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Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
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Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $49.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $49.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $39.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $49.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
Original price was: $49.99.$19.99Current price is: $19.99.
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Description
A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics, which offers proof for how our brains and bodies transform when we participate in the arts—and how this knowledge can improve our health, enable us to flourish, and build stronger communities.
“This book blew my mind!”—Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit
Many of us think of the arts as entertainment—a luxury of some kind. In Your Brain on Art, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show how activities from painting and dancing to expressive writing, architecture, and more are essential to our lives.
We’re on the verge of a cultural shift in which the arts can deliver potent, accessible, and proven solutions for the well-being of everyone. Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. They expand our understanding of how playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning; the vibrations of a tuning fork create sound waves to counteract stress; virtual reality can provide cutting-edge therapeutic benefit; and interactive exhibits dissolve the boundaries between art and viewers, engaging all of our senses and strengthening memory. Doctors have even been prescribing museum visits to address loneliness, dementia, and many other physical and mental health concerns.
Your Brain on Art is a portal into this new understanding about how the arts and aesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities, and mend an aching planet.
Featuring conversations with artists such as David Byrne, Renée Fleming, and evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson, Your Brain On Art is an authoritative guide to neuroaesthetics. The book weaves a tapestry of breakthrough research, insights from multidisciplinary pioneers, and compelling stories from people who are using the arts to enhance their lives.
The research of how art changes our brain is backing up my own experiences as an artist and arts educator for the last 10 years. This is important stuff.
If you haven't gotten to read the book yet, I want to share our "Cliff Notes" with you. We had a great time discussing Your Brain on Art .
Whether you pick up the simple habit of humming a tune or begin to feed your desire to doodle after reading this book, your attention to your environment and your capacity for pleasure will multiply!
Here are our Book Club's Collective Essence Phrases to summarize the topics that we felt were most salient. On behalf of our "Your Brain on Art Book Club" we hope that you are encouraged to dive into this book and absorb what's meaningful for your own life!
When we talk about THE ARTS, we are talking about ALL of the expressive arts; sound vibration, poetry, visual art and movement.
All of the arts have always been a healing resource. This important fact changes our biology. Expression through the arts can lead to healing and release.
Incorporate art-making into day to day life to move energy, process emotion and invite new opportunity.
Move towards disturbing images, they can transform us. There is poetry in the powerful, sad reality.
Processing difficult images from the world, or within, releases energy rather than letting it build. This creates the possibility for both personal and collective change.
Tinkering breeds an environment for "letting go", expanding our brain toward innovation.
The element of surprise, a sense of awe, and spontaneity are all really important to help our brain regenerate, expand and grow.
Relaxing into the arts brings us directly to self. Our trauma requires it to heal.
The arts are a human being's most important palliative care.
Magsamen and Ross explain the relevant science in a vernacular non-scientists can understand. For example, they describe our brains’ neurons as overlapping branches of a tree. These neurons are social and need connection with others to survive. In the language of the brain, these social connections are called synaptic. The intensity of the sensory input determines how synaptic circuits are wired. Memory-making experiences and sensory rich environments support greater connections.
These authors say that the changes aesthetic experiences can make in us will transform our lives. Developing an aesthetic mindset is the first step, and they will give you advice on how to do that.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group-Random House and NetGalley for providing this eARC.
I know the soothing effect making art can have on a person so I was excited to read more about it. The topic here was actually much broader than I expected.
Neuroaesthetics is a word I hadn’t heard before. This book went way beyond “painting makes you calm.” Discussed were the positive effects of music, dance, architecture, nature and more.
This book was full of research studies and anecdotes. I would’ve loved some specific ideas for projects, links to playlists, or action plans. Maybe that was there and I missed it. I docked a star because there was so much information here it was overwhelming. My scattered brain could’ve used a bit more art—even charts and graphs to break up the countless stories and studies presented.
I do highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their life in an easy, enjoyable way.
I’m off to find some sources of 40Hz light and sound!
I received this book from NetGalley but am freely offering my unbiased review.
Most of us who participate in the arts are aware of the power of the arts to relieve stress, spur creativity and create connections to others, past and present. But Ross and Magsamen take these ideas and go deeper, pointing to verifiable changes in the brain and neural system that affect our health and well-being. Did you know, for example, that certain heart scans reveal patterns reminiscent of quilt squares? Or that singing to a newborn baby releases hormones that calm both baby and mother? The authors make the case that arts of all types create measurable biological changes in the human body, and can be applied as therapies for mental, physical and social disorders and dysfunctions.
This book should be required reading for medical professionals and students, mental health professionals, business executives, and even politicians. This work raises the question as to why there is so much opposition to public funding for the arts, and completely obliterates the argument that the arts are just a “frill” or “luxury” in our lives, and makes the case for thorough integration of the arts in all facets of our existence.
The book includes personal stories and case studies to illustrate the various ways in which art can impact our lives, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving cognitive function, and enhancing communication and empathy. The authors also provide practical tips and exercises to help readers incorporate art into their daily lives, whether through creating art themselves or engaging with it in other ways.
This is interesting to anyone interested in the science of creativity and the potential benefits of art for personal growth and well-being.
For me, “Your Brain on Art” was a life-changing read. It gave me so much insight into myself (I learned that I’ve been self-medicating with aesthetics for years without realizing it). And it took creativity from being an occasional “hobby” to being a vital part of my wellness routine. But this book contains more than art. It explains flourishing, wellness, and how our bodies process emotions and trauma in an easy-to-understand way that I connected with. Reading this book sparked so much healing for me, and I’m incredibly grateful to the authors for sharing their expertise and insight.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy.
It was wonderful to read all of these ideas in one place about how the arts transform us!
Highly recommend.
It is accessible for anyone and makes you remember that we are all born with art within ourselves that needs to be birthed.
-Confirmed and articulated inchoate ideas that I have had about the impact of art on the mind and in the heart
-Affirmed my own artistic inclinations
-Shed light on a ton of science that is pertinent to living a full and healthy life
"Your Brain on Art: How the Art Transform Us" is a gift, and reading it is a transformative act in and of itself. Now that I think of it, this book will be my new go-to gift for others on repeat. I know so many people who will be grateful for the opportunity to read it. Could not recommend any more highly!
When I find myself underlining page after page of a book and making lists of how to apply its message, I know it is good and valuable. Ivy and Susan's book is great and and essential.
At a time when things feel chaotic and difficult, Your Brain On Art provides much needed insights for a way through...both personally and collectively.
Art has always presaged societal and cultural development by decades, if not centuries. Now the sciences are catching up to what great writers and artists have been trying to teach us. It is time to listen. It is time to hear what Ivy and Susan are helping us to understand about ourselves and what is important to living fully.
Please read and share this book, our world needs it.
I really enjoyed the personal anecdotes from the authors as well as stories about so many people - some famous and some not - about how the arts have impacted their lives.
I feel like we need the messages and information from this book more than ever, as schools are cutting arts programs and people are becoming more and more dependent on solely *receiving* information from the media rather than creating or truly experiencing their daily lives.