There is no doubt that god artwork can invoke a sense of well-being. Beautiful landscape paintings and works depicting serene locations can bring a person to a calm and serenity that only art can achieve.
Today’s students need to know that what they create can have such an effect and it’s a great responsibility.
Table of contents
The Process
In today’s anxiety ridden societies, the need for cool heads is a mainstay. People will use whatever they can to beat stress and meditation is a centuries old technique that is more popular today than ever. There are several ways to meditate 1 and just looking at art created to be of outstanding aesthetic value can achieve quite the same.
It calls for a skilled hand but just a few strokes from a brush can crate a sunset or wintry wonderland. All throughout the world people use art to create and sustain a meditative state and it’s like a form of symbiosis whereby to create e the art one must move into a state of meditation to create a work that can be used for meditation.
Careful planning and execution of the art medium the student chooses will bring about success and establish early on to the student that they definitely have what it takes to cause an effect with their art.
Keep A Close Eye
Teachers should keep a close eye on their students while they’re creating their works. Don’t crowd them in, but keep at a distance and observe how they behave while creating. Next is to show the student what it is like when the public sees their work. What kind of state of mind does the work bring about?
In this case we’re looking for people who observe the work and go into a state of calm and serenity and their minds open up and the day’s troubles disappear. Once they’ve seen that they can get a person to react positively, it’s time to have them review their work, their mindset while developing it and what to do afterwards when an observer of the painting engages it.
Here is where the student will start to see how adjusting this or that or choosing this color or that color can cause an effect in a positive direction.
It means that they are in control and they are responsible for what happens. If the relish the result of sending people into a state of higher consciousness, then it’s good for everyone around. The student mus never be encouraged to be overly cautious. It builds up reserved behavior and they won’t express themselves fully. Certainly they’ll be rough around the edges but that is par for the course.
Let them experiment. Show them art from around the world that elicit responses akin to a fine meditative state. They’ll see the value and you’ll have a young person on their way to making big impacts with their art from now on.
Meditation Is Not Weird
In some cases the topic of meditation will be taboo with certain students. It’s due to ignorance and cultural issues. Americans used to think meditation classes were only for the hippies of the 1960s and those people in the far east who sat on mountaintops with their legs folded under them in the famous lotus position. Surprisingly it was the 1960s that ushered in the now worldwide billion dollar meditation industry.
It’s rife with books, videos, merchandise, equipment and of course certified professionals. The stress 2 of war and general survival brought specialists in health care to reconsider meditation and they’ll use whatever it takes to get those patients up and running and artwork is a major part of it.
Meditation Art Field Trip
Here’s a way for the students to see the value of their art in a meditative way. There are a number of veterans health care facilities and prisons as well as mental institutions. Have them participate in a show where they create serene images and have them displayed at one of these locations. Watch as others stop by to gander and record their reactions.
Many will just ‘ooh and ahh’ and that’s not bad. Others will find and appreciate the effort put into the work to bring about a sense of good nature and calm. A student seeing this will know from hen on that they have a power that must be wielded responsibly.
The Adult Coloring Book Craze
T further emphasize the marriage of art and meditation, today’s latest craze are adult coloring books. These books are designed to be farm ore intricate than your run of the mill coloring book.
During their development as an industry, some found out that people loved what are called mandalas. These mandalas are of intricate design, circular, and with geometric shapes inside like a kaleidoscope would have. It takes hours an d hours to color one of these and they’ve been so successful in chilling people out that many doctors and hospitals prescribe these books to patients and the early studies show they’re of some medical good.
They get the person to focus their attention on one thing, not to be scatterbrained and to display the patience and creativity only a serene state of mind can bring.
Other Venues
Paintings and drawings aren’t the only art that can hook up with meditation. Any craft can do it, especially weaving, crochet, braiding hair or hair styling, sculpture and even putting decorative rhinestones on old jeans works.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line here is that the arts are more than just painting by the numbers. Their effects span the spectrum of emotions and states of mind. It’s a power that young people need to know can do great good or great harm if not used with a sense of responsibility and integrity.
References
- The importance of Meditation (Yourbestfatburner) The 3-point Guide to Losing Belly Fat: Meditation, Breakfast and Snacking
- the Harmful Effects of Stress (WebMD) 10 Health Problems Related to Stress That You Can Fix
