Art Should Be Part Of Your Daily Health Routine — 8 Ways To Add More To Your Life

I've spent years talking about the four pillars of health—nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management—but after my recent conversation with researcher Daisy Fancourt, Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Arts and Health, on the mindbodygreen podcast, I'm adding a fifth one: art.

I know what you might be thinking. Art? Like, museums and opera? But hear me out, because the science here is genuinely exciting, and there is a concrete prescription that is a lot more accessible than you'd expect.

When we engage with art — whether that's making it, watching it, or listening to it — we're giving ourselves something our brains and bodies need. Think sensory stimulation, cognitive challenge, emotional exposure, creativity, and imagination. These may sound like soft benefits, but they show up in the biology.

Fancourt's research has found that arts engagement lowers stress hormones, reduces inflammation, and activates the regions of the brain involved in regulating our emotions. It's also a whole-brain workout. "You're looking at lots of different cognitive functions being practiced simultaneously when you engage in the arts rather than just one," Fancourt says.

The cognitive protection piece is significant too. People who regularly engage with the arts show better connectivity between the brain regions most vulnerable to aging, and a longer window before the onset of dementia symptoms, even when the underlying changes are already accumulating.

This is the foundational prescription that Fancourt kept coming back to. Hundreds of studies show that one dedicated hour of arts engagement per week, a class, a concert, a museum visit, a book club, produces benefits

"If people have one hour a week that they dedicate to arts engagements, then even within the space of 10 or 12 weeks, there can be clear responses in outcomes like mental health," Fancourt says.

Beyond that weekly anchor, Fancourt recommends a daily practice of 15 to 20 minutes of focused arts engagement to help manage stress and maintain those creative experiences throughout the week. Think of it like your stepcount, with a baseline you're aiming to hit every day.

This tip comes directly from Fancourt's own life, and she calls it the "creative commute."

"I used to scroll my phone and read the news on the way to and from work, whereas now I read a book on the way to work and I listen to music on the way back. And I find that just sort of bookending my day like that is a great way of making sure I've had some kind of creative engagement," she says.

Fancourt shocked me when she said the average museum visitor spends just 27 seconds looking at a piece of art. And a lot of that time is spent taking a photo of it.

The problem is that you only get a surface-level response from a few seconds of engagement art engagement like this. A more meaningful response, the kind that actually affects your brain and your mood, requires several minutes of looking, thinking, and looking again.

This is one of my favorite things Fancourt shared. The ISO principle is a technique where you start by listening to music that matches your current mood, then gradually shift tracks toward the mood you want to be in.

Fancourt often does this as part of her own creative commute. She starts with heavy dance music after a stressful day at work, then moves toward slower, calmer tracks. By the time she gets home, she's listening to relaxing songs.

You can compare the way you consume arts to the way you consume food. You wouldn't eat the same thing every day and expect to get all the nutrients you need. The same logic applies here.

Reading is great for emotions and stress reduction, but it's sedentary and it doesn't give you the sense of mastery that comes from making something. Music brings in the temporal and physical elements that visual art doesn't. Making something, like you do when cooking a new recipe, drawing, or crafting, activates creativity and builds self-esteem in a way that passive engagement can't.

If you're looking for more social interaction and connection in your life, the research on singing is pretty compelling.

Singing together bonds people faster than exercising together or having a conversation. It gives your lungs a workout equivalent to going for a brisk walk. It forces you to breathe on the exhale, which matters for both lung health and stress response. And the skills you build, like learning material, performing, facing fears, and feeling a sense of accomplishment, translate directly into confidence in other areas of your life.

Art doesn't require a museum ticket or a class registration. A lot of the research Fancourt cites focuses on the importance pf everyday creativity, which means crafting, drawing, creative writing, and other activities you can do in your own home.

These activities have the same core ingredients—creativity, imagination, aesthetic engagement—as more formal arts experiences.

Near the end of our conversation, Fancourt pointed out that a few hundred years ago, everyone told stories, sang, and danced, it was just part of community and everyday life. We're the ones who turned art into a luxury, something you need to be trained for or talented at before you're allowed to participate.

My daughters, who are seven and nine, are both artists. Every kid is. They draw, they sing, they make things, and they don't worry for a second about whether they're good at it. Somewhere along the way, most of us lose that.