3 Reasons why Art is Essential in Your Environment

We all talk about how important our environment is and how it effects our behavior. The very famous Dilts pyramid points to the fact that how we feel is a direct result of our surroundings.

And yet we stay superficial when constructing our spaces. We splurge on the Italian couch and chandelier, or that new flat screen TV. We pay attention to curtains and pillows, but we don't give much emphasis to our empty walls.

There're countless large scale projects I'd visited where the walls are bare and the answer is obvious. We don't see the value in having art in our spaces. We don't understand what it does to our psyche, and how it is able to bring us into alignment with the simple joy of living every day.

There're three main reasons why having art should be a top priority, especially in post-Covid times.

1. Art is able to give us a chance to heal, to exhale, to have moments of reprieve throughout our day. Imagine sitting at your home desk, hours upon hours of countless zoom calls, not even knowing when one blends into another. Imagine looking up at a painting of your happy place once in a while, between those exhausting two dimensional meetings. Having that piece above your desk helps you battle overwhelm and burnout. It gives you a much needed moment of balance throughout your day.
2. Art brings us to our core. If there's anything this last year had taught us, it's to appreciate the silver linings, to spend time going inward and analyzing our purpose in life, our raison d'etre. Art reaches deep within our soul, it touches us on a profound level where we respond to color, to texture, to shapes and lines. Art brings out that inner child in us and is able to show us our purpose in living every day.
3. Lastly, but equally important, is the balance in our lives, something we seem to have lost with all the pivoting during Covid. There're no boundaries anymore between life and work. We get up to be half-dressed to work (the upper half) at 8am, and don't get off the hamster wheel till 11pm sometimes. With the added duties of mothering, cleaning, cooking, and other countless errands it just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day. Having a piece that brings you to your happy place, that makes you reminisce about the good times you had during your last family vacation, or the romance of your honeymoon, or that retreat where you had your most amazing 'aha' moment, brings you to balance. It brings back the joy of living, puts into perspective what is truly important to you as a whole person, not as a slave of the job, the kids, the never-ending grind. Having that cup of coffee in the kitchen with your favorite piece in front of you, or relaxing in the living room when kids are finally off to sleep - those moments are priceless.

Let's invest in art. Because art heals, art brings us to our core, art balances us. Let's allow ourselves moments of reprieve, moments of joy, moments of deep exhales. It'll all be ok in our worlds if we take a minute throughout our day to appreciate how stunning our existence is, and how lucky we are to be here every single day of our lives.