Dr. Daisy Fancourt

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445 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 3 Aug

Dr. Daisy Fancourt’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

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Live Like a Girl with Dr. Mindy Pelz · Why Creativity Belongs in Your Health Routine with Dr. Daisy Fancourt · 3 Aug 2026 podcast

So basically joining a class that you do every week.

Over time, this can actually, within about six to 10 weeks, reduce levels of chronic stress, not only psychologically, but also evident at that biological level.

So we've had the first studies coming through showing that people actually start to return to better diurnal cortisol patterns within just six to 10 weeks of regular, like one hour chunks of arts engagements.

And I think this is important to kind of think about that dosage.

I mean, I mentioned earlier,

using arts that sort of 20 minutes like listening to relaxing music in a day, for example, just to give yourself those little breaks within a day.

But if you can have that one hour a week, for example, of being part of a crafting class or being part of a choir or going to a museum or something, that really focused longer period of time seems to be beneficial.

in terms of reducing those stress hormones and then the second thing we can do is if we're reducing that overall chronic stress then think well can I use arts as a way of pushing that safety boundary but in a it's in a safe way because you know that if you're going to start like reading a story that's not just positive but might have a little bit of emotional up and down that you're just rehearsing experiencing those emotions but still within the safety of it being make-believe

And one of the ways you can do this is to sort of find an author, for example, who you know and trust, like, you know, there's going to be a happy ending, even if there's some trials and tribulations along the way.

And that can be a good way of sort of having that sense of safety, knowing it'll end up in a good place.

I actually think, again, children's literature can be a really nice place to start here.

Because I recently started rereading the famous five adventure stories with my kids, which were a really big series when I was young in the UK.

And because I remember they always end well, but they've got these adventures and twists along the way.

But I actually found it really beneficial for my own stress because I found that they were just enough pushing me into those scarier emotions, but still within that safety envelope.

So that can be a really nice way.

And then just gradually extending as you feel more and more safe and

to taking on bigger challenges with the kinds of arts experiences emotionally.

I love book clubs because I also think there's a safety there because you can even check out like, is this going to end okay?

And you can chat through the emotions.

I'm part of a book club actually of local mums as well.

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