As well-being week has passed, I’ve been thinking more about the power of language (and other forms of art) and the way it is used. Naturally, when we hear the word “language”, we immediately think of other countries and mother tongues that are used for communication and are wonderful to the ear. However, language is so much more than that. While it brings us closer to people through interaction, language also brings us closer to ourselves. It allows people to understand and figure out otherwise unknowable emotions that can’t be described with only a few words. To be able to write, you don’t have to be creative with an extensive imagination that never stops working and spinning its gears, experienced or even taught, you don’t have to show others or share it; it can be your own private work that brings you comfort from knowing you were able to express yourself to yourself. You just have to be able to start writing it and carry on without stopping, even if you don’t feel like it’s good enough.
An article from Psychology Today states that “in 2010, a review of existing literature on the benefits of the arts (music, visual arts, dance and writing) by Stuckey and Noble considered more than 100 studies concluding that creative expression has a powerful impact on health and well-being on various patient populations. Most of these studies concur that participation and/or engagement in the arts have a variety of outcomes including a decrease in depressive symptoms, an increase in positive emotions, reduction in stress responses, and, in some cases, even improvements in immune system functioning.” I’ve talked to many people I know who have told me that writing in a journal or diary has really helped them to calm down and express what they aren’t otherwise able to or don’t want to with other people and have only really done it to help themselves. In general, sometimes the creative arts help pave the way or the bridge to embracing who you are mentally and emotionally. It expresses how unique the human brain is and what sorts of art pieces, poetry, writings, and even music one can come up with if their mind is ‘alive’. To be able to create these pieces, you have to be aware of the world and the different lenses that you can view it from, but not necessarily creatively as mentioned before, simply realistically. It helps break away from society’s expectations and standards of what a human should be like, and even if you aren’t suffering from a specific illness, your own creations can simply let you be free. To most, it’s liberating rather than something that may feel like a prison cell. To this end, art is a language itself which is known to help many people.
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