Experience and expression drive our daily lives. They’re mutually dependent because experience happens in the moment, and expression gives an outlet for our emotions in that moment. And there are so many ways to express our experiences and emotions – we can talk, sing, dance, paint and play music. Some people knit, crochet, weave and sew as other ways of artistically expressing themselves.
In senior living communities, the benefits of developing programs that focus on creative expression range from improved physical health to enhanced wellbeing. For starters, listening to or playing music, dancing or doing something with visual or tactile art can potentially awaken responses and create a way of nonverbally communicating with others. These types of expression can reduce the experience of isolation because they involve other people, and they can even give people with cognitive impairments a way of participating in the world.
The power of music
Studies show that listening to music can decrease stress-induced agitation, shift moods, reduce anxiety and stimulate positive interactions. Music slips past the need for mental processing and allows a person to relate to it through other avenues of attention.
Music also has the power to awaken memories and feelings, even in individuals who can no longer willfully weave in and out of past and present, such as memory care patients. Music and songs can act as a kind of bookmark in our lives. We associate important events from the past and certain emotions that we were feeling at the time with music of that era. Songs from a person’s past can therefore trigger a recollection of events and emotions associated with them, even when a person has to put extra effort into communicating and recalling events of the present.
The power of movement
Expressive therapies can remove the pressure for people with dementia to speak words they can’t recall. Dance or simple rhythmic movement can remove the pressure to interact and communicate verbally, removing agitation and promoting relaxation in dementia-care patients. A benefit for anyone is that movement keeps aging bodies more limber, breathing more regular and circulation more fluid. As a group activity, movement brings people together socially and can also tap into muscle memory, which evokes joyful experiences from the past. Clapping, tapping and stepping to a beat help people sink into the moment, feel in control of themselves and connected to others.
The power of visual and tactile art
Professionals who bring art therapy to nursing care facilities view the arts as a powerful way of reaching people who are cognitively withdrawing. Art generally bypasses the need for thinking skills and engages the senses directly. It often helps someone with Alzheimer’s, for example, recall information they have retained from the past. In addition to providing visual stimulation, art stimulates the brain. And if someone has a background of drawing, painting, sculpting or weaving, the skill is still there and can be brought back to life through an expressive arts program.
And let’s not forget – the arts bring joy to many of us. Getting actively involved in creative expression, or even sitting back to simply appreciate music and art, leads to improved mood and overall wellbeing. The arts have a way of stimulating every sense and every part of us – mind, body and soul – and can open channels of expression that might otherwise remain blocked.
Rodney Gonsalves is regional vice president of operations at Wingate Healthcare, a local senior living provider, which includes Wingate at Weston. He has served as an administrator of nursing home and assisted living communities for 15 years.