Fine Arts: Physical And Mental Relaxation
Have you ever visited Taj Mahal (India) or Sydney Opera House? Have you ever read William Wordsworth or John Keats poetry, or seen Terracotta Army (China), Michelangelo David or Pablo Picasso’s guitar paintings or Raja Ravi Verma’s paintings?
Why would anybody go for a piece of art or something artistic or something visually appealing? We like seeing art, we like hearing art and we like making art. Art provides stimulation to our senses, our thoughts and our emotions.
Michelangelo said – “The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.”
Art surrounds life, all people in every location, without us being aware of it. Art completes what nature cannot bring to a finish. The artist gives us knowledge of nature’s unrealized ends.
Major constituents of arts include-
- Visual Arts – Including architectures, ceramics, drawing, film making, painting, photography and sculpting.
- Literature – Including fiction, drama, poetry and prose.
- Performing Art – Including dance, music and theatre.
- Culinary Art – Including cooking.
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird, that’s easy. What’s difficult is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
What is an artist?
An artist is like a receptacle or a big bowl of emotions. These emotions are nothing but inspiration, which he takes from the sky, the earth, from a scrap of paper, from the passing shape or even from a spider web. Pablo Picasso said, “Some paintings transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.”
Artists use their energy to make something beautiful. They fuel their creativity and make work that resonates with others. Every artist is unique in his own way of thinking and imagination. They all observe things from a different point of view and nobody can have the same perspective.
Art is a general term for any craft that requires a level of creativity to master. Fine arts refer specifically to craft, generally visual, that focuses on aesthetic appeal rather than a practical or utilitarian purpose. John Ruskin said, “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head and the heart of man go together.”
Many people choose Fine Art as a career. Doing what you like is freedom, liking what you do is happiness. Entertainment, beauty, flow, pleasure etc. are the elements of fine arts which hypnotize us. It’s like magic and transforms us into another world, provide physical and mental relaxation.
Music
Take music for an example, when we listen to a song or any Raag, the singer, the musician and audience are transformed into another universe. Music has the serenity of its own. Just imagine, how wonderful the feeling would be, when just by listening Raag Malhar (associated with torrential rain), we can actually feel that it’s raining somewhere and you can smell the wet soil, the fresh droplets fall on the parched soil like pearls and immerse in it as if they are meant to be together.
Music can change the way we perceive the world. The moods of i.e. happiness, romance, melancholy, or even dark or sorrow can be touched by music.
Dance
On the other hand, dancing has wide appeal for older adults because of their positive memories and experience at a younger age. Dancing improves posture and flexibility, lift your mood, keep your mind sharp, make new friends, help your heart, reduce pain and stiffness etc.
Drawings and Paintings
The very thought that “imagination can do wonders for your health” fascinates me. The hectic lifestyle significantly demands some fascinating ways to relegate stress. Invoking your creativity on canvas is perhaps the most excellent way of comforting your mood. Holding a paintbrush triggers your mind to start imagining. Involving yourself in some creative work quickly release stress.
Study shows that people who are involved in drawing, writing and painting are at lower risk of developing memory-related illness during their older age.
Well, no one loves to emboss their negativity in their creativity. Creating artwork with the correct combination of colours and a perfect blend of creativity, one just enhances positive emotions.
Drama or Theatre
Over the past two decades, numerous studies have demonstrated that writing expressively about stressful or trauma tie life events is associated with improvement in physical and psychological health. For example, expressive writing helps in the improved immune system, reduce high blood pressure and cholesterol, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety etc.
Culinary Art
Cooking at home or other places are good for mental health because cooking is an art of patience, mindfulness, an outlet for creative expressions, means of communication etc. When you cook for yourself or other people, you are setting an achievable goal for yourself. This therapy is known as ‘behavioural activation’ used to treat depression and anxiety. Behavioural activation is focused on increasing, the patient’s contact with sources of rewards. It also helps in maintaining positive goal-oriented behaviour.
Believe in your heart that you are meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles. Art is not the possession of the few who are recognized writers, painters or musicians, it is the authentic expression of any and all individuality.
Art and love are the same things. It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you. Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
"What you think, you become" "What you feel, you attract" "What you imagine, you create" – Buddha.
