Using “The Arts” as an Emotional and Physical Release
Excited to embrace each new season with leisure-activities, we quickly find ourselves thrown into the hustle and bustle of having to make choices. The kids are back to school with their added extra-curricular activities and our work agendas fill every square of our personal calendars. We set aside our summer tank tops and pull out our winter sweaters, ready to tackle a whole new list of “things to do”. Emotionally, we may feel a bit too overwhelmed or anxious with the pressure of the all new deadlines and due dates that each season brings. The approach of the holidays and end-of-the-year goals are seemingly just around the corner. Then the New Year flies right by, and the need for balance in our life becomes even more apparent and vitally necessary.
Children and teens involved in after-school sports programs find a perfect balance between the academics and physical activity. Adults who go to the gym regularly or are active with a sports-related community team, actually look forward to the release of adrenaline expelled during their physical workouts. During physical exercise the body finds itself tossed temporarily into a state of euphoria. With our minds refreshed and the blood in our bodies pumping, we feel more emotionally capable of engaging in the new challenges that face us.
Sports don’t appeal to everybody. Those who are more artistic have a tendency to migrate towards music, drama and dance. Researchers have found the easy understanding and grasping of math concepts directly related to children involved in The Arts from a very early age. Dance and music, script reading and singing all have a natural “hidden rhythm: and timing of their own. Youngsters enrolled in dance classes at the age of 3, develop a natural understanding of simple number combinations, phrasing and rhythmic changes’all connected to the concept of math breakdown. “5-6-7-8-” , ‘Hold three 8’s’, or ‘enter on the 4th 8’, becomes easily-understood dance-classroom speech. In later years, fraction-concept and story problems come easy to the child, as they too, are related in the breakdown of choreography composition!.
The physical activities chosen to balance out our family’s lives should be taken just as seriously as our work commitment and school involvement. After-school programs should carry the same emphasis of indulging oneself entirely into the moment- becoming the best we can at what we’re doing, learning every detail and mastering each skill. We then can walk away feeling emotionally refreshed and revived, ready to study, complete a project or indulge in an engaging TV program without guilt!
