Want to get healthy this summer? Add the arts to your core routine

As we head into warmer weather and bid the darkness of winter farewell, it’s a wonderful time of year to plan how we’re going to make use of the longer days and enjoy a restorative summer. And this year I have a top piece of wellbeing advice for you: let 2026 be the summer you indulge in arts and creativity.

As a scientist, I spend my days researching the behaviours that most impact our health. And while you’re no doubt familiar with many of them – diet, exercise, sleep, nature – you may not be aware of how substantial the evidence base now is that arts are a core health-promoting activity too. That’s right – dancing, singing, writing, drawing, crafting, reading, enjoying exhibitions, attending festivals and going to gigs are all activities you should be immersing yourself in as a valuable tonic.

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As just a taster of this scientific evidence, did you know that when we engage in the arts we activate the same pleasure and reward networks in the brain activated by food, sex and drugs, and release happy hormones like dopamine. We help our brains to regulate our emotions so we can deal with day-to-day stresses more effectively.

Engaging in arts can also give us a sense of meaning and purpose, enhancing our sense of wellbeing and reducing our risk of depression. Engaging in the arts is also a whole-brain workout. It builds new neural pathways, building our resilience against cognitive decline. And the novel emotions, storylines and sensations we get through arts experiences build the ability of our brains to respond to the complex world around us.

For our bodies there are benefits too. When we breathe deeply for activities like singing, we improve the strength of our respiratory muscles. When we dance, we have decreases in blood pressure and cholesterol. Arts engagement even improves our immune activity. Can you imagine if a drug had the same catalogue of benefits as the arts? We would be telling everyone about it, fighting to get our hands on it, and taking it every single day. How wonderful, then, that instead of being a non-descript pill, arts engagement is in fact a joyous activity for us to participate in. So, if you want to increase your own arts engagement this summer, I suggest thinking about your arts engagement just like you think about your food. Here are my 10 top tips.

1. Crash diets don’t work

The way to integrate more arts into your life is not to start bingeing on art, cramming creativity into every crevice of the day, starting new artistic hobbies and signing up to lots of classes. Just as with food diets, these large behavioural changes rarely stick. Regular, sustained engagement is the goal. Change starts with doing a little, often.

Read more:

• Music in schools delivers an essential pathway out of poverty – here’s how
• ‘Culture is who we are and what we do, not something for any sort of elite’
• Music is everywhere, including in our heads. So why is it so hard to describe?

2. Work out your ‘five-a-day’ equivalent

Decide on a simple rule you can apply to your life to make sure you engage with the arts every day, like the five-a-day rule for eating fruit and vegetables. Maybe that’s just 10 minutes of sketching at your desk before you start work each day, 15 minutes of a crafts activity each evening, or 20 minutes of listening to an evening concert on the radio. Whatever amount of time you pick, make it small and achievable every day. 

3. Work around your energy levels

Are there times when your attention drifts or you start to feel stressed or overcharged? Or when during the week you feel in a rut – when you have too many evenings at home in a row or are short on social company? Just as we structure our daily food intake to recharge our energy, work out how you can use music, art, reading or culture to regulate your energy or mood.

4. Make the easy swaps

For many people, the key to a good diet is making simple substitutions for healthier alternatives. In the same way, think about the swaps you could make, like putting your phone down on your commute and picking up your book. Or turning a social gathering with friends into a trip to an exhibition or gig.

5. Plan your meals out

Maybe you treat yourself to a monthly takeaway or a meal out for special occasions. Plan your arts treats the same way – plan the time to go to a museum or gallery once a month, or book tickets to a concert as a treat to look forward to. These treats will also add novelty to your creative engagement, which is itself beneficial to health.

6. Diversity is key

We used to say ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’, but now the advice is to ditch the daily apple and sample as many plants as you can a week. In the same way, don’t rely just on one arts activity. Mix things up with lots of contrasting activities. Watching, making, listening, creating all have different health benefits.

7. Experiment with new flavours

Just as it’s fun to try out a new ingredient or cooking technique in the kitchen, have fun with novel arts experiences. Fortunately, in the same way that it’s not necessary to be a gourmet chef in order to cook food that is healthy, being good at – or knowledgeable about – the arts is not a prerequisite to experiencing their health benefits. 

8. Be a mindful chef

It’s all too easy to eat a meal without tasting it, much like plugging into our headphones and then zoning out of our music. Take time to savour even the background arts experiences. When you turn the radio on, take the time to sit and listen for a few minutes, not allowing yourself to multitask. When you’re making art, spend at least some time trying to think of nothing else other than the art and being entirely present.

9. Avoid the UPFs (ultra-processed foods)

Screen-based arts opportunities are proliferating. And while there are many documented health benefits from watching dramas on television, viewing art on our phones, or participating virtually in activities, screens may be the UPFs of the arts, negating or diluting some of those health benefits. So try to make your daily arts engagement real, not virtual where you can.

10. Identify your chicken soup

When we’re ill, we all have a food we believe will get us better again – home-made chicken soup or a vitamin-packed smoothie. Work out what your equivalent is for when you’re feeling stressed, anxious, low or tired. Pinpoint what music or books lift your mood, what arts or crafts activities are cathartic, or what events you like to put in the diary to look forward to.

So, whether you’re attending a festival this summer, booking tickets to a show, picking up a new craft or building your party playlist, I wish you a joyful, health-enhancing summer of creativity.

Daisy Fancourt is professor of psychobiology & epidemiology and head of the social biobehavioural research group at University College London. She is also the newly appointed first associate scientist at the Royal Albert Hall.

Her book Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives is out now (Cornerstone, £22). You can buy it from the Big Issue shop on bookshop.org, which helps to support Big Issue and independent bookshops.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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