The art of happiness. Literally.

There are some things in life that are guaranteed to deliver either pure joy or maddening frustration — depending on your skills and aptitudes. 

The piano seems to be one. For those who can play, tickling the ivories magically transports them from the grind of daily life to a happier, safer and simpler place. You can see it on their faces.

For others, bashing the keys with what amounts to more gusto than ability — and creating a noise that could be used as a fire alarm in a piano bar — can crush one’s soul. 

University of Melbourne resident philosopher Associate Professor John Armstrong argues that creativity and artistic pursuits are significant contributors to a person’s sense of wellbeing.

“Creativity essentially involves the achievement of order out of chaos and the progressive development of skill,” according to the British born thinker, now living in Melbourne.

“These reverse some of our daily fears: that chaos will overwhelm us, that life will drain away in worry and empty routine.

“To master a piece on the piano, learn how to order a glass of wine in Italian, plant a herb garden or make a book case are not world-transforming achievements, in the big romantic sense. But they allow us to be active agents of beauty, grace and order,” he says.

Even policymakers now acknowledge the link between cultural creativity and happiness.

A 2005 European Commission Report on the role of culture in reducing social exclusion declared “participation in cultural activities can … be instrumental in helping people and communities to overcome poverty and social exclusion”, while art and craft is often used to encourage connectivity and mental activity among the elderly. 

And while it may be a surprise to some, data from the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research reveals most Australians are indeed happy. 

Each year, respondents to the Institute’s HILDA Survey are asked, “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life? “ The response scale runs from zero to 10, where zero means “completely dissatisfied’” and 10 indicates “completely satisfied”.

The most common response over the past decade has been about eight, suggesting a generally healthy level of life satisfaction. (The young and those aged over 65 are generally the ‘happiest’.)

These high figures were sustained throughout the global financial crisis, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and heightened concern about global warming, and (while the study doesn’t propose a link) it could be that a shift towards more cultural engagement across Australia is helping buoy the nation’s sense of wellbeing.

Data from Community Indicators Victoria (a collaborative project funded by VicHealth and hosted by the University of Melbourne’s School of Population Health) shows about half of all Victorians have engaged in painting, drawing, singing, playing a musical instrument or some kind of craft over the past month.

Associate Professor Armstrong believes society has come a long way from the notion of the ‘tortured artist’, which he fears may have disguised the connection between creativity and wellbeing.

“The romantic conception of the artist or thinker emphasised the stresses and strains of the creative life — in which the writing of a poem, the composing of an opera or the discovery of a new philosophical system was the cause of anguish and was a desperately uncertain way of making a living,” he explains.

“One thinks of Van Gogh tormented by his creative drive or Keats unable to make a living from his exquisite odes or Ruskin going mad because of the gap between his astonishing capacity to fashion ideas and his failure to transform the world in the light of the truths in which he so passionately believed.

“In recent times, however, the link between amateur creativity and happiness has become clearer.”

This means the joys of art, languages and general creativity now act as crucial counterbalances to our fast-paced, modern lives.

“Modest though these pursuits may be, they meet a grand inner need for participation in the good,” Associate Professor Armstrong says.

http://cmmw.unimelb.edu.au/

http://www.melbourneinstitute.com/hilda/

http://www.communityindicators.net.au/