What do art, creativity and the healing process have in common?
A: They each express UNIVERSAL LIFE FORCE = ENERGY (aka, chi/qi/ki)
The core energy engaged in healing and making art is very similar, almost identical. Think of calligraphy -- have you seen the Chinese film called "Hero"? It came out on DVD two or three years ago. The film is like a ballet of flowing color and Kung Fu acrobatics filleting the air. The movements are based on, we learn in the story, the sacred art of calligraphy. The connection is both physical in that calligraphy brush strokes mimic the natural flow of universal energy, which is expressed in martial arts... and emotional in that the peace and serenity found when you are at peace with the brush is akin to what you feel when you are centered in this same energy in martial arts... or really just about any concentrated creative state.
When I paint, I can easily enter this kind of focused flow. It is like dipping into an altered mindset or dimension of reality in which you access your muse and dance. This is true of any creative experience, including the healing of body, mind and spirit.
I see healing as a return to bliss -- the organic, primeval quality of being at one with your soul. When you enter this awareness, your life energy, or qi, moves freely and naturally, dissolving any physical and imaginary blocks. Joy surfaces like a great whale cresting the ocean. There is no fear. There is no limitation. Nature is at peace within us and we express our unique magnitude, our art of living. Creating your life in this authentic way is really a healing process. Connect with this part of your being -- groove it, spoon it, love it, engage it -- and you create your healing experience.
Making art is transcendent, meaning its source is not of this world. Social living is based on the collective illusion of separation -- from self, nature, spirit, oneness. It seems to me that great art, great expression, to be achieved, must rise above the illusion of form and opinion to find its true, unadulterated voice. There is no judgment here, no condemnation, though some art produced is social, spiritual, political commentary. The process of getting it out, of birthing it begins in the emotional and energetic realm of our being, our passion to express. The form it takes is almost immaterial... except as a record of our creative process. This is art's eternal beauty.
