our years ago, Lori Lite
was coping with the stress of
dealing with aging parents
while juggling family and work
demands when she suddenly
had the urge to begin paint-
ing. “I felt like painting swirls,
swirls and nothing but swirls, so I decided to sign
up for a painting class,” says Lite, who is in her 50s
and lives in Atlanta. She quickly discovered that the
structured class was making her more anxious. “I
tend to be a bit of an overachiever and a perfection-
ist, so I couldn’t just relax and enjoy the sessions,”
she remembers.
Instead, Lite decided to set up a small easel in the
windowed corner of her kitchen and began simply
painting swirls. The results were immediate—and
magical. “I began painting these swirls in soothing,
earthlike colors such as brown, beige and gold while
looking out at the woods just beyond my window,” she
says. “For the first time in weeks, I felt calm.” Since
then, she’s made a point to continue painting for 10 to
15 minutes every day. “It was something I was drawn
to instinctively,” she says. “I’m not a great artist, but
I just put on some relaxing music and let my paint-
brush guide me, and I can feel the stress melting away.”
It probably comes as no surprise that creating art
can be therapeutic. For tens of thousands of years,
humans have gravitated toward expressing their
deepest emotions through paintings, sculptures,
drawings and other media. “From the time we’ve
been able to communicate with one another, we have
created art,” says Steven Schlozman, a co-director of
the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massa-CREATIVE
SOLUTIONS
Artistic expression, either on your
own or as part of therapy, can foster
an improved sense of well-being