Animal Art and Wellbeing

Animals are one of my favourite things about the world. Whether it’s our furry family members (our cats and dogs), or birds visiting our gardens, or the wildlife in the fields, we would be much poorer without them. I hope we’ll be able to save them before they go extinct. They enrich our lives and calm us, giving as much love as we give them and sharing a space with a wild animal, however fleeting the moment, is a wonderful thing to experience. 

I’m lucky enough to have a cat who is a really gentle soul and I love spending time with her. She does tend to leap up on my shoulders when I’m least expecting it, something my other cats never did, but that’s ok because she nudges my head with hers and makes me happy. 

I’m also lucky to have had several wildlife encounters, the birds that visit my garden for one. I see them regularly and a robin came within a few inches of my feet not so long ago. I’ve had two close encounters with a fox too, one last summer. I was outside as the sun went down and heard something walking through the dry leaves at the bottom of the garden under the trees. It was dark down there already and a silvery being emerged from the shadows to sit down. As he turned his head, I saw the long snout and white chest, but once he saw me, he ducked back into the darkness. Amazing to see though. 

Several squirrels have also crossed my path. I’m always happy to see them and any meeting with a wild creature like this lifts my spirits. It’s an emotional and magical thing. Animals have a similar effect on us as nature.

As I wrote in my last post, nature is beneficial to our mental health, whether the real thing or in a picture and animals have the same calming influence. They are used to help those with mental health difficulties and those recovering from illness. I know myself that my cats have always been a comfort through life, having experienced depression myself. They provide a non-judgemental source of peace. Someone to just be with. Animals improve your mood, reduce stress, help you to feel relaxed and improve confidence. 

Art with animals also helps your mood; it gives you something to focus your busy mind on for a while, something to pause the thoughts that constantly race around your head. It’s been said that looking at cat pictures on the internet helps you to concentrate more on the work you do afterwards because it makes you happy and relaxed. Pictures on your wall can do the same thing. In my last post, I wrote about using nature images as reminders to take a moment and breathe, to just be before carrying on with your day. You can do the same with animal images. Choose your favourite animals and enjoy their effect on you. Do you have a favourite animal? How do animals make you feel? Let me know in the comments or on social media (links below). 

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