Artistic, musical, creative, and entertaining topics in Longevity's health and wellness sphere.
To My Creatives Colleagues! While we worry about the things we need to do to survive, we cannot forget why we turn to the arts in our times of need.
Jess Girardo asked me to hold her in the Light tonight. I’m not terribly great at that kind of thing. I can meditate, but I am more of an activist, a motivator of sorts. I believe in the whole "move a muscle, change a thought" philosophy. Jess Girardo embodies this fully, even with the limitations of her body due to Scleroderma, a degenerative disorder involving the hardening of the connective tissue, resulting in a hardening of the skin. This has necessitated multiple surgeries for Jess, with no let up in sight. She has a team of 20 doctors, and speaks often of her progress and obstacles on Twitter, where I made her acquaintance.
“art Wellness classes are thoughtfully designed and expertly facilitated to draw out the unique art from inside you, and quiet your inner self-critique and self-judgement. We then have a dialogue about the art through discussion to reveal it’s meaning”. Sameeta Sparks
In the summer of 2003, I was between Junior and Senior year of Highschool. Things were great! We had just gotten back from a family vacation and I was celebrating a friend being in remission from Leukemia. I was getting ready to begin my senior year and was looking forward to it!
I’ve always had these problems with sticking with one idea. My mind will jump from one to the next trying to wrap itself around a fleeting wisp of smoke in a hazy room. They’re so compacted in my head that, when one slips out, I have to grab it then body slam it to the floor to daze it. I need to stick with that idea, or it will never be finished. I can never decide what I want to write about. Do I want to talk about how I always seem to procrastinate writing essays? Or how I used to write stories during math class in elementary school?
Art; a totally unique process where you can immerse yourself into a creative and relaxing state, and express your thoughts and emotions in a visual way. Engaging in creating a piece of artwork (of any kind) fosters a sense of harmony and accomplishment, and is a healthy way of diverting all negative energies and emotions into something positive, creative, and therapeutic. In addition, what is produced at the end will be an original and unique piece created by you.
Mindful [Art] Projects How many times did you pass by artwork and not even notice it? Street art, collection of thematic awareness-raising prints at the entrance to the train station, paintings on display in a coffee shop, photographs on the walls of a restaurant…
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from having anxiety and depression, it’s that life…well, life isn’t always beautiful. There will always be struggles. Some days I can hardly get out of bed. Sometimes the only thing I want is to be held by one specific person, and absolutely nothing else. I can’t remember what day of the week it is, or what dream I had last night, but I know it was bad.
Throughout the martial arts community, it seems that there has been a slow dissipation in the role of traditional values, in many cases, there has even been total abandonment-a disturbing observation. However, given that values are not the motivating factor for most enrollees and that most people, in fact, enroll into martial arts to become stronger, tougher, faster, and meaner (the exact reverse of the teachings), many schools have conformed to those demands in order to survive. Although to some extent, we have to appease the students in order to keep their interest, does that require desertion of the traditional aspects? After all, we have to pay our bills, and the instructors must make a living.
Funny how a random conversation with a fellow knitter turned into a comparison of the unexpected similarities between the mechanics of knitting in the round and how to use prayer beads.