From dancing to doodling, or even simply listening to your favourite song, engaging in the creative arts can do wonders when it comes to beating exam stress.

Mental health benefits of dance

Love or hate her - everyone feels great after dancing to Taylor Swift's 'Shake it Off' and now the science is here to tell us why!

Like all forms of exercise, dancing releases mood-improving chemicals into your body. These include the protein BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor), which both protects and repairs memory neurons, and endorphins, the same neurotransmitters that are released when you're snacking on chocolate or spending time with a loved one.

Participating in a dance session has a similar ability to reduce symptoms of depression and stress when compared to other forms of intense exercise. And frankly, if that means we can swap out F45 for No Lights, No Lycra for the same mental results, we're happy!

According to Dr Petra Skeffington, a senior lecturer at Murdoch University and clinical psychologist, while exercising is always a great lifestyle choice, the benefits are felt even more during stressful periods.

"Stress has a physical impact on your body, and exercising can have a soothing effect. Even short bursts of physical activity can be beneficial, and regular exercise is a must when you’re preparing for a period of stress."

Art as meditation

If you jumped on board the adult colouring bandwagon, there's a reason you’re feeling less stressed! Fiona Gardner, coordinator and lecturer of our Graduate Diploma in Creative Arts Therapies, reveals that painting and drawing can work like mediation, reducing feelings of stress and increasing feelings of relaxation.

"Engaging in creative methods can help us process overwhelming feelings, in addition to helping us face life’s dilemmas."

Making art for just 45 minutes can significantly lower the stress hormone, cortisol, regardless of your artistic skill level. This is good news for all of us who never progressed past the stick figure phase of Year 2 (guilty!).

In addition to mental wellbeing, dabbling in the arts can also help our critical thinking and problem-solving skills, teaching us multiple perspectives, and that problems often have more than one solution.

So, next time you're looking to beat exam stress and engage the critical thinking part of your brain, why not take a break and pick up the coloured pencils?

Listening to music to de-stress

While listening to your favourite song 1,000 times on repeat is a great way to improve your mood, it turns out music has bigger implications than previously thought when it comes to overall health.

Simply listening to music can help boost our immune system, in addition to stimulating the limbic system (the emotional centre of the brain) and helping us to respond to stressful stimuli like exams more calmly.

Music can also serve to help us understand our emotions. You may have noticed you're more inclined to listen to melancholic music when experiencing a significant personal loss, like the breakdown of a close relationship.

According to Fiona, rather than using music as a reason to wallow, listening to sad music can unconsciously provide us with a level of comfort similar to what we might feel when speaking to an empathetic friend.

"Making and collaborating in creative arts activities is an ideal way to engage in a situation where you might be able to discover more about what is going on in that part of us we don't often think about."

In a similar vein, listening to cheerful music can do wonders to improve our levels of happiness. So, instead of embracing the exams blues and listening to Mad World on repeat, we recommend chucking on Eye of the Tiger for a bit of motivation - the end of semester is in reach!