How Being Creative In The Performing Arts Can Help Your Mental Health!
Definition of Performing Arts is a form of creative activity that is performed in front of an audience, such as drama, music, and dance. For anyone, expressing creativity can help you to focus your mind and control your thoughts.
Many kids from the ages 12 – 18 have experienced some form of a mental health issue and many adults ages 18 – 49 also experience those same problems. So you might be wondering: How does the performing arts help mental health? One word: creativity!
Creativity can come in many forms. Some people are creative in sports, some in school, and some in the arts. There is no end to creativity. It is a way for you to express many emotions such as happiness, sadness, or even anger. Imagine you are on stage, say, performing a scene, it’s opening night and you are so happy that the show is finally being shown to the public, you express that through the smiling on your face or pure excitement and joy of just being able to make others laugh. By doing that it is expressing YOU and showing your true joy and love of acting and singing. It is helping you in ways that you did not think were possible. You are showing your creativity through happiness. By expressing this happiness you feel mentally stronger and who wouldn’t want to have a strong mental health?
Now, say you are at a dance competition and it is a lyrical piece and you are dancing to a sad song. Now let’s imagine that you have been going through a hard time in life and you are very sad and angry. You express that through your dance. And by doing that you are making your performance 10x better that it already was. After all that you mentally feel better. Performing is your therapy. Doing anything you love and what makes you happy is your therapy. According to Reset Mind and Body “Being creative can positively impact your mood. When someone is using their creative side of their brain, they are no longer in the reactive brain. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind, whereas a creative mind is focused on the present task at hand. While being creative, we can improve our emotions and reduce negative ones.”
Ever since the global pandemic has started it’s been hard to be creative in the performing arts. Many people’s mental health has not been well throughout the pandemic because things they love have not been able to happen and that is devastating. Covid unfortunately shut many things down that made us happy and the performing arts programs being one of them. But there are still some things you can do that can bring some type of normalcy to this difficult time. For example on Broadway Uticas website there are always virtual classes being promoted and there are many different types. There are dancing classes, singing classes, acting classes, and even virtual magic shows. How fun is that?
Always remember that being creative can help in many different ways you didn’t even realize and the performing arts is a great way to help, even during a global pandemic. Mental health is very important. It can help you remain successful. So stick to the things you love doing and keep doing it. It can make you happy and the people around you happy!
By: Alexandria Service
2020-2021 Youth Ambassador
