How Art Helps the Brain Process Anxiety: Activating Both Hemispheres for Healing

Anxiety can feel overwhelming, like a constant loop of racing thoughts and intense emotions. But engaging in creative activities—such as drawing, painting, doodling, or any form of artistic expression—can help regulate anxiety and bring relief. This is because art activates both hemispheres of the brain, allowing us to process emotions in a deeper and more balanced way.

The Brain and Emotional Processing: The Role of Both Hemispheres

Our brain is split into two hemispheres, each playing a unique role in how we experience and process emotions:

🧠 The Left Hemisphere – Logical, analytical, and language-based. It helps us name emotions, structure our thoughts, and make sense of experiences. However, it can also be responsible for overthinking, repetitive worries, and the "mental chatter" that fuels anxiety.

🎨 The Right Hemisphere – Intuitive, creative, and emotional. It processes feelings in a non-verbal way, using images, colors, and sensory experiences instead of words. This part of the brain allows us to feel deeply but doesn’t always have the language to explain what’s happening.

When we experience anxiety, the left hemisphere tends to dominate, trying to analyze, control, and make sense of everything. This can lead to overthinking, looping thoughts, and emotional overwhelm. Meanwhile, the right hemisphere struggles to express what we feel internally, leaving us disconnected from our emotions.

How Art Helps Balance the Brain and Reduce Anxiety

Art serves as a bridge between the two hemispheres, helping them work together rather than against each other. When we engage in creative expression, we activate the right hemisphere, allowing emotions to surface in a way that bypasses overthinking. At the same time, the left hemisphere processes what is being expressed, helping us integrate emotions more effectively.

This whole-brain activation has powerful effects on mental health:

✅ Reduces overthinking – Shifts focus away from repetitive worries

✅ Releases trapped emotions – Helps externalize feelings rather than keeping them inside

✅ Calms the nervous system – Engages the parasympathetic system, promoting relaxation

✅ Strengthens the body-mind connection – Encourages us to express emotions physically rather than suppressing them

You Don’t Need to Know How to Draw!

One of the biggest misconceptions about using art for anxiety relief is thinking that you need to be good at it. Creativity is not a skill—it’s a natural function of the brain that we all have. You don’t need artistic training or talent; you just need to pick up a pen or brush and let your hand move.

Think of it as an exercise for your brain, much like stretching is for your body. No one needs to see your drawings, and they don’t have to be "beautiful" or make sense. The goal is to express, not impress.

Even simple doodling can activate the creative side of your brain, giving your emotions a non-verbal outlet and allowing your nervous system to settle.

Art as a Body-Mind Therapy

Anxiety isn’t just in our thoughts—it also lives in the body. It can show up as:

🔥 Tightness in the chest

💨 Shortness of breath

💥 A racing heart

⚡ Tension in the muscles

When words fail, colors and shapes can express what we feel inside. This is the essence of body-mind therapy, a core approach in somatic psychotherapy and creative psychotherapy. By involving the body in the creative process, we allow emotions to flow instead of staying stuck.

Whether you experience panic attacks, overthinking, or chronic stress, art can be a powerful tool to reconnect with yourself, balance your brain, and find emotional relief. Next time you feel anxious, grab a pen, let your hand move freely, and allow your brain to process emotions in a way that words sometimes cannot.