Why looking at art is good for you

 
This peaceful pastoral watercolour from Ukraine was given to us over twenty years ago by Irena, a Ukrainian student we hosted one Christmas .
 
Little did any of us know what lay ahead in the years to come. Fortunately, Irena was able to escape Kyiv with her daughter soon after Russia invaded Ukraine and they are now safely in America.
 
I thought of this image today  which hangs in our living room when I read about the  latest study from Cambridge university .

This shows that looking at works of art helps  create a sense of peace and harmony which promotes abstract cognitive thinking, something we are in danger of losing because  of the amount of time we spend looking at our screens and computers.