Music, art, dance, humor, and animals all have the ability to soothe, comfort, heal, and lift the spirits. These healing interventions have a powerful effect on an individual’s physical, spiritual, and mental health. Most people engage in these activities without being fully aware of the beneficial effects on their health and well-being.
Music has been used to facilitate healing throughout history and has been a vital part of all societies and cultures. For example, Aristotle believed the flute was powerful. Pythagoras taught his students to change their emotions of worry, fear, sorrow, and anger by singing and playing a musical instrument daily. The Lacota sacred teachings refer to music as medicine (Stevens, 2012).
Modern-day music therapy began after World War I when community musicians played for hospitalized veterans. Those who attended the concerts demonstrated a significant change in their physiological and emotional wellbeing. Today, music is often integrated as a spiritual practice in compassionate health care (American Music Therapy Association, 2017).
Art has been used as a visual means of communication and expression since prehistoric times. Art therapy began as a treatment modality in the 1930s when the healing potential of artistic self-expression was realized and integrated into the fields of psychology and art. The use of art therapy can help to clarify an individual’s existential or spiritual issues (American Art Therapy Association, 2017; Gabriel et al., 2001).
Dance is universal. Throughout the world, people have danced to celebrate, to bond together as communities, to share sentiments, and to heal the sick. Dance therapy is concerned with genuine, creative movement and establishing unity of mind, body, and spirit. Dance is the essence of embodiment. Marian Chase founded the American Dance Therapy Association in 1966 (American Dance Therapy Association, 2017; Block & Kissell, 2001).
Humor is a complex phenomenon and an essential part of human relationships. According to anthropologists, no culture devoid of humor has ever been found at any time in history. A sense of humor involves not only a perspective on life (a way of perceiving the world), it is also a behavior that expresses that perspective and is crucial to healing. Although humor is often lighthearted, it also serves a profound social, emotional, and cognitive function (Wooten, 2013; Martin, 2007).
Animals have been used in cultures throughout the world for therapeutic purposes for thousands of years, and their use is increasing in hospitals, nursing homes, and psychiatric institutions. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is being used more and more often to treat acutely and chronically ill clients (Fine, 2015; Stanley-Hermanns & Miller, 2002).