Preparing for Adversity

How can practicing art help us?
by Alison Bonds Shapiro, M.B.A. in Healing Into Possibility
Originally published online by Psychology Today

There are many wonderful ways in which individuals, either by themselves or with therapists, use art in the healing journey. Art can be used as a way to discover and express feelings, as a way to rebuild coordination, and as a way to communicate, to name but a few. These are tremendously beneficial approaches.Recently, however, I was asked a question about art and healing that required me to think in a different way about the benefits of practicing art. When invited to hang a couple of paintings in a hospital last month, the question I was asked was, "How did being an artist affect your healing?" That question invited me to explore the usefulness of practicing art before we are injured or ill as a preparation for facing adversity.

To be clear, all of us are artists in one way or another, creatively responding to life's demands. Some of us practice making art with traditional materials, like paint or clay. 

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