Spent a second day at Kripalu for a yoga retreat, this time with a friend, so much less introspective and more social. At the end of the night we took a workshop entitled “Healing Through Art,” though the instructor admitted she wouldn’t have called it that herself. She’s into alchemy.
Our instructions were to fold a piece of paper in half and on the left side, draw something we were feeling or dealing with that in her words was “not great.” Draw how it feels, not what it is. On the right, draw how we would like it to feel instead. Ignore the green circle on the left for now.
The left side is frustration over inequity, injustice, selfishness. Stacked layers of greed, entitlement, and violence. The Meta-crisis.
The right side is equal access to clear air, thriving greenspace, and bountiful resources.
Then we were to take a marker and change the left side to look more like the right. Conceptually, I didn’t know how to get the left closer to the right, but visually a green circle seemed obvious. More incite came sharing with the group. Their takeaway was that we are all connected. I heard that we’re all complicit, and all diminished by the suffering of the world, which I believe is true.
But maybe connection is a possible solution. Perhaps connection is one very slow path towards empathy and care for our planet and our neighbor. If I’m connected, I can be a good influence.
Maybe the circle is about making me feel better, and a tiny thing that I can work on.
