eMindology blog series - Blog #1
Art and Nature are powerful tools for mental well-being and personal development but they are not as widespread as they should be. As the World is facing an increase of mental health issues, it’s time to empower the change-makers who can make a bigger impact into people’s lives: The Arts Therapists and Nature / Eco Therapists.
Photo by Thomas Kinto on Unsplash
From a personal point of view, I can attest the role that Art and Nature had on my own personal journey. My life needs to be enriched with colours and Music and I take my inspiration in Nature, especially in places near water. And my experience is probably the same experience for billions of people on this planet. So I was quite surprised to see that Nature Therapy and Art Therapy, which are universal and timeless, don’t make the headlines as often as the trio Meditation – Yoga – Mindfulness. After training as a Yoga teacher, I realised myself that a lot of people just don’t connect with Meditation, Yoga and /or Mindfulness and feel left out. But every Human being instinctively connects with Dance, Music, Arts and /or Nature to feel good.
And we end up having on one side Yoga / Mindfulness / Meditation which don’t resonate for everyone but are highly-publicized. There is not a day without any new study about their physical and mental benefits. And there is not a month without any new Startup stepping into the wellness industry to create the next Mindfulness / Meditation / Yoga tech products aimed to help people’s mental health. And on the other side we have Arts and Nature, which are universally accepted as highly beneficial for mental well-being, but lack of scientific studies from Academics and receive little attention from Startups. However, between Yoga / Meditation and Art / Nature, guess which ones have the most promising development to make a real difference with new technologies such as virtual reality or augmented intelligence?
As a “simple” Life Coach, I don’t have the skills neither the knowledge to help people with Art and Nature, so I turned to Arts therapists and asked them which challenges they were facing and the reasons why they were not as popular as Yoga. Let’s be clear, the reasons for this situation as well as the solutions are many and varied. But the truth is also that just a few of them have really realised their potential to make a bigger impact.
Stepping into my Life Coach role, I can support Arts Therapists and Nature Therapists to unleash their potential and make a difference on 3 different angles:
1. Embracing the Technology opportunity
The eTherapist: How technology empowers therapists to make multi-dimensional impacts
The Successful digital mental health therapist
2. Exploring the "Personal Development" potentials
9 reasons why Arts Therapists should step into the self-care and personal development movements https://www.bluespiralmotion.com/post/9-reasons-why-arts-therapists-should-step-into-the-self-care-and-personal-development-movements
3. Revealing them as Entrepreneurs
Nature Therapy and the Sustainable Development Goal 3 in mental health
Complementary therapies: How Arts and Creative Therapists can reach the top?
The Art and Creative Therapists entrepreneurs
And this how the concept "Impact Coaching” reveals its full meaning: Empowering the Change Makers