Art and Spirituality
The rhythm of life
| The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. Rabindranath Tagore |
Globally, people had and have systems and approaches to health, healing and wellbeing. These systems have built knowledge over generations. They have adapted and changed in response to needs and resources. Many were or are holistic or integrated, considering the person and the ecosystem needed to support health. With this understanding, spirituality, which by its nature is transformative, is included in that ecosystem.
Many of the activities recommended to support better brain health are embedded in community, cultural and traditional practices.
As a neurologist, my focus is on how to keep the brain healthy. As I started doing this work, I realised that many of the activities recommended to do support better brain health are embedded in many cultural and traditional practices, our ways of living and being. Part of what I do emphasises the need to invest in our cultural capital for better brain health (join me on monthly walkabouts at the Origins centre, Wits to learn more). I also understood that if we wanted truly improve health, we needed to consider the whole and include knowledge that typical gets excluded from mainstream interpretations of health and health systems.
Do you feel constantly stressed and fatigued?
Do you want to transform your life?
In an article I co-wrote with psychologist, Danilo Silva Guimarães, we recommended that ‘global (and local) health-care systems must embrace people who are often ignored, their words, and their thought systems, in theory, method, and intervention.’ We suggested four steps to guide this process:
1. Acknowledge that health is defined differently and that healthcare exists in different cultures and traditions.
2. Welcome different people with different perspectives from global communities.
3. Create a space that is open to debate and diverse perspectives.
4. Accept plurality
Spirituality is about connecting with or feeling the rhythm of life. This rhythm and harmony is what we need.
The exhibition by Buhlebezwe Siwani on at the Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg, does just this. iYeza is an exceptional exhibition that transforms the gallery into a place of openness, understanding and healing. Iyeza is also ‘the Xhoza word for medicine’.
This exhibition leads you through specific healing experiences such as walking barefoot on cool sand in the meditative garden. This really was a meditative experience encouraging awareness on thoughts and feelings in an undemanding way. The immersive video helps you to become aware of rhythm and that spirituality is about connecting with or feeling the rhythm of life, that this rhythm and harmony is what we need. Is that health then? Feeling the rhythm of life and experiencing harmony?
The exhibition will provoke or challenge or embrace depending on your world view and that’s where its power and beauty lies. Visit soon. It is closing this weekend (Closing on 8 April). I will be going again.
Think better. Feel better. Love and live better with better brain health.
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