The Signs | The new science of how to trust your instincts by Dr Tara Swart

What if ?

Art, creativity & beauty are not the bells & whistles of life. They are life.

In a recent interview, Steven Bartlett interviewed Geoffrey Hinton, a man often described as the “Godfather of AI,” and, among other things, they discussed where AI has taken the lead in brain intelligence, in ‘mundane intellectual labour.’ Bartlett asks, “so, what remains?” Hinton replies, “maybe, for a while, some kind of creativity” and then adds the caveat “but the whole idea of super intelligence is nothing remains.” A temporary dopamine hit, then, followed swiftly by a cortisol-inducing low.

If that’s the future, what of the past ?

Our Palaeolithic* ancestors, whose energy & resources were centered around survival – hunting, finding shelter – knew that art and creativity were vital too, even if they didn’t have the science to explain it that we do today. There were non-negotiables in their lives such as dancing, drumming, humming, chanting, adorning themselves and singing around the fire. Why did they use scarce resources in these ways ? To bond the tribe and to relieve stress somatically (from the body) – for example, by dancing. In fact, today, in some indigenous cultures, there is no word for art; it is not seen as a separate creation but rather a part of everyday life.

In the 1989 film Dead Poet’s Society, with Robin Williams as the unconventional English teacher John Keating at a private prep school, where the majority of graduates go on to the Ivy League, who describes his philosophy thus :

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering—these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

Earlier this year I published this post on instagram, introducing the concept of neuroaesthetics**, because I had spoken to Dr Tara Swart, medical doctor, psychiatrist and neuroscientist in relation to rehabilitation in ballet.

At a societal level, we’ve lost much of our connection to ancient wisdom, become isolated, lonely and inward-facing, and so through Dr Tara Swart’s new book, The Signs, you can begin to unravel these unhelpful patterns, following her practical guidance towards a closer connection with not only yourself, but with everything around you.

The goal? To live your life without limits.

The science of noticing signs

The Signs looks at the emerging research within neuroaesthetics. Beholding beauty, whether that’s art, ballet or nature, benefits us further by encouraging us to nuture our ability to notice the beauty all around us. This takes work; our brains are, at their most basic level, designed to keep us alive for long enough to reproduce. In order to train your brain to notice the things that are important to you (I’ll spare you the science but it’s in the book), you need to actively strengthen neural pathways related to those things.

To connect with your inner wisdom, the first thing to do is to start noticing. Undo the autopilot and see the beauty around you. Be grateful for it and express that. The more you stop and notice, the more beauty you’ll see.

Research is showing that creativity has neurological rewards – from lowering the stress hormone cortisol (where we began), to building resilience and managing stress. Watching ballet directs the brain towards joy & excitement and the bonding hormone oxytocin. Think of cortisol and oxytocin as living at opposite ends of a playground seesaw. They can’t co-exist; you can’t feel joyful and stressed at the same time. At the stressy end of the seesaw, you have the cortisol inducing emotions of fear, anger, disgust, shame & sadness, and as you move towards the oxytocin end, you experience the positive emotions of joy, love, trust and excitement. In the middle of our seesaw is surprise, carefully balanced to tip you towards either end. So, a trip to the ballet (dancing, or watching) is beneficial and rewards us with an oxytocin boosting good mood.

Being able to notice the beauty in nature – by going for a walk or yes, hugging a tree – is also beneficial. It’s no accident that a tip used by interior designers to bring nature into our homes and workplaces – biophilic design*** – works because as humans we default towards natural colours, which we find calming, because we have always existed in nature. It’s an effective way of promoting aesthetically pleasing spaces that not only speak to the importance of beauty in our lives, but have also been found to increase performance, reduce stress & anxiety, help with mood regulation, lower blood pressure & increase healing rates in hospitals.

Research by neuroscientist Marian Diamond² on rats has shown that enriching their environment increased brain growth by 6%. This is neuroplasticity, and the environment you around you (chosen, or not – the influence is there regardless of whether or not you are consciously enriching it), really matters, because it affects your physiology via your senses. How many senses do you think you have ? – see below. TL;DR : if you said 5, read on!

What do we know about the benefits of noticing signs ?

Going to watch ballet every few months lowers your risk of dying by 31%; even going just twice a year, you lower your risk by 14%, according to a study ¹

As luck would have it, the benefits of immersing yourself in beauty & creativity, whether psychological, neural or chemical, are not tied to your level of skill; you don’t need to be good at ballet to feel its beneficial effects on your mood. You don’t even have to be dancing – watching is beneficial too. The goal is to do whatever it is for the enjoyment of it.

If you find yourself repeating negative thoughts, lighting up your brain by enjoying beauty and creative outlets (yoga, dance) helps to create the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective, encouraging a positive outlook. Over time, you are actively training your brain to notice more of the things that are important to you, rather than the default setting of what’s important for your survival, which leads to a more open-minded approach and helps you to spot signs that might have previously gone unnoticed.

What else will you learn ?

Dr Tara explains concepts such as the mind-body problem, logic versus intuition, finding your purpose with signs, our 34 (and counting) senses, unconscious influence and curating your tribe.

So, what if?

So my question to you is; now that you know how much more you might be capable of, what are you going to notice so that you are thriving instead of surviving, guided by your signs ? Living that life without limits.

And here’s another question for you : in our ever-evolving AI environment, is art what makes us human ? Because if it is, that’s our superpower and it elevates us beyond the reach of AI.

The Signs by Dr Tara Swart is available now wherever you buy your books. Dr Tara has also narrated the audio book.

Dr Tara Swart

References

1 Fancourt, D. and Steptoe, A., 2019. The art of life and death: 14 year follow-up analyses of associations between arts engagement and mortality in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

2 Marian C. Diamond, David Krech, Mark R. Rosenzweig published: August 1964. The effects of an enriched environment on the histology of the rat cerebral cortex^†

*Paleolithic : literally means ‘old stone’, and here it relates to the early phase of the Stone Age, lasting about 2.5 million years. Rudimentary stone tools were used, and small sculptures made from clay or stone have been found (called the Venus Sculptures), as well as cave art.

**Neuroaesthetics : your response to either taking part in or observing an aesthetic experience such as dancing or spending time in nature.

***biophilic design – bringing the natural world indoors through paint colours, plants, lighting etc.