How Art and Music Are Powerful Healers (Transmutation)

Without creative outlets such as art and music, I believe that the depression, shame, and sense of doom that I often felt on the rollercoaster of eczema flare-ups would have gotten to me on a much deeper level many times in my life. It is not an understatement to me to say that art and music truly saves lives in that it can take pain and turn it into peace. So much of eczema involves holding back our truths to save face in public for the sake of others’ comfort levels. Repression for the illusion of acceptance. But art and music can be our ways to honestly express ourselves in a way that is creative instead of destructive.

How have art and music helped my eczema?

Art is a therapy that is underrated by the medical community in my opinion. In my many years of having some form of eczema, I have found both music and art to be some of the most powerful transformers of negative energy to positive energy in my healing journey. When I hit rock bottom for the first time in my childhood (1990s) while being on topical steroids nonstop with no end in sight, listening to alternative and grunge rock music helped me cope. Hearing music full of angst and pain made me feel emotionally seen and validated in my own struggles in life. And having the knowledge that there were other people out there struggling, regardless if it was because of eczema or not, made me feel less alone in my suffering.

How does singing help?

Along with music, singing and playing it has also been super impactful for me as a form of therapy, escape and transcendence. When engaging with the deep breathing and repetitive motions that performing music involves I find that I enter a meditative state that is very peaceful and relaxing. When I play or sing music for a long period of time, I feel my body and my nervous system buzzing with the resonance of my voice and/or the instrument that I am playing. And it feels so good. The next day, I find that my skin seems to have improved. Is it because it lowers my stress? Is it because it encourages circulation through the deep breathing and motions of playing the instrument? I'm not a scientist or a doctor so I cannot confirm any of these possibilities or hunches. Either way, I just enjoy making melodies and harmonies. In a way, I create harmony that can be both detected outside and felt inside.

What other art has helped with my health?

Another form of art that I enjoy for my health is in the forms of drawing, painting, crafts and anything else that one makes with one’s hands. In my experience, doing art through drawings and the crafts that I make with crochet has helped me to take pent-up, frustrated energy from the times that I was struggling with my skin and turn it into something beautiful or useful. At the very least, it would be something visually validating of how I felt at the time. Whether or not the illustration was “good” or about something positive or negative, it was about something honest. It was about something that I honestly felt and experienced in my life. And to see that outside of myself was to see a reflection of myself and my reality from my direct perspective.

Do you have a way to express yourself?

I am thankful that art and creativity exists because they are true lifelines in a world full of pain, uncertainty and destruction. Hopefully this blog has inspired you to explore creative outlets as a form of self-validation and release if you are currently feeling like you do not have a safe space or way to express what you’re going through. Or reinforced your current creative endeavors and the importance of keeping them up for your mental health.

What other creative ways do you love to express yourself? Please share in the comments below!