Painting is a calming and therapeutic activity perfect for grandparents. There’s no need for excessive movement which many seniors experience. Anyone can make a beautiful grandparents painting with just a paintbrush, paints, canvas, and a creative mind.
If your grandparents are looking for a new hobby or something to do in their free time, painting or indulging in the arts is a wise idea. Find the perfect painting class and let your grandparents mingle and enjoy their time. Encourage them to pursue and continue painting. Not just to fill their empty schedule but also to help improve their mental and physical health.
In this article, we will talk about what art therapy is and the benefits of painting for seniors and older adults.
Art Therapy For Seniors
Art therapy is usually used to treat psychological disorders and improve mental and physical health. The patient participates in artistic activities such as dancing, painting, writing, drawing, sculpting, photography, coloring, and getting involved in music. The type of art therapy depends on the therapists and the seniors. A trained therapist will customize a creative activity that suits the senior’s needs, capabilities, and goals.
The main goal of art therapy is to take advantage of the creative process to help seniors find a productive and positive way to express themselves — their thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Art therapy can also help people cope with loss and a better outlook on life.
Benefits Of Painting For Older Adults
There are numerous benefits of painting for seniors and older adults, here are the 5 main ones.
Improves Cognitive Functions
Some seniors experience memory loss and find it difficult to focus. But by engaging in creative activities where focusing is required such as painting, seniors experience improved cognitive functions and help battle memory loss. This is because when you paint, the person needs to concentrate on the color palette they’re using and their painting.
By participating regularly, the cognitive functions of seniors improve greatly. Painting also helps slow down the development of various memory problems like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Boost Mental Health
Grandparents who participate in creative activities like painting experience less mental health problems like stress, depression, and anxiety. This is because older adults are concentrating on choosing color palettes, creating their paintings, and showcasing their talents. These creative activities leave the participants less time to feel negative emotions and help them focus on their art.
Also, finishing a painting makes the artists feel more accomplished, confident, positive, and good about themselves which boosts mental health.
Enhance Motor Skills And Coordination
Some seniors experience numbing or dexterity problems in the fingers, hands, and wrists leading to grip problems. By joining painting classing and making art, grandparents can exercise and greatly improve their fine motor skills and body coordination.
Painting increases and improves blood flow inside the body leading to dexterity enhancements in the fingers, hands, and wrists. It also prevents numbing, inflammation, and stiffness in the hands and wrists.
Increase Social Interaction
Joining painting classes and other art activities is an amazing opportunity for seniors to meet, interact, and socialize with other like-minded people. The common cause of loneliness for seniors is losing their friends or family members or having difficulty meeting them. To help alleviate their loneliness and forge new relationships, participating in fun painting activities is a great option.
Seniors will feel at ease and happy while painting and meet new people who enjoy the same activities. As a result, the elderly will feel a sense of companionship, less isolation, feel more confident, and, overall, experience better emotional health.
Way Of Self-Expression
Older adults find it difficult to express themselves. The reason is some seniors feel like they’re a burden to their kids, grandchildren, and other family members. While others can’t communicate verbally. And bottling up all these negative emotions and feelings is not good for their mental and physical health. To help them express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, finding an avenue is a must. That’s why painting is a great choice.
The seniors can paint whatever they want. There’s no right or wrong way in painting. They are free to use any color palette, use any painting style and medium, and express their minds and hearts without receiving criticism. This will boost their confidence to show their artwork, heart, and mind to their loved ones.
Conclusion
Unlike when they’re younger, seniors and older adults have more limitations. Whether it is financial, physical, or mental, seniors can’t do what they do when they’re younger. This leads to many emotional, physical, and mental health problems.
To help them cope with the changes and improve their overall health, going to therapy or joining creative activities, such as painting, is a good idea.
Painting is a positive way for everyone, from kids to seniors, to express themselves. It offers a lot of excellent benefits for the improvement of the physical, emotional, and mental health of seniors.
If you notice your grandparents are feeling lonely or lacking energy, give them a customized painting from Memorialize Art to encourage them to create their own artwork.
