Rewards
Written by Michaela MacBlake Matthews
What Is Mind-Body?
Mind-Body is the notion that all things internal and external are in some way connected, with certain states of being, mindsets, and emotions being tied to various parts of the body. This concept spans from the spiritual to the medical. For example, COPD can cause anxiety, while the throat chakra is linked to self expression. A lack of self expression also tends to intertwine with social anxiety… and so on.
Mind-Body is a holistic way of overstepping the ‘which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ debate in our own health. Instead, it opts to view physical and non-physical influences as equally weighted components of health, which are not independent from each other. A great example is that excessive slouching can lead to depression, and depression can lead to slouching.
How Does Creation Link To Holistic Health?
When we set out to create something, we work silently with the vague essences of emotions and movements. We make choices, but we also follow a procedure. We work toward a future end goal, while also being in the moment.
Creation is a way of getting both sides of the mind to work together, and find some sense of ease in balancing the two. Because creation is not a starkly survivalist task, the body and mind both have a chance to become fully engaged in something non-threatening, and assign equal, balanced merit to different functions within the mind.
How Do We Define Beauty?
Beauty is often found in things that feel intentional, and that have a sense of unity within them. However, unity is not to be confused with sameness, or uniformity. We don’t often feel astonished by a mess of branches, or often even by an average forest. However, if a large tree falls in the same forest, and happens to land in a patch of light with a few brightly colored mushrooms near its base… then we have the kind of beauty that stops people in their tracks.
Psychologically, visual beauty is something that breaks the pattern and mends the wound simultaneously. As people, we don’t identify with perfect things. We aren’t drawn to chaos, either. Something that breaks perfection with balance, however, gives off a subtle feeling of optimism.
Creating Beauty Teaches Us What Healing Looks Like
Ultimately, the pursuit of beauty is the pursuit of happiness, focused into a single moment. Creativity, to rearrange ideas and memories to come up with new things is the first step, however it has little to do with beauty as an end result. Actually, beauty can most easily be learned by rearranging the same elements many times, and learning what balances and relationships manage to feel both soothing and enticing at once.
When we pursue beauty, we teach ourselves to identify and confront any subtle detail that disrupts the ease of what we’re observing. In doing so, we become diligent in fighting dis-ease, and slowly but surely, bring our bodies along with us.
"Mac" is on the Lifestyle Team here at Darn Good Yarn, and loves taking a ‘teach a man to fish’ approach to creative therapy. She is certified in neuro-linguistic programming, and is also the surreal artist and author behind Surrealismac.
