Sunday, May 16, 2010

365 Lessons-Lesson 135: Express Your Inner World Through Art


Today was an art and yoga workshop at Yoon's Yoga Bliss, my husband's yoga school. It was a beautiful day outside but six of us gathered inside to do art and yoga. My best friend from elementary school, Helena Hillinga Haas, is an art therapist. My husband is a yoga teacher. They combined their talents to bring us all inward and bring the art that is within us out.

We started out by doing simple yoga asanas to help tune us in to the process. We meditated a bit before we started creating. There was not much instruction once we started. One by one, we got up and silently went to the art table to collect supplies that resonated with us. There were pieces of paper with circles on them. If we wanted to, we could create a mandala. The circular shape of the mandala helps to center the mind.



It was a very intuitive process. People worked silently for an hour and were very engaged. The hour flew by so fast, I hardly realized time passing. I think we were all in the moment.



When we finished, we all stood in a circle and meditated on what we had just created. Then, we slowly walked around the circle and stopped at each person's creation and took it in. It was amazing to see how different each work of art was. It truly showed the diversity of each of us.

We closed the class with a short meditation. It was very nice to share yoga, meditation and art in a lovely yoga studio today. I feel that by tuning into the creative process, we can learn so much about ourselves and others. It was a wonderful experience.