“It turns out that arts and aesthetic experiences are some of the most salient ways that we create those neural pathways,” Magsamen says.

It’s because art engages our senses in the most intense ways. And art promotes mindfulness, which reduces rumination. Dina Lobo, a trauma support specialist, sees her clients’ moods improve after expressing themselves through one art session. Magsamen, who began a hands-on, creative learning company called Curiosity Kits in the 1980s, found art helped children learn better and regulate their emotions. Research shows art can lower stress, improve mood, and help regulate emotions-and art therapy can promote healing and encourage self-expression. Recall the craze for the adult coloring book, the pleasure of kneading clay, or the allure of strolling in a gallery admiring a beautiful painting. “If you look back, we used to sing dance.

“We’re not happier as a society because we’ve been optimizing for productivity,” she says. But art is the bedrock of the human experience and the ability to understand and express emotion for a reason, argues Magsamen. In many ways, art has been sidestepped for more practical, seemingly quicker ways to get tasks done. Magsamen and co-author, Ivy Ross, dive into how art is an integral part of living and how to incorporate it into your life, in their book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us, published last month.Ĭonventional wisdom tells us that productivity means efficiency-and often, creativity becomes an afterthought, Ross says. “We are literally physically hardwired for these arts and aesthetic experiences,” says Magsamen, founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Pedersen Brain Science Institute.

Aesthetic doodles easy