Some studies highlight the emotional benefits that cultural activities generate in people’s lives. What do you feel?
How do you feel when you leave a concert, a play or a movie performance? Have you thought about?
Scientific evidence makes it clear that any cultural activity, whether passive (as spectators) or active (in actions such as writing, sculpting or painting), benefits mental health at different levels, since culture is a space for healing.
highlights a phrase that Billy Wilder, American film director, screenwriter and producer said: “If movies can make a person forget for two seconds that they parked the car wrongyou didn’t pay your fuel bill or you had an argument with your boss, then he achieved his goal”.
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What are the benefits?
On a cognitive levelthese cultural activities focus our attention on a dispersion of daily data and stimuli that saturate us.
On an emotional level, these activities put us in contact with our fears, allowing us to better accept them. Culture oxygenates and revitalizes us, putting our minds at peace, reducing anxiety and stress levels.
- Attend a concert, read a book, get lost in a museum or emotionally see a play not only serves as means of disconnection and evasion, but also of learning and emotional reconstruction.
- Write about fears, doubts and insecurities serves to organize ideas and calm the mind.
- Watch a movie strengthens episodic and semantic memory by the effort of storing sequences that will be consolidated into memories.
- The intense reflection on the existential and anthropological questions carried out by the great directors, painters or writers provides us with references and knowledge that intellectually stimulate.
- Go to Opera or to theater encourages us to share opinions, ideas, develop a critical spirit and be more tolerant.
- Identify ourselves with characters similar from a movie or a book, for example, increases our introspection and helps us get to know ourselves; but, at the same time, the experiences of antagonistic characters are a challenge by questioning our points of view.
- Listen to music It has a beneficial effect on brain chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin, and may help reduce cortisol levels.
In November 2019, the Office of the European Region of the World Health Organization presented a report, supported by more than 3,000 scientific studies, which supported the thesis that artistic practices have positive effects on health and welfare.
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In that sense, there are already some cases in Europe that serve as an example and validation of what was mentioned above. One of them is the Goya exhibition, in which works from the Prado Museum are exhibited that include mediating texts that connect with the emotional experiences of the spectators. Living Museum is another movement dedicated to creating art spaces in mental health centers.
Another is the reading activity with patients suffering from anxiety, depression or impotence. For this, literary recommendations or bibliotherapy are very useful because the Language structures the psyche.
According to Almudena Grandes, “culture is an ingredient of happiness.” It is the perfect ally in this transition, because philosophy, literature and the arts help to better understand the complexity of human reality and to reconcile with what we have experienced.
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