Last Friday was the last of a 4 week new series called The Mindful Artist. As a community arts instructor, it makes me feel wonderfully happy to have tried something off the beaten path. I have mentioned before how liberating it is to guide my students with a non-judgemental approach. With simple themes and techniques like a mandala creation or splattering paint, we combined meditation and harmonic chants with the exquisite process of art making quite effortlessly.
Working with watercolours, I thought it wise to start with art, putting the meditation in the middle of the 2 hour sessions in order to let our washes dry. It makes sense to use thicker paints on those washes, doing things like detail line work, glazing or scumbling.
Sound bathing is so relaxing. Most people know of the sound OM, the primordial sound of the earth.
I used the concept of chakras, these wheels of energy, associating them with sounds according to ancient wisdom.
The root chakra known in sanscrit as the Mūlādhāra is typically seen in the colour red and its sound is ooooo, like in the word moon. It ties us to the hot mantle of the earth and is definitely a grounding chakra.
Watch this video for a break down of all the chakras and their sounds. This guided meditation is excellent to reboot your endocrinal system which will reinforce balance in your life. I made this video a year ago, excited to test my new mic.
All the work you see here is from my students except for this one.
Everything is vibration; on a molecular level at least. With harmonic chanting, you can amplify these vibration, making them a bigger part of your daily routine. These sounds are an endless source of inspiration and connect multiple senses in your design. The visual expression in painting becomes a part of a larger process encompassing physical wellbeing. The experience itself becomes the art, the fact you can bring a physical work of art home is just a bonus.
Vibration of the vocal cords spreads to the bones and all the cells of the body. By relaxing the throat and creating deliberate shapes with the lips, the sinuses may resonate like never before. It can be quite the epiphany.
Some will know this pleasure of course but it is interesting to bring a healing intention to your voice even for the experienced therapist or signer. They are layers of understanding that the west has much to learn from. Here in the west, take Canada for example, we struggle to involve multiple senses on our tasks. Furthermore, lessons on wholistic healing per se, help to reach many goals that before seemed unattainable. These dimensions or layers of understanding, when explored with an open mind and an open heart, are excellent to improve or maintain neuroplasticity.
Mindfulness is to be brought with you everywhere, alongside the most banal daily task like doing the dishes or petting your cat. It is something my Sifu Kai Lung used to say about Tai Chi.
If we could as a species embrace our imperfections, mindfulness would seem a lot more attainable. With a genuine kindness to one’s self, a willingness to forgive, it is easier to see beyond material gain and move to a place of compassion.
Everybody brings a different mindful flavour to the human experience... Indeed!
All in all, this series gave everyone a sense that who they are is enough, that what they create is wonderful regardless of if it is aesthetically pleasing to them. I was glad to receive such feedback because creating a safe space is primordial to me.
Because guiding these meditation is performed, I express my gratitude to find myself on Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh unceded territories.
We were fortunate that The Mindful Artist was such a positive catalyst of growth. Much of the credit goes to my aunt Mukti who generously invited me to attend many of her wholistic workshops. She sent me some exercises by email which proved sublime, tying pressure points to the mix. More on that later.... maybe?
For more on this novel class, follow me here:
@edouard/the-busy-mind-and-the-itch-to-get-creating
