In hospitals. In real-life settings.

Art reduced pain, anxiety, anger, and depression. It improved self-esteem and mood. It increased lymphocytes (a sign of a healthy immune system). It lowered blood pressure in patients with heart conditions and reduced physical pain in patients.

What kind of art achieved this?

All kinds.

There are benefits to listening to and playing music, emotionally expressive writing, poetry, dance, painting, textile crafts, collage, pottery, and more (Stuckey & Nobel, 2009).

Here are a few examples:

• Music: Listening to and playing music reduces stress. Heart patients lowered their blood pressure; after surgeries, music helped ease postoperative pain without extra medication.

• Writing: Those who wrote about their emotions for 15–20 minutes improved their immune function and psychological well-being.

• Dance: Dance enhanced self-esteem, mobility, and emotional wellness in women affected by breast cancer. Similar effects were seen in other groups as well.

• Visual Arts (painting, sculpture, collage, ceramics): They helped express what couldn’t be said in words. People suffering from depression, stress, or anxiety felt calmer and better after externalizing their feelings.

When we express ourselves creatively, we heal.

Take note: the WHO defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being." It doesn’t say “absence of disease.” It says well-being.
Art, in its many forms, leads us there.

And it doesn’t just help patients — it helps anyone.

Create More, Consume Less

It often seems like creating is only for renowned artists, and that if it's not beautiful, it’s worthless.

But that’s a lie.
Art doesn’t need to be pretty. Or perfect. Or useful. It only needs to exist. Drawing something ugly. Singing off-key. Writing with messy handwriting. Dancing without technique. It all counts. It all matters. It all heals.

Creating is an act of self-love.

One that doesn’t need likes. Or applause. Or validation.

We live in an era where consuming is incredibly easy. Entertainment has grown exponentially. In a world of television, social media, and constant internet connection, there’s endless content available 24/7, ready to fill every minute of the day.

All designed so you don't spend more than three seconds alone with yourself.

And afterwards, of course, we feel like something is missing.

It’s not more entertainment that’s missing.
It’s more expression.

The difference between consuming and creating is that the first numbs you.
The second heals you.

Creating is deciding that your voice deserves to be heard — even if only you hear it, that's the power of journaling. That your emotions deserve to come out — even if only in the form of paint and shapes. That your story, even the quietest one, matters.

I'm not saying watercolor and poetry should replace medicine.

I’m saying that art can accompany medicine. It can be a companion that fills the emptiness illness can leave behind. Because when we create, we inhabit a refuge. We stop being patients and become agents of our own healing.

So yes. Make more art.

Close the tab, turn off the TV, silence your phone, and create.

Creating is medicine — and without realizing it, you’ve gone far too long without taking it.

✍️ Your turn: What forms of art make you feel

💭 Quote of the day: “Oh dear, art is so long and our life so fleeting...”.
— Goethe, Faust.

See you next time, take good care! 👋

References 📚

1. World Health Organization [WHO]. Constitution. URL

2. Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2009). The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of Current Literature. American Journal Of Public Health, 100(2), 254–263. URL