Artistic Beauty Enhances Our Health

Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly in Texas

Today, as I walked through the traditional Halloween faire in my neighborhood (crime scene tape, a giant web cascading down from the roof of a house onto the lawn [complete with paper mache' black widow] and a 10 ft scarecrow), something glittered and caught my eye. It was a Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly; and it was a beauty with it's silvery black wings and blue tail. I laughed out loud a bit as I realized that Holy Spirit was giving me a moment to put into practice a scripture that I had prayed about the day before:

"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Philippians 4:8, NASB)

As I watched the flittering color dance about, everything else faded away. I found myself thankful for the moment, and much more unaware of the ghosts and ghouls that were so proudly displayed. This experience kept running through my thoughts so I looked up a few articles on the effects of both artistic beauty and nature on our health and well-being. Here are a few of my findings:

• Beautiful art activates the reward system in our brain

• Taking in beauty through art or nature actually lowers stress hormones such as cortisol

• Beauty can help ease physical pain (our pain perception can be altered)

• Immunity is enhanced through encounters with beauty due to elevated emotional health

The list goes on. But for me, the message is clear: Our spiritual, intellectual, and emotional formation has a deep effect on our physical well-being. In order to be healthy and whole, we need to cultivate that which is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praise worthy. When we truly partner with Jesus, we end up cultivating an environment that fosters beauty, truth, goodness, and health. Think of it this way, when God created an environment, He created a lush, beautiful garden. And this is what He saw as a suitable home for the flourishing of mankind.

Maybe it's time for a renaissance of what is truly beautiful–that which invokes a sense of goodness in our world. Maybe we should consider incorporating beauty into our lives, not from a vain or egotistical stance, but rather as artistic endeavors that soothe the soul. What would happen if we took the radical stance of allowing the darkness that comes at us through our digital devices to begin to fade away as we fix our eyes on that which is genuinely lovely.

This would certainly take intentionality, along with something else. It would require that we have eyes that see...

• the small flutters of light when everything else looms large

• the joy of discovering color in the midst of what's dark and brooding

• visual harmony when things seem disjointed and disconnected

• subtle nuances that bridge ideas with emotions when dissociative patterns emerge

In other words, we need to purposely look for the light and beauty that flits by us everyday; allowing it to be our focus instead of the dark facade that easily encapsulates our hearts and minds. And if we ask, Jesus will highlight what He deems as beautiful, or send it fluttering by when needed...