May is the month that autumn really urges us to let go of anything that may be to heavy a burden to bear as we descend deeper into winter. It is at this time that I love to turn to art as a therapeutic tool and I encourage you to try it for yourself. Especially if you tend to feel lonely or isolated in these colder months while everyone is more inclined to stay indoors, it can be wonderfully enriching to fill some of our social and cultural needs by engaging with the arts.
“Confronted by the many failings of our real-life communities, culture gives us the option of assembling a tribe for ourselves, drawing their members across the widest ranges of time and space, blending some living friends with some dead authors, architects, musicians and composers, painters and poets.” – Alain de Botton, An Emotional Education
When I feel like important aspects of community are missing, I turn to poets like David Whyte, musicians like Nils Frahm, and photographers like Lisa Sorgini to reflect back to me the colours and textures of my soul. I walk in nature and collect shells, leaves and rocks that I can bring home with me, to remind me of my own changing shapes. I create little shrines, homages to the imperfect wabi sabi nature of life, and in the process affirm that I too, am an artist.
“Key figures from your imaginary tribe (the modern version of angels and saints) are with you: their perspective, their habits, their ways of looking at things are in your mind, just as if they were really by your side whispering in your ear. And so, we can confront the difficult stretches of existence not simply on the basis of our own small resources but accompanied by the accumulated wisdom of the kindest, most intelligent voices of all ages.” – Alain de Botton, An Emotional Education
Your favourite poets, musicians and artists need not be from times long gone, although it can be helpful to look back to the wisdom gleaned from long gone eras. The blues of Billie Holiday, the art of John William Waterhouse and the proverbs of our ancestors can feel much more evocative than a lot of the art being produced today. Any of it can be valuable depending on our mood and the needs of our psyche for a therapeutic intervention. Art can be the most engaging tool for meditation, a consoling contemplation and a revelation of our own life as a work of art.
“A daily period of philosophical meditation does not so much dissolve problems as create an occasion during which the mind can order and understand itself. Fears, resentments and hopes become easier to name; we grow less scared of the contents of our own minds – and less resentful, calmer and clearer about our direction. We start, in faltering steps, to know ourselves slightly better.” – Alain de Botton, An Emotional Education
Philosophical meditation, or any kind of meditation is not about getting rid of anything. It is about integrating everything, and that means being honest with all the parts of ourselves and saying to them – you are welcome here. Even and especially those parts that we had once tried so hard to get rid of. Usually these are the parts of us that were not acceptable to others in our past, others that we cared about and so, we took their opinions deeply onboard as doctrine. The thing about art therapy is that it can show us the grotesque, not just the beautiful, parts of ourselves, and in doing so we become more honest, accepting and whole.
“We are hard to get to know: we are mysterious to ourselves and therefore no good at explaining who we are to others, or being liked for reasons we think are appropriate... Art can help us identify what is central to ourselves, but hard to put into words. Much that is human is not readily available in language. We can hold up art objects and say, confusedly but importantly, 'This is me.'” – Alain de Botton, Art as Therapy
Self-knowledge is a wise endeavour, not to solidify the edges of our identity but to flesh out structures within our psyche. And in doing so, giving ourselves a kind of gravity. Our gravity is not only an anchor for us to feel safe walking in this world, but it is a force that signals to others that we are safe humans to be around. Not perfect, but safe, meaning that we don’t need to walk around with proverbial loaded guns as a defence mechanism. Self-knowledge is a force that accepts human foibles and emits an aura of okay-ness. Often, we aren’t anxious about being perfect, we just need to know that we are okay, that everything is going to be okay.