4: How culture, art and history can help us think differently with Dr Louise Lambert

On Wellbeing

In this interesting conversation Dr Louise Lambert, employee wellbeing specialist and positive psychologist describes how art and history can support positive mental health. Louise discusses how art evokes emotion. This is the role of art. Within this there is room for contemplation and reflection. We can examine what we feel and why. Art and culture forces us into emotion regulation: we feel it, we need to solve it. Art and history can also validate our emotion, because someone else has felt it in a painting or as an artist. It also allows for distance and perspective, we can experience it from afar and so might be able to deal with the emotions that are evoked more effectively. Louise also discusses how engaging in art, history and culture offers mental stimulation, a break from ourselves to see into the lives of others, examine their thoughts and their feelings. In a world which does not always appreciate the role of art and culture, this podcast offers a fresh insight into what contribution it makes to our mental health.