When Dr. Frank Clark was in medical school studying to be a psychiatrist, he decided to write his first poem. “All that chatter that is in my head, everything that I’ve been feeling, I can now just put it on paper and my pen can do the talking,” he said, recalling his thoughts at the time.
Back then, he was struggling with depression and had been relying on a number of things to keep it at bay, including running, therapy, medication and his faith. “I had to find something else to fill the void,” he said. It turned out that poetry was the missing piece in his “wellness puzzle.”
“I saw an improvement in my mood,” said Dr. Clark, who now sees patients in Greer, S.C. “It gave me another outlet.”
The notion that art can improve mental well-being is something many people intuitively understand but can lose sight of — especially if we have become disconnected from the dancing, creative writing, drawing and singing we used to enjoy as children.
But there’s a “really robust body of evidence” that suggests that creating art, as well as activities like attending a concert or visiting a museum, can benefit mental health, said Jill Sonke, research director of the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine.
Listening to music, playing an instrument or singing can all be beneficial, research shows.
A 2022 study, for example, surveyed more than 650 people in four age groups and asked them to rank the artistic activities that helped them “feel better” during the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. The youngest participants, ages 18 to 24, overwhelmingly rated musical activities as most effective. Across all age groups, “singing” was ranked among the top activities.
Other studies have found that singing reduces levels of cortisol, a hormone that the body releases when it is under stress. As one example, mothers who had recently given birth and regularly sang to their babies had less anxiety.
Ms. Magsamen noted that music can be effective at reducing stress because things like rhythm and repetitive lyrics and chords engage multiple regions of the brain. “I sing in the shower,” Ms. Magsamen said. “I sing at the top of my lungs to the radio.”
Write a poem
Dr. Clark has continued to write poetry since graduating from medical school and offered some tips for those interested in trying.
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