This episode is made possible through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation.

My father has dementia and I'm his only caretaker. And there's something about that always being in the background.

My father has no living family apart from essentially me and my son.

He's at a place where we need to be visiting him every day or every other day.

Otherwise, it's unsustainable, you know.

And so that's the level of caretaking that's happening.

The way that we kind of nourish him and keep him buoyant is by visiting him,

and my son does that with me. This is sort of the lifeline for him right now. It's almost

like his purpose, is seeing my son, seeing his grandson. What nourishes him the most is just

having loving interactions with us, you know. He was a poet and really encouraged me to be

creative and create all the time.

And so art and literature and music has been in my life since I was born.

And so a couple days ago, my son and I packed some paper and some pencils.

And we went to my dad's apartment that I've gotten for him.

He lives by himself.

And I was thinking about what's the art that we could do together that would be the most collaborative. You know, thinking about art making as a way of being, as a way that you move through the world,

rather than it's sort of like a start and end-time practice.

Welcome to the Science of Happiness. I'm Dachry Keltner.

There is a growing body of science showing that creating art can be deeply healing,

calming our nerves, lifting our mood, and helping us process tough emotions.

So this Mental Health Awareness Month, we're kicking off a series about how art can support our bodies and minds. Today we're joined by Shabnan PBI, an award-winning writer,

filmmaker, and teacher who recently turned to visual art as a form of self-care, things

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