politics and practice based on mindfulness

Friday, February 13, 2009

art therapy for cancer (post-surgery)

Today from Reuters, an illuminating article on a small, Swedish study that demonstrated significant clinical improvements in breast cancer patients from art therapy (link here). What caught my eye: the protocol offers time and space for expression and reflection.  Sounds like meditation to me.   Through an introspective and personal process guided by the teacher, patients gradually abandoned false ideas about the gender stereotype of a perfect, healthy female body.  And that gave them more hope.  Consequently their physical healing improved according to standard, quality-of-life measures.  Having worked with cancer-diagnosed students for some time now, I'd infer that  the art therapy was similar to meditation: a form of reflection and stable attention that can provide authentic insight and positive life changes.  

Personal anecdote: I recently attended a one-day art workshop with Lee Alter, one of Charlottesville's favorite watercolor painters.  Lee's work is light in touch, minimalist and abstract, and yet she reveres our sensuous world.  She favors subjects such as figures, flowers, her beloved musician friends, and nature.  

I learned so much from her teaching, especially from her demonstrations of using breath as a guide for each brushstroke.  This technique, and her gentle method of encouragement, seemed to generate a slow, intense hum of concentration through the sunny afternoon in a local studio ... several personal discoveries and breakthroughs followed.  One participant, a post-surgery cancer patient, is a devoted student and relies on these classes to further her healing.  

I felt I was actually seeing things differently (literally) the next day.  Hard to describe how: a bit more right brained, impressionistic, less conditioned vision.  It's so good, so lucky that an artist-teacher we know can help us discover parts of ourselves that are new and regenerate.

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