What defines art? Is it something beautiful made by hand? Or is it more than that?
I tend to think of art as a form of authentic self-expression. Anything less than that is a craft.
Taking oil to canvas and copying a photo is a skill that I don't have. Much as I admire this skill, this is a craft. Creating the scene from "nothing" is art.
Art doesn't come from nothing. I saw a quote on a furniture store: "we are the sum total of what we have seen." I think we are the sum total of what we hold important. Translating what we hold dear into our lives is an act of art. Copying what we see into another form without passing through our heart is craft...
By this definition our lives can be works of art: live from your heart, express meaning in your life, live as yourself and not as a carbon copy of what you see. This is the only freedom that has meaning. And it is the only freedom that cannot be taken from you.
Our minds seek to understand, and in doing so, we name things: this is a safe person to be with, this is a trusted health practitioner, this is acceptable behavior for this person. If we limit our behavior to what is acceptable to others we get trapped into a box too small for our soul to live. So I am an acupuncturist, taichi teacher... one who must be responsible in my professional life. But I am also a person, a child in an adult body, an adult in a young body, a girl living on her own for the first time in her life. I am full of exploration, play, safe risks...
I invited some of my patients to come to my student improv night, our end-of-semester show to culminate my first semester learning the fun and art of improv comedy. No one showed up... that's not a problem for me... but one patient said to me, "I just couldn't come. I can't see you as my trusted healing professional cutting up on stage."
His loss, I say. I had a blast that night!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Ice is not the answer
Say we sprain an ankle. Immediately after the sprain, we may not feel anything - no change. Then within 10 minutes a whole cascade reaction occurs: there is sudden swelling, pain, the range of motion is limited, the ankle cannot take full body weight.
The Western approach is to numb the pain and chase away the swelling with ice, then maybe bind it. After several days, the pain is reduced... but the problem doesn't seem to go away: the ankle is still easy to reinjure. People are just told to expect they will have "weak ankles."
This is not a solution.
The swelling is purposeful: it accomplishes two main functions: to bring nutrients and resources to the injury, and to splint the joint, protecting it from being able to move and therefore exacerbate the original injury. Trusting that the swelling has a purpose, the trick is to accomplish what it was trying to do so as to avoid the need to swell up.
An acupuncturist will want to increase circulation to the injured area, not reduce it. In mobilizing the joint as much as possible, there may be pain during treatment, but afterwards there is often dramatic reduction in both pain and swelling...
And the process gives the body and mind a chance to understand the injury. Consciously being careful about use of the joint reduces further injury, reducing the body's need to splint with fluid accumulation... I had a sprain about 7 years ago. I treated with massage and acupuncture. It hardly swelled up, while giving me little pain. I found that if I was careful about good alignment it was hardly a hindrance to me. And I have not since re-sprained the ankle.
The intention is solve the problem, not merely mask symptoms.
The Western approach is to numb the pain and chase away the swelling with ice, then maybe bind it. After several days, the pain is reduced... but the problem doesn't seem to go away: the ankle is still easy to reinjure. People are just told to expect they will have "weak ankles."
This is not a solution.
The swelling is purposeful: it accomplishes two main functions: to bring nutrients and resources to the injury, and to splint the joint, protecting it from being able to move and therefore exacerbate the original injury. Trusting that the swelling has a purpose, the trick is to accomplish what it was trying to do so as to avoid the need to swell up.
An acupuncturist will want to increase circulation to the injured area, not reduce it. In mobilizing the joint as much as possible, there may be pain during treatment, but afterwards there is often dramatic reduction in both pain and swelling...
And the process gives the body and mind a chance to understand the injury. Consciously being careful about use of the joint reduces further injury, reducing the body's need to splint with fluid accumulation... I had a sprain about 7 years ago. I treated with massage and acupuncture. It hardly swelled up, while giving me little pain. I found that if I was careful about good alignment it was hardly a hindrance to me. And I have not since re-sprained the ankle.
The intention is solve the problem, not merely mask symptoms.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Learn to Learn
Sometimes less is more.
You know how when you are trying to learn something, you try too hard? The effort and concentration, and above all the fear of messing up, all seem to make the whole activity difficult. But when you have done that thing enough times, it seems so easy... We all have such experiences: remember first learning how to drive?
What is it about repetition that makes an activity come easier? Well, we let go of the fear when we have done it many times. We let go of the self-judgment when we know we have done this thing just fine. And eventually our body-mind develops a habit of this activity and we don't even have to think about it any more.
So what if we could actually learn something new as if we already were experts? What if we could be so self-forgiven that we can just do the action with full confidence. What if making mistakes was not so scary, looking good not so all-important. And vice versa. What if we took an activity we thought we knew really well and studied it? What if you could study your own posture, the way you walk, as if you were learning it for the very first time. As a beginner practice as if you were an expert, as an expert, study as if you were a beginner.
Life is ever-changing. And change requires adaptation - and learning. If we stop learning we stop growing and adapting to life... we get stuck, we get old. Old is not chronology, old is unadaptive. Old is not the quality of skin or the strength of muscles, old is weak in the mind and poor in aspiration. By this definition, the opposite of old is not young: the opposite of old is alive!
Reach out to others and learn something from everyone you meet. Take a risk and try a new restaurant, a new food, a different kind of job, talk to people you've never said hi to before. Go away to somewhere exotic: or explore a new street in your neighborhood, actually sit in the park bench you pass every day. Take classes in things that a week ago you never would have dreamed of taking: or take the classes you have been waiting all your life to take! Risk learning something, and in the process you will learn about yourself.
And what greater task in this world do we have than to find out who we really are? If we only knew that, all the world would be at our feet.
You know how when you are trying to learn something, you try too hard? The effort and concentration, and above all the fear of messing up, all seem to make the whole activity difficult. But when you have done that thing enough times, it seems so easy... We all have such experiences: remember first learning how to drive?
What is it about repetition that makes an activity come easier? Well, we let go of the fear when we have done it many times. We let go of the self-judgment when we know we have done this thing just fine. And eventually our body-mind develops a habit of this activity and we don't even have to think about it any more.
So what if we could actually learn something new as if we already were experts? What if we could be so self-forgiven that we can just do the action with full confidence. What if making mistakes was not so scary, looking good not so all-important. And vice versa. What if we took an activity we thought we knew really well and studied it? What if you could study your own posture, the way you walk, as if you were learning it for the very first time. As a beginner practice as if you were an expert, as an expert, study as if you were a beginner.
Life is ever-changing. And change requires adaptation - and learning. If we stop learning we stop growing and adapting to life... we get stuck, we get old. Old is not chronology, old is unadaptive. Old is not the quality of skin or the strength of muscles, old is weak in the mind and poor in aspiration. By this definition, the opposite of old is not young: the opposite of old is alive!
Reach out to others and learn something from everyone you meet. Take a risk and try a new restaurant, a new food, a different kind of job, talk to people you've never said hi to before. Go away to somewhere exotic: or explore a new street in your neighborhood, actually sit in the park bench you pass every day. Take classes in things that a week ago you never would have dreamed of taking: or take the classes you have been waiting all your life to take! Risk learning something, and in the process you will learn about yourself.
And what greater task in this world do we have than to find out who we really are? If we only knew that, all the world would be at our feet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
