I remember Roald Dahl and reading about kids that had really difficult lives and really tough circumstances.
And I identified with that as a child because it was the same in my house.
There were a lot of circumstances that were probably not the most conventional and difficult.
So there was something about seeing children.
still be able to inhabit these worlds that were mystical and magical,
and then holding this other difficult fact of not living with their parents or their parents have died or something like that.
So the poetry in, let's say, James and the Giant Peach,
for example, was just so funny and so poignant and loaded with meaning.
And when I knew that you could do that, you could take the deepest parts of yourself,
you could take those parts of yourself that maybe you're ashamed about or maybe don't fit in with other people,
that, even to this day, it's my reason to be because there are so many ways in which,
you know, I don't feel maybe like I fit in with the world.
But then when I write,
it kind of translates it in a way that makes me see that we're kind of more alike than we're not.
Welcome to the Science of Happiness.
I'm Shuka Kalantari.
One part of caring for ourselves that often gets overlooked is creativity.
How making and experiencing art can help us feel more grounded, present, and connected.
So this Mental Health Awareness Month, we're exploring the science behind how art can be medicine.
In our last episode, we talked about how visual art,