Embodied Art Activities: A Friendly Path to Relational Growth

A picture is like a map of the world

It's a snapshot of what the world is like at a given moment

This picture of the world contains forms that I can identify with (forms standing for 'ME HERE') and forms that I cannot identify with (forms standing for 'YOU THERE', 'THE OTHER')

ME HERE: What speaks to me through the picture and is part of 'my world' or the world of my peers, tribe, or nation

NOT ME/YOU THERE: What does not speak to me through the picture and is part of 'your world' or the world of people similar to you

What is not me can be:

• All that I no longer want to be part of
• All that I never wanted to be part of
• All that I want to overcome
• All that I want to leave behind
• Anything that is too frightening to become part of
• Anything that threatens what I want to become
• All that stands in the way of becoming a person

A picture holds both representations of 'ME HERE' and 'YOU THERE/THE OTHER' as visual parts of the whole. Approaching the picture with friendly curiosity and care for differences brings a new worldview to life

This is what the new worldview looks like:
It is possible to be with all that is ME HERE (parts of the picture representing 'my world') and with YOU THERE (parts of the picture representing 'the other')

Taking the arts as a foundation, I can experience what it feels like to be me and be open to more of who I am right now. The 'More of' can be: The wider space of being a person who holds empathy for diverse forms of existence. The wider space of being someone who is willing to balance the feel of the whole, and take care of it

I am an agent using the arts as my foundation. I am both the viewer and the creator of the snapshot of the 'world' that the picture represents. On an artistic level, I am empowered to rearrange the picture, representing the world, in all its facets. I can split off parts of the picture that do not appeal to me (because they do not match my artistic taste). During the process, I can place those parts in new locations and connect with them in new ways

The new places where I put the pieces are new grounds. As I place the pieces, I can watch these grounds widen. The process of placement is linked to a force that propels the process forward without me having to take responsibility for the ongoing movement. This force is the ongoing life movement

All of this happens when the body comes into play. The environmental body does not want to split into parts, but rather, it is constantly interconnecting. The living body wants to hold divergent responses to the world and process them as a whole. My body, unseparated from the environment, is the ongoing life force

By trusting my body, I am able to process my artwork further. My sense of co-creation and coexistence grows. I can see the world as a loving space that holds both our worlds, your and mine

This is what relational empowerment means: Feeling empowered to embrace one's own worldview and the worldviews of others, and being able to shift between these views while responding to the needs of the world

© Freda Blob https://www.artsfocusing.com/creative-compassion/blog

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