The thought of falling ill is sure to make one ill. We are not talking common colds here. This is about those ailments that your grand aunt’s home remedies or your neighbour’s friendly advice just won’t cure. The ones that necessitate professional help.
As you anxiously await your turn, seated outside the doctor’s door, you cannot help but observe all your fellow sufferers, awaiting their turn too. Those with pain written on every nerve in their being, make your furiously pounding heart throb even faster. These fears don’t quell even after the doctor’s examination. The ordeal continues with the melodramatic tests that follow, until one is completely cured. If you unfortunately fall into the incurable category, then perhaps anxiety will one day give way to silent acceptance. Nevertheless, every hospital visit spells apprehension.
Have you ever considered the possibility of a pleasant distraction coming to your rescue whilst in the patients waiting room? Music playing in the background is an option but an impractical one, given the fact that all health care centres are silent zones.
This is where art can play an important role. A painting here or a sculpture there, placed strategically in medical centres, especially in spaces where people congregate, united in their misery, will not only break the monotony of endless waiting periods but will also calm many a frayed nerve. Art merely sits silently on a wall, gently seeking your attention and patiently tugging at your unsettling thoughts.
Slowly and surely, good art will speak to you. As your panicking eyes settle on it, you will start noticing the lines, the forms, and the stories they tell. One step at a time, you will stroll into the depths of the canvas unconsciously and strike a friendship with the artist’s narrative within. When the nurse finally announces your name, you emerge as if returning from a well deserved holiday!
A thought-provoking, mood-inducing work of art, goes a long way in negating the discomfort associated with the experience of getting healed through medical interventions. Research shows that patients generally immersed in their own health issues, are able to feel safer when art is displayed on hospital walls. Art is therapeutic. Let us harness this healing power as we journey on towards good health!