Day Long: Developing mindfulness and creativity in response to a world in crisis
Overview
Art, dharma, and life… how I look at them, what I look to for each of them, will be what I look to and find in the others.” — Rob Burbea
In a world in crisis, how can we open to and develop our natural creative capacity, whether as artists, activists, or concerned global citizens, to respond with clarity and compassion?
Ample research reveals the positive link between mindfulness meditation and enhanced creativity. In this six-hour exploration, online and in-person at NTI, we will learn methods of mindfulness that support creativity, and explore how to move beyond limiting emotions and entrenched perspectives to open insight, inspiration, and the blessings of the flow state.
Through stories, poetry, exercises, free writing, meditation, mindful movement, and embodied awareness, we will discover how through our unique expression we can acknowledge the wonder of life and open to holding both the joys and sorrows of the world.
Key Information
| 2023 Dates |
2 December, 2023, 9am – 3pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Time) |
| Delivery Mode | Online via Zoom AND face to face at NTI |
| Duration | 6 hours with a half hour break |
| Cost | $60 (AUD) |
| Facilitator |
Shoshana Alexander Dr Nadine Levy, Head of Program, Health and Social Wellbeing |
| Enquiries | Please email Natalie McManus at n.mcmanus@nantien.edu.au |
Program Details
Shoshana Alexander, MA, has been engaged in meditation practices and performance arts since Noah and the animals came out of the Ark, always pursuing how the two disciplines might be integrated and mutually supportive. Her primary meditation practice has been in various forms of vipassana, including the focus on sensory perception taught by S. N. Goenka. Her background in performance has included the physical theatre practices of Jerzy Grotowski’s Polish Theatre Lab and the Continuum work of Emilie Conrad D’aourd. Through performance art she has sought to celebrate the beauty of the Earth and explore the transformation of suffering. Her creative endeavours include poetry concerts with music, and most recently writing and acting in a full-length play with music, “Taking Our Live,” exploring the relationship between suicide, ecocide and humanity’s imperative to choose life. As an author she has published her own books with major and mid-sized publishers, including Awakening Joy as co-author with James Baraz. As a developmental editor, she has guided numerous books into publication, including those of major Buddhist teachers, among them Tara Brach, Sharon Salzberg, Wes Nisker, and Linda Graham. She has also taught high school and university courses in the humanities, facilitated longterm writing groups, and guided grief groups. She is currently offering workshops exploring how we can answer the urgent call of the Earth at this critical time. She lives in southern Oregon on the traditional lands of the Takelma, Latgawa, and Shasta people.
Dr Nadine Levy is the Head of Health and Social Wellbeing at NTI. Read more about Nadine here.