Sunday, January 31, 2010
Whole Brain Learning
Spontaneous Painting allows us the opportunity to paint the unconscious symbols and understand them consciously.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Adult Student's Work
Spontaneous painting is for everyone - people of all ages, from all cultures, with or without painting experience. The two painting series below are each done by an art educator. The series portrays the development of their "authentic Self".
DONNA'S WRITTEN REFLECTIONS
This student teacher's final paper for The Spontaneous Painting course, documents her inner journey and what she learned. (download PDF)
REVEALING THE LIGHT
This student painted only in black for 6 years after her son died of cancer. When she began painting spontaneously, progressively she expressed lighter colors and this influenced her perceptions and personal life. Expressing these symbolic images transformed her grief and self-blame, and permitted her to feel new emotions and gratitude for being alive. Many times people express onto the canvas in seed form what will later actualize in their own lives.
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
In this student's paintings we can see how the fearful emotions that dominated her behavior gradually transformed. Her spontaneous paintings motivated her to confront the world with courage, manifesting her authentic Self. She transformed into a woman who walks in the world connected to her light and life force.
DONNA'S WRITTEN REFLECTIONS
This student teacher's final paper for The Spontaneous Painting course, documents her inner journey and what she learned. (download PDF)
REVEALING THE LIGHT
This student painted only in black for 6 years after her son died of cancer. When she began painting spontaneously, progressively she expressed lighter colors and this influenced her perceptions and personal life. Expressing these symbolic images transformed her grief and self-blame, and permitted her to feel new emotions and gratitude for being alive. Many times people express onto the canvas in seed form what will later actualize in their own lives.
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
In this student's paintings we can see how the fearful emotions that dominated her behavior gradually transformed. Her spontaneous paintings motivated her to confront the world with courage, manifesting her authentic Self. She transformed into a woman who walks in the world connected to her light and life force.
Testimonials
The following testimonials are from student teachers who took a spontaneous painting course that met once a week (3 1/2 hours on Sundays at Adelphi University) for eight weeks.
"Why isn't education instilling values and helping children at a young age gain self- understanding? I think courses about finding yourself and learning how to listen to oneself and what is going on in another person's mind should be required just as algebra. I just don't get why certain qualities, especially ones that are so important are overlooked as a factor in education."
"I have never painted before and I have never been given the opportunity to create what I want. I was looking forward to being led much more by the instructor, so the experience of being able to think freely in the classroom was new for me."
"When I paint I feel empowered because everything on the page is mine and not influenced by anything else but my heart, mind and spirit. The painting is not fulfilling any obligation on being judged by others. I am free to express who I am. It's so therapeutic and I'm so surprised I enjoy it so much. I usually feel like spending time on myself is selfish, but I feel like so much more of a whole person."
"I learned that I need to pay attention to myself and not always be attending to everyone else's needs and wants. It is okay to leave the paper blank and spaces unfilled. It's okay to not know what is going to happen next, and leave room for wonder and imagination to fill the page. I always live life worrying about the how things will turn out instead of just living each moment step by step and taking it as it comes."
"It became readily apparent that this was a place where we could say what we were feeling and not have to worry about being judged or criticized for it."
"I fear being forced to go to war, via the draft, and only have choices that will negatively affect my life. There is no escape if I must go to war. If I refuse I will be jailed for years or become a fugitive or run from the law."
"I need to learn to accept responsibility for creating my happiness instead of leaving it up to someone else to give me that happiness. The only person in charge of how I feel is myself. I want to refocus my way of thinking and ultimately my way of life to become a person who is responsible for their own life. I want to find my inner way."
"Teachers need to encourage creativity and thinking outside of the box in their classroom, not discourage it. Discouraging creativity in students only leads them to believe that there is a right and a wrong way to do things and that the teacher knows best. Students should be taught that they are the creator of their own world."
"I really like the professor and the classmates. Everyone is so friendly and caring of each other's needs. I definitely came out of class today with a new insight. It is important to take time in your busy life to step back and embrace your creativity. Everyone has creativity within them."
"Why isn't education instilling values and helping children at a young age gain self- understanding? I think courses about finding yourself and learning how to listen to oneself and what is going on in another person's mind should be required just as algebra. I just don't get why certain qualities, especially ones that are so important are overlooked as a factor in education."
"I have never painted before and I have never been given the opportunity to create what I want. I was looking forward to being led much more by the instructor, so the experience of being able to think freely in the classroom was new for me."
"When I paint I feel empowered because everything on the page is mine and not influenced by anything else but my heart, mind and spirit. The painting is not fulfilling any obligation on being judged by others. I am free to express who I am. It's so therapeutic and I'm so surprised I enjoy it so much. I usually feel like spending time on myself is selfish, but I feel like so much more of a whole person."
"I learned that I need to pay attention to myself and not always be attending to everyone else's needs and wants. It is okay to leave the paper blank and spaces unfilled. It's okay to not know what is going to happen next, and leave room for wonder and imagination to fill the page. I always live life worrying about the how things will turn out instead of just living each moment step by step and taking it as it comes."
"It became readily apparent that this was a place where we could say what we were feeling and not have to worry about being judged or criticized for it."
"I fear being forced to go to war, via the draft, and only have choices that will negatively affect my life. There is no escape if I must go to war. If I refuse I will be jailed for years or become a fugitive or run from the law."
"I need to learn to accept responsibility for creating my happiness instead of leaving it up to someone else to give me that happiness. The only person in charge of how I feel is myself. I want to refocus my way of thinking and ultimately my way of life to become a person who is responsible for their own life. I want to find my inner way."
"Teachers need to encourage creativity and thinking outside of the box in their classroom, not discourage it. Discouraging creativity in students only leads them to believe that there is a right and a wrong way to do things and that the teacher knows best. Students should be taught that they are the creator of their own world."
"I really like the professor and the classmates. Everyone is so friendly and caring of each other's needs. I definitely came out of class today with a new insight. It is important to take time in your busy life to step back and embrace your creativity. Everyone has creativity within them."
We recognize art as a healing agent for personal and social transformation. In a world culture that increasingly prioritizes intellectual knowledge for the job market, society needs to rethink priorities and seek a balance that also values and dedicates time to educating the inner authentic Self. Whole Brain Learning art programs provide people - of all ages, cultures, social classes from the advantaged to the homeless, and populations with or without special needs - with effective tools to discover their innate potentials and develop emotional, spiritual, and creative literacy. No prior artistic experience is needed in order to benefit from this method.
The I.am.I™ Spontaneous Painting Process is a method that can be applied in education, business, mental health, prisons, hospitals, and elderly care. Creative self-expression is a natural human gift we all can develop if given the opportunity. When large numbers of people paint spontaneously, they can align with their inner goals, unique talents, and creativity. Together, as we form a critical mass and enhance society, and there will be an evolutionary breakthrough in human consciousness.
WHAT IS BIODANZA?
WHAT IS BIODANZA?
Biodanza and Affectionate Intelligence
Susan Bello PhD, ATR
Bio from the Greek means life and danza means movement with emotion, so Biodanza means movement with emotion that promotes life. We have been dancing from the beginning of time and continue to do so; it must be very important for us to express our soul freely and have pleasure relating by dancing together.
Biodanza is a group therapy. While traditional psychotherapy is interested in analyzing the wounded part of the individual, Biodanza focuses on the community expressing higher qualities of the human spirit and healthy states of consciousness: peace, harmony, love, affection, courage, human kindness, tenderness, trust, vitality, happiness, the desire for contact, instinctual awareness, respect for all life, the awakening of one's creative potentials, personal identity and personal power, the ability to surrender the individual I to a greater totality, the determination to overcome obstacles, the motivation to live life fully, enthusiasm, openness to new possibilities, the cultivation of pleasure everyday - as you walk down the street feeling the breeze or the warmth of the sun touching your skin.
A session of 14 Biodanza movements is called a vivencia. As participants experience the various movements, they contact profound feelings and emotions. The vivencia provides these direct emotional experiences that will impact on the individual's behavior over time, changing how they feel, think and relate to others, to themselves and to life on the planet.
Expressing in this way through the dance create strong templates of authentic relatedness. We all have the potential to relate in these loving, affectionate, creative, sensual, vital ways and the different movements provide these opportunities. We are not talking about these subjects, we are having an immediate experience of them in the here and now. All these potentials exist within us and the skilled Biodanza facilitator gently leads people very slowly into the practice of relating to one another. This is not an exercise or dance class. You cannot do Biodanza alone because we do not exist in isolation but in relationship to each other.
Usually we are running so fast, we barely have time for each other and quiet time for ourselves. Often we force ourselves to move at a velocity that increases stress and disassociates us from our feelings. In the Biodanza vivencias, we stop this anxious rhythm and dedicate time for companionship, tenderness and authentic ways of communicating with others. The group experiences are an opportunity to practice affectionate interactions and a healing way of seeing the world, and individuals respond with love, peace and harmony toward one another.
Biodanza is a well-known movement therapy in South America and Europe, but practically unknown in the United States. The creator of Biodanza is Rolando Toro. During WWII he became profoundly agonized by the horrors and human suffering of a global society motivated toward death and destruction. He developed Biodanza as a corrective response to revert human sorrow and reeducate us about relationships, love and tenderness.
Toro in the 1940's was an anthropologist who studied hundreds of universal dance movements from different cultures throughout human history. He organized them into the system he called Biodanza. Hundreds of movements and specific music are organized into five categories.
Vitality - health, vital impetus, happiness to be alive
Sexuality - sexual pleasure, eroticism, reproduction, passion
Creativity - innovation, construction, imagination, openness
Affection - love, friendship, altruism, empathy
Transcendence - connection to nature, feeling part of a greater totality
Toro believes that when these five categories are fully developed within the individual, they can experience inner balance and mental health.
The movements induce a visceral emotional response; there are many movements - movements to express affection, creativity, vitality, sexuality and connection to a transcendent source
For the category of Vitality the music would be euphoric, happy, energizing;
For the category of Sexuality the music would be erotic, flowing, sensual;
For the category of Creativity the music would be expressive, different, intense, inspirational
For the category of Affection the music would be tender, soft, flowing, harmonious
For the category of Transcendence the music would be sublime, ethereal, mysterious, glorious
We begin a session with a walk movement and this playful way of promoting contact with others is non-threatening and the accompanying upbeat music induces happiness and vitality. Walking is a movement that is inherent to all human beings. The way a person holds their muscles and skeletal structure in their walk reveals a great deal about their mental state. For example, a depressed person walks with a lack of vitality and their muscle tonus is flaccid. People suffering from depression may walk slowly in an aimless way, and in the Biodanza session they practice walking with vitality.
Rather than analyze why the person is depressed Biodanza induces feelings of aliveness. We play a Benny Goodman tune and ask people to walk with a slight bounce with their arms swinging in harmony to the music and feel the rhythm in your body. With this movement we are stimulating an inner impetus - enthusiasm to face life; their posture is erect, their chin is slightly raised and the spine is straight. We practice walking not only with our legs but also with our entire body. As people walk across the room they are asked to greet other group members and develop affectionate interactions.
When two people hold hands and walk together to the rhythm of the music and no one is leading and no one is following, we practice developing mutual respect and sensitivity for each others way of being. Harmonizing your movement and bodily rhythm with the movement and bodily rhythm of another creates a third movement that is neither yours, nor mine but ours.
People experience true contact and communication, relaxing the armature. The experiences will register in the body, mind, spirit, initiating new neurological responses, new imprints over time.
Usually each session begins with accelerated movements to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and slowly we decelerate the movements and musical affect to engage the parasympathetic nervous system. We begin with outer-directed movements and gradually introduce movements that prepare participants to enter deeper states of relaxation or trance.
In Biodanza, by progressively slowing down the movements and music, we can return to deeper states of early psychobiological development. The movements gently lead the group into a state of deep relaxation and members experience a nonjudgmental, n state of wholeness. The neocortex is relaxed, the defenses are diminished and the mind is receptive and sensitized. In this state anguish and anxiety disappear. The individual experiences a state of well being that is difficult to describe; feelings of respect, love and an openness for life. The body is subtle, receptive, and feels deep pleasure being in the moment with what is. It is similar to the oceanic state of consciousness of the newborn, but on a higher level of consciousness.
Movement predates verbal knowing and our first means of relating to the world was through movement. Biodanza movements access emotional states of being that rational dualistic intelligence is not able to. Rather than offer information to the intellectual mind we educate the instinctual corporeal soul level of knowing.
During a session, we do not communicate in words, only through movements of emotion. There exists a cultural tendency to discredit the instinctual responses as irrational. The function of the instinct reveals a type of biological wisdom of the human species that has its own inherent logic. Being aware of our instinctual intelligence maintains health and survival.
Words bring us back into the intellectual mind and we want to explore other ways of thinking. For this reason the entire Biodanza vivencia is nonverbal. During a session we ask people not to talk but to feel. Biodanza reconnects to deep levels of instinctual human awareness that many people living in technological societies are not in touch with anymore. Presently, many of us function on automatic, producing and "doing doing" as if we were machines, totally disrespecting the natural wisdom and needs of the biological organism.
Each session plants seeds within the subconscious or unconscious mind. The response is first learned in the body, and then it filters through to the mind. Each session is designed to create these healing experiences where participants deeply feel their higher potentials of human intelligence. We are trying to connect to the instinctual sensory feeling mind, the original state of knowledge that is embodied.
Ken Wilbur says that all deep structures of consciousness are remembered whereas all surface structures of consciousness are learned. Some of the deepest structures of the human psyche, such as the archetype of Wholeness - feeling unity with the Totality of existence - are not comprehended through the intellect but experienced in a transcendent state outside of the rational mind.
The practice of affectionate intelligence is another one of the major tenets that uniquely characterizes this group therapy. Through affectionate intelligence we can empathize with other people, understand them, feel tenderness, compassion, gentleness, friendship, maternity, paternity and affinity with others.
Bonding with others is necessary for our mental health and Biodanza fulfills this need. Participants progressively relate emotionally to one another through fluid and harmonious movement interactions, that express our human need for connection, closeness and the instinct of solidarity. When people are denied meaningful relationships with other humans or animals they feel depressed. Prolonged separation from loved ones yields despair. "These biological impulses of co-operation, of integration, of solidarity culminate in feelings of altruism and constitute the genesis of love." Rolando Toro
Biodanza provides an experience of deep bonding to oneself, to others and to a higher force in the universe. Many of the movements prepare the human organism for the process of entering into the primordial state of consciousness called regression to the origin. Toro believes that the key to healing is this return to the original state where deep structures of unity with life, inner peace and ecstasy are experienced in the present moment. We are being liberated from the critical judgmental mind and in the state of nonduality, the mind engages in a state of wholeness and profound connection with the totality of existence. These unity experiences of the individual with the group and with the greater totality are one of the unique aspects of Biodanza group therapy.
During a vivencia, fears, such as abandonment, are replaced by new integrative feelings of being touched by a group member who symbolically represents a mother or a father or a loved one. The feeling of abandonment or loss is replaced by one of belonging, of being accepted, of knowing authentic contact with others. Experiencing in the present moment feelings of acceptance, tenderness, peace and deep connection to others is one of the healing methods Biodanza utilizes.
There exists a life force within us that is able to go beyond the identification with how we were conditioned. The regressed state is a return to the Original Self before the trauma was imprinted. The person is exposed to corrective emotional experiences By that I mean feeling states they may never have experienced sufficiently when they were young. These "corrective emotional experiences" provoke a series of chemical alterations within the body. Toro believes that the affectionate movements activate specific neurotransmitters that alter the body's biochemistry. These chemical-hormonal alterations repeated over time stimulate new neurological responses on a cellular level in the body-mind. As these mental states are experienced on a regular basis they create new positive mental states that are remembered on deep levels of the body, mind, spirit when one comes out of the session.
Each Biodanza session builds upon the next and as the group's emotional ties strengthen, people begin to feel the warmth and security they may never have felt in the relationships with their family of origin or with other people in their life. We say that the Biodanza session is an emotional laboratory where we can experiment letting ourselves feel in this protected environment that the world is a safe place; we look into someone's eyes with an open heart, tenderly touch there face and smile at them. In this moment of encounter, the defensive armature is gone and the person is unprotected, celebrating live fully. This positive memory has been planted in the unconscious mind. Something has been truly lived that is not easily forgotten. . Interacting with people on this authentic level of human contact and getting one's emotional needs met on a continual basis, imprints feelings of being loved and accepted.
What distinguishes Biodanza from other group or movement therapies is its focus on developing affectionate intelligence through touch. Affectionate touch is necessary for mental health. Life in both the animal and human species needs to be caressed or touched in an affectionate way. Both Dolores Kreiger and Barbara Brennan, among other teachers, have documented the healing power of therapeutic touch. From the beginning the baby needs to have her primary caretaker affectionately caress her soul by gazing into her eyes, affirming their bond. The baby monkeys in the Harry Harlow experiments, or the children raised in orphanages that Rene Spitz observed, both these researchers have confirmed that affectionate contact nurtures and it's absence wounds.* Human touch is a necessary emotional component for health.
Brains of neglected children show neurons missing by the billions. Even the experiments done with plants showed that those exposed to music, spoken and cared for with affection, grew more abundantly than those plants that did not receive these forms of communication.
An important movement of affectionate touch is the embrace. This embrace does not only have a sexual connotation but can be a feeling of fraternity. I can embrace someone I do not know very well and this contact symbolizes that we recognize each other's humanness. There is no single word in English that translates the Portuguese word "semelhante". Semelhante is an expression of humanity acknowledging one another as equals or members of the same species, the same ecological family, regardless of race, economic status; we embrace one another as equals.
The group becomes an affectionate protective community where we can experience universal love. One of the goals of Biodanza is to experience universal love for all humankind, for our semelhante, in addition to feeling it for a specific individual. The group affirms the possibility of feeling undifferentiated love, as opposed to love directed toward one special person. In undifferentiated love, we are very interested in encouraging feelings of love or affection toward humanity. We feel affection for people we do not know because we recognize that they are members of our species and part of humankind.
Practicing exercises with people in the group sessions, develops this feeling of common affinity and undifferentiated love for others. Although some people may be more attractive to us than others, when you can get past the exterior packaging, fundamentally we realize our common natures - we all have dreams, hopes, fears and the desire to be loved.
It is necessary to talk about your fears and blocks to intimacy and in the part of the session reserved for verbal group process, participants can express their emotional reactions to the different movements. There are no right or wrong emotions. Some people may want to make eye contact, others may not feel ready to at that particular time. All emotions are valid. Each person is accepted for who they are.
There are beginning, intermediate and advanced movements. When we practice doing any of the exercises, it is important that we respect our emotional needs and do the exercises at each level only when we are ready to. That is the basis of building a firm foundation of safety and acceptance for self and others in the group. We never invade someone's space or allow our personal space to be invaded. Go at your own pace and honor that you do not have to do anything other than what you are able to do and accompany each person where they are, respecting your limits and the other persons.
It is important to differentiate between contact and affectionate touch. A mechanical contact in itself is not really therapeutic. It is a sensitive touch accompanied by attitudes of affection, empathy and caring for one another that nurtures.
We can also practice our affectionate intelligence through looking into someone's eyes. Our culture approves not showing what we feel. Eye contact brings up feelings of embarrassment.
In the beginning of a Biodanza session we may look at one another, putting our hands over our eyes and just peeking out at people in a playful way. Progressively, as people feel safe in the group environment and know they are cared for then they can experiment making eye contact with different people in different ways. This is the power of working in group.
As the group matures we can do more intimate exercises of eye contact. For example, walk around the room and connect with someone you would like to dance with by making eye contact. Slowly, walk closer toward each other. Get in touch with your longing to be with this person. Allow this feeling to grow inside as you slowly draw closer. Enter in touch with all the feelings that arise. Maybe you feel vulnerable, fear, happiness, and desire - just watch and let each one be. When you finally meet this person, let the embrace be slow. Feel the coming together as if you were embracing a long lost friend. There are different kinds of embraces in Biodanza. There are embraces of friendship, of sexual desire, of protection, of melting into another person's breathing and the two becoming one in a "moment of eternity".
As Biodanza is practiced over time, the individual becomes freer and lives life more fully. They identify with their Original Self. This breaks their identification with the wounds and allows the individual to partake in the pleasure, love and the celebration of Life.
* The significant finding in the Harlow experiments was that the baby monkeys preferred to embrace and be with the soft flannel mother rather than the wire mother who supplied the milk. Once the babies were fed, affectionate touch was favored over food. Those monkeys that only grew up with the wire mothers and did not have the cloth mothers to cuddle notably appeared more neurotic. It appears that living organisms that do not experience this contact are emotionally starved and those that do are capable of vital healthy relationships to themselves and others because of this initial bonding.
Why have human beings been dancing since the beginning of time? Why do we continue to do so? Dance accesses expressions from our soul, our original identity and connects our bodies to a primal source of pleasure. Bio from the Greek means life and danza means movement with emotion, so Biodanza means movement with emotion that promotes life. Biodanza focuses on developing positive mental states rather than on suffering or mental disturbances. While traditional psychotherapy is interested in analyzing the wounded part of the individual, Biodanza develops higher qualities of the human spirit: peace, harmony, love, courage, brotherhood and strengthens healthy states of consciousness.
Biodanza is a well-known movement therapy in South America and Europe, but practically unknown in the United States. The creator of Biodanza, Rolando Toro, an anthropologist in Chile who during WWII, became profoundly agonized by the horrors and human suffering of a global society motivated toward death and destruction. He developed Biodanza as a corrective response. It is directed to revert human sorrow and reeducate us about relationships, love and tenderness.
Toro believes that disease is a psychosomatic signal of a total block at emotional levels. Unfortunately we have to deaden our senses to the daily bombardment of anti-life pollution that exists in pathological cultures valuing materialism over mental health. Specific movements and music are designed to stimulate positive emotional inner experiences, such as: human kindness, trust, instinctual awareness, respect for all life, awakening of one's creative potentials, a strong sense of personal identity, personal power, the ability to surrender the individual I to a greater totality, determination to overcome obstacles, motivation to live life fully, enthusiasm to create and be open to new possibilities, the cultivation of pleasure everyday - as you walk down the street feeling the breeze or the warmth of the sun touching your skin.
The participant can experience in each session corrective emotional experiences that provoke a series of chemical alterations within the body. Toro believes that specific movements activate specific neurotransmitters and hormonal secretions in the body. These chemical-hormonal alterations repeated over time stimulate new neurological responses in the body-mind.
Toro organized hundreds of universal dance movements and music from different cultures throughout human history into an organized system he called Biodanza. The movements are organized into five categories:
Vitality - health, vital impetus, happiness to be alive
Sexuality - sexual pleasure, eroticism, reproduction, passion
Creativity - innovation, construction, imagination, openness
Affection - love, friendship, altruism, empathy
Transcendence - connection to nature, feeling part of a greater totality
Each category expresses genetic potentials that are stimulated when one dances with deep emotion. Toro believes that when these five categories are fully developed the individual experiences a healthy and balanced life.
Each movement is danced to a specific music designed to induce a visceral emotional response; movements for contacting the numinous transcendent reality, movements to express affection, creativity, vitality and sexuality.
For the category of Vitality the music would be euphoric, happy, energizing;
For the category of Sensuality the music would be erotic, flowing, sensual;
Creativity - profound, different, strange, intense, grandiose
Affection - tender, warm, soft, loving
Transcendence - harmonious, sublime, eternal, limitless, mysterious
Each session contains approximately 13 movements that reflect these five categories. Some of the movements in a session are designed to slow down and rediscover one's own natural internal rhythm. So much of the time we force ourselves to move at a velocity that increases stress and disassociates us from our feelings. We function on automatic, producing and "doing doing" as if we were machines, totally disrespecting the natural wisdom and needs of the biological organism. The variety of the movements, emotional responses and diverse possibilities of communication are positive stimulants that liberate the development and the expression of one's genetic potentials. Biodanza permits, it gives access to rather than repress or impede the development of. It stimulates the organism to evolve in harmony with its internal laws.
The walk is a movement that often occurs in the beginning of a session and this playful way of promoting contact with others is non-threatening and the upbeat music induces happiness and vitality. Walking is a movement that is inherent to all human beings. The way a person holds their muscles and skeletal structure in their walk reveals a great deal about their mental state. For example, a depressed person walks with a lack of vitality and their muscle tonus is flaccid. Rather than analyze why the person is depressed Biodanza induces feelings of aliveness. We can play Benny Goodman and ask people to walk with their arms swinging in harmony to their footsteps, which have a slight bounce to them. The force that propels the walk comes from an impetus to face life; their posture is erect, their chin is slightly raised and the spine is straight. We practice walking not only with our legs but with our entire body. People suffering various problems incorporate their mental state into their daily walk, and in the Biodanza session they experience a different way to walk. As they walk across the room they are asked to greet other group members, briefly make eye contact with the other group members in a playful manner.
Another important movement in Biodanza that promotes affection is the embrace, o encontro. This embrace does not have a sexual connotation but rather a feeling of fraternity. This form of contact accepts everyone regardless of their race or economic status. I can embrace someone I do not know very well and this contact symbolizes that we recognize each other as "semelhantes". There is no one word in english that really translates "semelhante". It is an expression of humanity acknowledging one another as equals or members of the same species, the same ecological family.
There exists a cultural tendency to associate the instinctual responses with irrationality. The function of the instinct reveals a type of biological wisdom of the human species that has its own inherent logic that responds harmoniously to the organism's necessities. Being aware of our instinctual intelligence maintains health and survival.
Usually the movements start off accelerated to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and slowly deaccelerate to affect the parasympathetic nervous system. We begin with outer-directed movements and gradually introduce movements that prepare participants to enter deeper states of relaxation or trance.
Gently the movements lead the group members into a state of regression, deep relaxation and openness to their center or original state of being. The neocortex is relaxed, the characterological defenses are diminished and the mind is receptive and sensitized. In this state anguish and anxiety disappear. The individual experiences a feeling of well-being and a sensation of plenitude and love for life that is difficult to describe. The body is subtle, receptive, and feels deep pleasure in the moment. There is a feeling of fraternity with everything that exists and the group is felt as an affectionate protective unity of beings that form a whole. We experience universal love for all humankind and not for a specific individual. The individual is immersed within the group uterus, a communal support of love and affection. In this state the tired and stressed human organism is revitalized and the participant has a profound internal experience of a new learning.
Each session is designed to create internal experiences where participants can deeply feel these higher aspects of human nature rather than intellectually talk about them. The entire Biodanza vivencia is nonverbal. We are trying to connect to the instinctual sensory feeling mind, the original state of the primordial mind and that is why we do not use words. Words bring us back into the intellectual mind and we want to leave this way of thinking and access deeper levels of consciousness. Movement predates verbal knowing and our first means of relating to the world was through movement. When we do Biodanza some of the movements are designed to offer a nurturing inner experience of early maturational phases of development that may never have been experienced before in one's life.
Experiencing these internal states of higher consciousness in the present moment is the teaching method Biodanza utilizes. Rather than offer information to the intellectual mind we educate the instinctual body-mind-soul level of cognition. Seeds are planted within the subconscious or unconscious mind that root over time and promote changes in one's neurological system, attitudes and way of living in the world. The response is first learned in the body, then it filters through to the mind.
Many traumatic emotional imprints, stored within the body-mind, continue to repeat themselves. There exists a life force within us that is able to go beyond the identification with how we were conditioned. The regressed state is a return to the Original Self before the trauma was imprinted. It is a healing state of mind where a healthy emotional seed is planted deep within the body-mind intelligence, and new learning and programming takes root in this fertile soil.
All deep structures of consciousness are remembered whereas all surface structures of consciousness are learned. One of the deepest structures of the human psyche is the feeling of Wholeness - unity with the Totality of existence. This is not comprehended through the intellect; it is experienced in a transcendent state outside of the rational mind. The drive (natural desire) for Wholeness is an archetype necessary for mental health. When the baby looks into the mother's eyes and receives her caring look there is a feeling of Wholeness. The group members may experience a state of wholeness with each other and with the life force in the trance state. It is a more evolved state than the oceanic consciousness experienced by the newborn, before ego consciousness developed. It is a state of wholeness with the totality of existence that is on a higher plane of consciousness. A profound experience of feeling an integration between the individual self with the group and with the greater totality is one of the unique aspects of Biodanza group therapy.
Many of the exercises practiced in Biodanza prepare the human organism for the process of entering into the primordial state of consciousness called regression to the origin. Toro believes that the key to healing is this return to the original state. The individual abandons the rigid ego structure and enters into an altered state, a primordial reality, where deep structures of unity with life, inner peace and ecstasy are experienced in the present moment.
The mind is no longer thinking and the person no longer feels their regular state of dissociation or fear. Fear of abandonment is replaced by a new integrative feeling of being touched by a group member who symbolically represents a mother or a father. The feeling of abandonment or loss of meaning is replaced by one of belonging, of being accepted, of knowing authentic contact with others. This experience is remembered on deep levels when one comes out of the session. Repeated practice promotes inner change over time. The session is an emotional laboratory that creates a safe environment where new behaviors can be risked that one would not ordinarily do in daily life.
Bonding is necessary for life. When people are denied meaningful relationships with other humans or animals they feel depressed. Prolonged separation from loved ones yields despair. These vivencias are inner experiences the participant may never have had the opportunity to experience in their life. What was lost or never felt is experienced with others. Each Biodanza session builds upon the next and as the group's emotional ties strengthen, people begin to feel the warmth and security they may never have felt in the relationships with their family of origin and other people in their life. In the group experience new emotional bonds are felt. The more people begin to develop ties with the group members an old neural code can be revised. Interacting with people on this healthy level of resonance and getting one's emotional needs met on a continual basis, creates new neurological attractor patterns of feeling loved.
States of mental health express through the dance. Through emotionally engaging in the movements we relate to the group members in sensitive, authentic ways that create strong templates of healthy relatedness. These loving states exist within the collective unconscious in a latent state. The skilled Biodanza facilitator gently leads one into this state very slowly. This is not an exercise or dance class. We are relating to one another and connecting to an emotional nucleus that is universal. You cannot do Biodanza alone. It is a group therapy. We do not exist in isolation but in relationship to each other. The group forms the protective uterus where rebirth occurs. The individual and the group also experience being part of the greater totality; the Life Force of the cosmos is in each one of us.
The first part of the emotional healing is making an emotional connection. When a limbic connection has established a neural pattern, it takes a limbic connection to revise it. In Biodanza we do not just talk about feelings, we experience them deeply. No analyzing takes place.
When participants are in a mild trance state and receive this affectionate touch, they experience the healing power of human contact. Through Biodanza they practice touching and being touched with sensitivity, caring and affection.
Affectionate touch is necessary for mental health. Both Dolores Kreiger and Barbara Brennan, among other teachings have documented the benefits of therapeutic touch. The baby needs to have a primary caretaker look into their eyes, caress their soul and affirm their existence. The baby monkeys in the Harry Harlow experiments, or the children raised in orphanages that Rene Spitz observed, both these researchers have confirmed that affectionate contact nurtures and it's absence wounds. Human touch is a necessary emotional component for health. Brains of neglected children show neurons missing by the billions. Life in both animal and human species needs to be caressed or touched in an affectionate way. Even the experiments done with plants showed that those exposed to music and spoken to grew more abundantly than those plants that did not receive these forms of communication. The significant finding in the Harlow experiments was that the baby monkeys preferred to embrace and be with the soft flannel mother rather than the wire mother who supplied the milk. Affectionate touch was favored over food once this basic need was provided for. Those monkeys that only grew up with the wire mothers notably appeared more neurotic. It appears that living organisms that do not experience this contact are emotionally starved and those that do establish a vital, healthy connection to life.
It is important to differentiate between contact and affectionate touch. A mechanical contact in itself is not really therapeutic. It is a sensitive touch accompanied by attitudes of affection, empathy and caring for one another that nurtures. The practice of affectionate intelligence is one of the major tenets of this group therapy. We practice touching each other through various movements in each of the five categories: vitality, transcendence, creativity, affection and sensuality.
Members' limits are respected. That means, if someone is not comfortable doing an exercise they do not have to. If someone is shy and gives a timid hug, then adjust your movement to not overwhelm them. Be aware and sensitive to what each person's response is. Be sensitive to the movement of your partner. We practice not imposing our rhythm or emotional state on the other. The objective is to develop a sensitivity between two people where no one is leading and no one is following. Practice harmonizing your movement with the other person's movement and create a third movement which is neither mine nor yours but ours.
As this therapy is practiced over time, the individual becomes freer and lives life more fully. They identify with their Original Self. This breaks their lower ego identification with the wounds and raises the individual to partake in the pleasure, love and the celebration of Life.
Biodanza and Affectionate Intelligence
Susan Bello PhD, ATR
Bio from the Greek means life and danza means movement with emotion, so Biodanza means movement with emotion that promotes life. We have been dancing from the beginning of time and continue to do so; it must be very important for us to express our soul freely and have pleasure relating by dancing together.
Biodanza is a group therapy. While traditional psychotherapy is interested in analyzing the wounded part of the individual, Biodanza focuses on the community expressing higher qualities of the human spirit and healthy states of consciousness: peace, harmony, love, affection, courage, human kindness, tenderness, trust, vitality, happiness, the desire for contact, instinctual awareness, respect for all life, the awakening of one's creative potentials, personal identity and personal power, the ability to surrender the individual I to a greater totality, the determination to overcome obstacles, the motivation to live life fully, enthusiasm, openness to new possibilities, the cultivation of pleasure everyday - as you walk down the street feeling the breeze or the warmth of the sun touching your skin.
A session of 14 Biodanza movements is called a vivencia. As participants experience the various movements, they contact profound feelings and emotions. The vivencia provides these direct emotional experiences that will impact on the individual's behavior over time, changing how they feel, think and relate to others, to themselves and to life on the planet.
Expressing in this way through the dance create strong templates of authentic relatedness. We all have the potential to relate in these loving, affectionate, creative, sensual, vital ways and the different movements provide these opportunities. We are not talking about these subjects, we are having an immediate experience of them in the here and now. All these potentials exist within us and the skilled Biodanza facilitator gently leads people very slowly into the practice of relating to one another. This is not an exercise or dance class. You cannot do Biodanza alone because we do not exist in isolation but in relationship to each other.
Usually we are running so fast, we barely have time for each other and quiet time for ourselves. Often we force ourselves to move at a velocity that increases stress and disassociates us from our feelings. In the Biodanza vivencias, we stop this anxious rhythm and dedicate time for companionship, tenderness and authentic ways of communicating with others. The group experiences are an opportunity to practice affectionate interactions and a healing way of seeing the world, and individuals respond with love, peace and harmony toward one another.
Biodanza is a well-known movement therapy in South America and Europe, but practically unknown in the United States. The creator of Biodanza is Rolando Toro. During WWII he became profoundly agonized by the horrors and human suffering of a global society motivated toward death and destruction. He developed Biodanza as a corrective response to revert human sorrow and reeducate us about relationships, love and tenderness.
Toro in the 1940's was an anthropologist who studied hundreds of universal dance movements from different cultures throughout human history. He organized them into the system he called Biodanza. Hundreds of movements and specific music are organized into five categories.
Vitality - health, vital impetus, happiness to be alive
Sexuality - sexual pleasure, eroticism, reproduction, passion
Creativity - innovation, construction, imagination, openness
Affection - love, friendship, altruism, empathy
Transcendence - connection to nature, feeling part of a greater totality
Toro believes that when these five categories are fully developed within the individual, they can experience inner balance and mental health.
The movements induce a visceral emotional response; there are many movements - movements to express affection, creativity, vitality, sexuality and connection to a transcendent source
For the category of Vitality the music would be euphoric, happy, energizing;
For the category of Sexuality the music would be erotic, flowing, sensual;
For the category of Creativity the music would be expressive, different, intense, inspirational
For the category of Affection the music would be tender, soft, flowing, harmonious
For the category of Transcendence the music would be sublime, ethereal, mysterious, glorious
We begin a session with a walk movement and this playful way of promoting contact with others is non-threatening and the accompanying upbeat music induces happiness and vitality. Walking is a movement that is inherent to all human beings. The way a person holds their muscles and skeletal structure in their walk reveals a great deal about their mental state. For example, a depressed person walks with a lack of vitality and their muscle tonus is flaccid. People suffering from depression may walk slowly in an aimless way, and in the Biodanza session they practice walking with vitality.
Rather than analyze why the person is depressed Biodanza induces feelings of aliveness. We play a Benny Goodman tune and ask people to walk with a slight bounce with their arms swinging in harmony to the music and feel the rhythm in your body. With this movement we are stimulating an inner impetus - enthusiasm to face life; their posture is erect, their chin is slightly raised and the spine is straight. We practice walking not only with our legs but also with our entire body. As people walk across the room they are asked to greet other group members and develop affectionate interactions.
When two people hold hands and walk together to the rhythm of the music and no one is leading and no one is following, we practice developing mutual respect and sensitivity for each others way of being. Harmonizing your movement and bodily rhythm with the movement and bodily rhythm of another creates a third movement that is neither yours, nor mine but ours.
People experience true contact and communication, relaxing the armature. The experiences will register in the body, mind, spirit, initiating new neurological responses, new imprints over time.
Usually each session begins with accelerated movements to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and slowly we decelerate the movements and musical affect to engage the parasympathetic nervous system. We begin with outer-directed movements and gradually introduce movements that prepare participants to enter deeper states of relaxation or trance.
In Biodanza, by progressively slowing down the movements and music, we can return to deeper states of early psychobiological development. The movements gently lead the group into a state of deep relaxation and members experience a nonjudgmental, n state of wholeness. The neocortex is relaxed, the defenses are diminished and the mind is receptive and sensitized. In this state anguish and anxiety disappear. The individual experiences a state of well being that is difficult to describe; feelings of respect, love and an openness for life. The body is subtle, receptive, and feels deep pleasure being in the moment with what is. It is similar to the oceanic state of consciousness of the newborn, but on a higher level of consciousness.
Movement predates verbal knowing and our first means of relating to the world was through movement. Biodanza movements access emotional states of being that rational dualistic intelligence is not able to. Rather than offer information to the intellectual mind we educate the instinctual corporeal soul level of knowing.
During a session, we do not communicate in words, only through movements of emotion. There exists a cultural tendency to discredit the instinctual responses as irrational. The function of the instinct reveals a type of biological wisdom of the human species that has its own inherent logic. Being aware of our instinctual intelligence maintains health and survival.
Words bring us back into the intellectual mind and we want to explore other ways of thinking. For this reason the entire Biodanza vivencia is nonverbal. During a session we ask people not to talk but to feel. Biodanza reconnects to deep levels of instinctual human awareness that many people living in technological societies are not in touch with anymore. Presently, many of us function on automatic, producing and "doing doing" as if we were machines, totally disrespecting the natural wisdom and needs of the biological organism.
Each session plants seeds within the subconscious or unconscious mind. The response is first learned in the body, and then it filters through to the mind. Each session is designed to create these healing experiences where participants deeply feel their higher potentials of human intelligence. We are trying to connect to the instinctual sensory feeling mind, the original state of knowledge that is embodied.
Ken Wilbur says that all deep structures of consciousness are remembered whereas all surface structures of consciousness are learned. Some of the deepest structures of the human psyche, such as the archetype of Wholeness - feeling unity with the Totality of existence - are not comprehended through the intellect but experienced in a transcendent state outside of the rational mind.
The practice of affectionate intelligence is another one of the major tenets that uniquely characterizes this group therapy. Through affectionate intelligence we can empathize with other people, understand them, feel tenderness, compassion, gentleness, friendship, maternity, paternity and affinity with others.
Bonding with others is necessary for our mental health and Biodanza fulfills this need. Participants progressively relate emotionally to one another through fluid and harmonious movement interactions, that express our human need for connection, closeness and the instinct of solidarity. When people are denied meaningful relationships with other humans or animals they feel depressed. Prolonged separation from loved ones yields despair. "These biological impulses of co-operation, of integration, of solidarity culminate in feelings of altruism and constitute the genesis of love." Rolando Toro
Biodanza provides an experience of deep bonding to oneself, to others and to a higher force in the universe. Many of the movements prepare the human organism for the process of entering into the primordial state of consciousness called regression to the origin. Toro believes that the key to healing is this return to the original state where deep structures of unity with life, inner peace and ecstasy are experienced in the present moment. We are being liberated from the critical judgmental mind and in the state of nonduality, the mind engages in a state of wholeness and profound connection with the totality of existence. These unity experiences of the individual with the group and with the greater totality are one of the unique aspects of Biodanza group therapy.
During a vivencia, fears, such as abandonment, are replaced by new integrative feelings of being touched by a group member who symbolically represents a mother or a father or a loved one. The feeling of abandonment or loss is replaced by one of belonging, of being accepted, of knowing authentic contact with others. Experiencing in the present moment feelings of acceptance, tenderness, peace and deep connection to others is one of the healing methods Biodanza utilizes.
There exists a life force within us that is able to go beyond the identification with how we were conditioned. The regressed state is a return to the Original Self before the trauma was imprinted. The person is exposed to corrective emotional experiences By that I mean feeling states they may never have experienced sufficiently when they were young. These "corrective emotional experiences" provoke a series of chemical alterations within the body. Toro believes that the affectionate movements activate specific neurotransmitters that alter the body's biochemistry. These chemical-hormonal alterations repeated over time stimulate new neurological responses on a cellular level in the body-mind. As these mental states are experienced on a regular basis they create new positive mental states that are remembered on deep levels of the body, mind, spirit when one comes out of the session.
Each Biodanza session builds upon the next and as the group's emotional ties strengthen, people begin to feel the warmth and security they may never have felt in the relationships with their family of origin or with other people in their life. We say that the Biodanza session is an emotional laboratory where we can experiment letting ourselves feel in this protected environment that the world is a safe place; we look into someone's eyes with an open heart, tenderly touch there face and smile at them. In this moment of encounter, the defensive armature is gone and the person is unprotected, celebrating live fully. This positive memory has been planted in the unconscious mind. Something has been truly lived that is not easily forgotten. . Interacting with people on this authentic level of human contact and getting one's emotional needs met on a continual basis, imprints feelings of being loved and accepted.
What distinguishes Biodanza from other group or movement therapies is its focus on developing affectionate intelligence through touch. Affectionate touch is necessary for mental health. Life in both the animal and human species needs to be caressed or touched in an affectionate way. Both Dolores Kreiger and Barbara Brennan, among other teachers, have documented the healing power of therapeutic touch. From the beginning the baby needs to have her primary caretaker affectionately caress her soul by gazing into her eyes, affirming their bond. The baby monkeys in the Harry Harlow experiments, or the children raised in orphanages that Rene Spitz observed, both these researchers have confirmed that affectionate contact nurtures and it's absence wounds.* Human touch is a necessary emotional component for health.
Brains of neglected children show neurons missing by the billions. Even the experiments done with plants showed that those exposed to music, spoken and cared for with affection, grew more abundantly than those plants that did not receive these forms of communication.
An important movement of affectionate touch is the embrace. This embrace does not only have a sexual connotation but can be a feeling of fraternity. I can embrace someone I do not know very well and this contact symbolizes that we recognize each other's humanness. There is no single word in English that translates the Portuguese word "semelhante". Semelhante is an expression of humanity acknowledging one another as equals or members of the same species, the same ecological family, regardless of race, economic status; we embrace one another as equals.
The group becomes an affectionate protective community where we can experience universal love. One of the goals of Biodanza is to experience universal love for all humankind, for our semelhante, in addition to feeling it for a specific individual. The group affirms the possibility of feeling undifferentiated love, as opposed to love directed toward one special person. In undifferentiated love, we are very interested in encouraging feelings of love or affection toward humanity. We feel affection for people we do not know because we recognize that they are members of our species and part of humankind.
Practicing exercises with people in the group sessions, develops this feeling of common affinity and undifferentiated love for others. Although some people may be more attractive to us than others, when you can get past the exterior packaging, fundamentally we realize our common natures - we all have dreams, hopes, fears and the desire to be loved.
It is necessary to talk about your fears and blocks to intimacy and in the part of the session reserved for verbal group process, participants can express their emotional reactions to the different movements. There are no right or wrong emotions. Some people may want to make eye contact, others may not feel ready to at that particular time. All emotions are valid. Each person is accepted for who they are.
There are beginning, intermediate and advanced movements. When we practice doing any of the exercises, it is important that we respect our emotional needs and do the exercises at each level only when we are ready to. That is the basis of building a firm foundation of safety and acceptance for self and others in the group. We never invade someone's space or allow our personal space to be invaded. Go at your own pace and honor that you do not have to do anything other than what you are able to do and accompany each person where they are, respecting your limits and the other persons.
It is important to differentiate between contact and affectionate touch. A mechanical contact in itself is not really therapeutic. It is a sensitive touch accompanied by attitudes of affection, empathy and caring for one another that nurtures.
We can also practice our affectionate intelligence through looking into someone's eyes. Our culture approves not showing what we feel. Eye contact brings up feelings of embarrassment.
In the beginning of a Biodanza session we may look at one another, putting our hands over our eyes and just peeking out at people in a playful way. Progressively, as people feel safe in the group environment and know they are cared for then they can experiment making eye contact with different people in different ways. This is the power of working in group.
As the group matures we can do more intimate exercises of eye contact. For example, walk around the room and connect with someone you would like to dance with by making eye contact. Slowly, walk closer toward each other. Get in touch with your longing to be with this person. Allow this feeling to grow inside as you slowly draw closer. Enter in touch with all the feelings that arise. Maybe you feel vulnerable, fear, happiness, and desire - just watch and let each one be. When you finally meet this person, let the embrace be slow. Feel the coming together as if you were embracing a long lost friend. There are different kinds of embraces in Biodanza. There are embraces of friendship, of sexual desire, of protection, of melting into another person's breathing and the two becoming one in a "moment of eternity".
As Biodanza is practiced over time, the individual becomes freer and lives life more fully. They identify with their Original Self. This breaks their identification with the wounds and allows the individual to partake in the pleasure, love and the celebration of Life.
* The significant finding in the Harlow experiments was that the baby monkeys preferred to embrace and be with the soft flannel mother rather than the wire mother who supplied the milk. Once the babies were fed, affectionate touch was favored over food. Those monkeys that only grew up with the wire mothers and did not have the cloth mothers to cuddle notably appeared more neurotic. It appears that living organisms that do not experience this contact are emotionally starved and those that do are capable of vital healthy relationships to themselves and others because of this initial bonding.
Why have human beings been dancing since the beginning of time? Why do we continue to do so? Dance accesses expressions from our soul, our original identity and connects our bodies to a primal source of pleasure. Bio from the Greek means life and danza means movement with emotion, so Biodanza means movement with emotion that promotes life. Biodanza focuses on developing positive mental states rather than on suffering or mental disturbances. While traditional psychotherapy is interested in analyzing the wounded part of the individual, Biodanza develops higher qualities of the human spirit: peace, harmony, love, courage, brotherhood and strengthens healthy states of consciousness.
Biodanza is a well-known movement therapy in South America and Europe, but practically unknown in the United States. The creator of Biodanza, Rolando Toro, an anthropologist in Chile who during WWII, became profoundly agonized by the horrors and human suffering of a global society motivated toward death and destruction. He developed Biodanza as a corrective response. It is directed to revert human sorrow and reeducate us about relationships, love and tenderness.
Toro believes that disease is a psychosomatic signal of a total block at emotional levels. Unfortunately we have to deaden our senses to the daily bombardment of anti-life pollution that exists in pathological cultures valuing materialism over mental health. Specific movements and music are designed to stimulate positive emotional inner experiences, such as: human kindness, trust, instinctual awareness, respect for all life, awakening of one's creative potentials, a strong sense of personal identity, personal power, the ability to surrender the individual I to a greater totality, determination to overcome obstacles, motivation to live life fully, enthusiasm to create and be open to new possibilities, the cultivation of pleasure everyday - as you walk down the street feeling the breeze or the warmth of the sun touching your skin.
The participant can experience in each session corrective emotional experiences that provoke a series of chemical alterations within the body. Toro believes that specific movements activate specific neurotransmitters and hormonal secretions in the body. These chemical-hormonal alterations repeated over time stimulate new neurological responses in the body-mind.
Toro organized hundreds of universal dance movements and music from different cultures throughout human history into an organized system he called Biodanza. The movements are organized into five categories:
Vitality - health, vital impetus, happiness to be alive
Sexuality - sexual pleasure, eroticism, reproduction, passion
Creativity - innovation, construction, imagination, openness
Affection - love, friendship, altruism, empathy
Transcendence - connection to nature, feeling part of a greater totality
Each category expresses genetic potentials that are stimulated when one dances with deep emotion. Toro believes that when these five categories are fully developed the individual experiences a healthy and balanced life.
Each movement is danced to a specific music designed to induce a visceral emotional response; movements for contacting the numinous transcendent reality, movements to express affection, creativity, vitality and sexuality.
For the category of Vitality the music would be euphoric, happy, energizing;
For the category of Sensuality the music would be erotic, flowing, sensual;
Creativity - profound, different, strange, intense, grandiose
Affection - tender, warm, soft, loving
Transcendence - harmonious, sublime, eternal, limitless, mysterious
Each session contains approximately 13 movements that reflect these five categories. Some of the movements in a session are designed to slow down and rediscover one's own natural internal rhythm. So much of the time we force ourselves to move at a velocity that increases stress and disassociates us from our feelings. We function on automatic, producing and "doing doing" as if we were machines, totally disrespecting the natural wisdom and needs of the biological organism. The variety of the movements, emotional responses and diverse possibilities of communication are positive stimulants that liberate the development and the expression of one's genetic potentials. Biodanza permits, it gives access to rather than repress or impede the development of. It stimulates the organism to evolve in harmony with its internal laws.
The walk is a movement that often occurs in the beginning of a session and this playful way of promoting contact with others is non-threatening and the upbeat music induces happiness and vitality. Walking is a movement that is inherent to all human beings. The way a person holds their muscles and skeletal structure in their walk reveals a great deal about their mental state. For example, a depressed person walks with a lack of vitality and their muscle tonus is flaccid. Rather than analyze why the person is depressed Biodanza induces feelings of aliveness. We can play Benny Goodman and ask people to walk with their arms swinging in harmony to their footsteps, which have a slight bounce to them. The force that propels the walk comes from an impetus to face life; their posture is erect, their chin is slightly raised and the spine is straight. We practice walking not only with our legs but with our entire body. People suffering various problems incorporate their mental state into their daily walk, and in the Biodanza session they experience a different way to walk. As they walk across the room they are asked to greet other group members, briefly make eye contact with the other group members in a playful manner.
Another important movement in Biodanza that promotes affection is the embrace, o encontro. This embrace does not have a sexual connotation but rather a feeling of fraternity. This form of contact accepts everyone regardless of their race or economic status. I can embrace someone I do not know very well and this contact symbolizes that we recognize each other as "semelhantes". There is no one word in english that really translates "semelhante". It is an expression of humanity acknowledging one another as equals or members of the same species, the same ecological family.
There exists a cultural tendency to associate the instinctual responses with irrationality. The function of the instinct reveals a type of biological wisdom of the human species that has its own inherent logic that responds harmoniously to the organism's necessities. Being aware of our instinctual intelligence maintains health and survival.
Usually the movements start off accelerated to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and slowly deaccelerate to affect the parasympathetic nervous system. We begin with outer-directed movements and gradually introduce movements that prepare participants to enter deeper states of relaxation or trance.
Gently the movements lead the group members into a state of regression, deep relaxation and openness to their center or original state of being. The neocortex is relaxed, the characterological defenses are diminished and the mind is receptive and sensitized. In this state anguish and anxiety disappear. The individual experiences a feeling of well-being and a sensation of plenitude and love for life that is difficult to describe. The body is subtle, receptive, and feels deep pleasure in the moment. There is a feeling of fraternity with everything that exists and the group is felt as an affectionate protective unity of beings that form a whole. We experience universal love for all humankind and not for a specific individual. The individual is immersed within the group uterus, a communal support of love and affection. In this state the tired and stressed human organism is revitalized and the participant has a profound internal experience of a new learning.
Each session is designed to create internal experiences where participants can deeply feel these higher aspects of human nature rather than intellectually talk about them. The entire Biodanza vivencia is nonverbal. We are trying to connect to the instinctual sensory feeling mind, the original state of the primordial mind and that is why we do not use words. Words bring us back into the intellectual mind and we want to leave this way of thinking and access deeper levels of consciousness. Movement predates verbal knowing and our first means of relating to the world was through movement. When we do Biodanza some of the movements are designed to offer a nurturing inner experience of early maturational phases of development that may never have been experienced before in one's life.
Experiencing these internal states of higher consciousness in the present moment is the teaching method Biodanza utilizes. Rather than offer information to the intellectual mind we educate the instinctual body-mind-soul level of cognition. Seeds are planted within the subconscious or unconscious mind that root over time and promote changes in one's neurological system, attitudes and way of living in the world. The response is first learned in the body, then it filters through to the mind.
Many traumatic emotional imprints, stored within the body-mind, continue to repeat themselves. There exists a life force within us that is able to go beyond the identification with how we were conditioned. The regressed state is a return to the Original Self before the trauma was imprinted. It is a healing state of mind where a healthy emotional seed is planted deep within the body-mind intelligence, and new learning and programming takes root in this fertile soil.
All deep structures of consciousness are remembered whereas all surface structures of consciousness are learned. One of the deepest structures of the human psyche is the feeling of Wholeness - unity with the Totality of existence. This is not comprehended through the intellect; it is experienced in a transcendent state outside of the rational mind. The drive (natural desire) for Wholeness is an archetype necessary for mental health. When the baby looks into the mother's eyes and receives her caring look there is a feeling of Wholeness. The group members may experience a state of wholeness with each other and with the life force in the trance state. It is a more evolved state than the oceanic consciousness experienced by the newborn, before ego consciousness developed. It is a state of wholeness with the totality of existence that is on a higher plane of consciousness. A profound experience of feeling an integration between the individual self with the group and with the greater totality is one of the unique aspects of Biodanza group therapy.
Many of the exercises practiced in Biodanza prepare the human organism for the process of entering into the primordial state of consciousness called regression to the origin. Toro believes that the key to healing is this return to the original state. The individual abandons the rigid ego structure and enters into an altered state, a primordial reality, where deep structures of unity with life, inner peace and ecstasy are experienced in the present moment.
The mind is no longer thinking and the person no longer feels their regular state of dissociation or fear. Fear of abandonment is replaced by a new integrative feeling of being touched by a group member who symbolically represents a mother or a father. The feeling of abandonment or loss of meaning is replaced by one of belonging, of being accepted, of knowing authentic contact with others. This experience is remembered on deep levels when one comes out of the session. Repeated practice promotes inner change over time. The session is an emotional laboratory that creates a safe environment where new behaviors can be risked that one would not ordinarily do in daily life.
Bonding is necessary for life. When people are denied meaningful relationships with other humans or animals they feel depressed. Prolonged separation from loved ones yields despair. These vivencias are inner experiences the participant may never have had the opportunity to experience in their life. What was lost or never felt is experienced with others. Each Biodanza session builds upon the next and as the group's emotional ties strengthen, people begin to feel the warmth and security they may never have felt in the relationships with their family of origin and other people in their life. In the group experience new emotional bonds are felt. The more people begin to develop ties with the group members an old neural code can be revised. Interacting with people on this healthy level of resonance and getting one's emotional needs met on a continual basis, creates new neurological attractor patterns of feeling loved.
States of mental health express through the dance. Through emotionally engaging in the movements we relate to the group members in sensitive, authentic ways that create strong templates of healthy relatedness. These loving states exist within the collective unconscious in a latent state. The skilled Biodanza facilitator gently leads one into this state very slowly. This is not an exercise or dance class. We are relating to one another and connecting to an emotional nucleus that is universal. You cannot do Biodanza alone. It is a group therapy. We do not exist in isolation but in relationship to each other. The group forms the protective uterus where rebirth occurs. The individual and the group also experience being part of the greater totality; the Life Force of the cosmos is in each one of us.
The first part of the emotional healing is making an emotional connection. When a limbic connection has established a neural pattern, it takes a limbic connection to revise it. In Biodanza we do not just talk about feelings, we experience them deeply. No analyzing takes place.
When participants are in a mild trance state and receive this affectionate touch, they experience the healing power of human contact. Through Biodanza they practice touching and being touched with sensitivity, caring and affection.
Affectionate touch is necessary for mental health. Both Dolores Kreiger and Barbara Brennan, among other teachings have documented the benefits of therapeutic touch. The baby needs to have a primary caretaker look into their eyes, caress their soul and affirm their existence. The baby monkeys in the Harry Harlow experiments, or the children raised in orphanages that Rene Spitz observed, both these researchers have confirmed that affectionate contact nurtures and it's absence wounds. Human touch is a necessary emotional component for health. Brains of neglected children show neurons missing by the billions. Life in both animal and human species needs to be caressed or touched in an affectionate way. Even the experiments done with plants showed that those exposed to music and spoken to grew more abundantly than those plants that did not receive these forms of communication. The significant finding in the Harlow experiments was that the baby monkeys preferred to embrace and be with the soft flannel mother rather than the wire mother who supplied the milk. Affectionate touch was favored over food once this basic need was provided for. Those monkeys that only grew up with the wire mothers notably appeared more neurotic. It appears that living organisms that do not experience this contact are emotionally starved and those that do establish a vital, healthy connection to life.
It is important to differentiate between contact and affectionate touch. A mechanical contact in itself is not really therapeutic. It is a sensitive touch accompanied by attitudes of affection, empathy and caring for one another that nurtures. The practice of affectionate intelligence is one of the major tenets of this group therapy. We practice touching each other through various movements in each of the five categories: vitality, transcendence, creativity, affection and sensuality.
Members' limits are respected. That means, if someone is not comfortable doing an exercise they do not have to. If someone is shy and gives a timid hug, then adjust your movement to not overwhelm them. Be aware and sensitive to what each person's response is. Be sensitive to the movement of your partner. We practice not imposing our rhythm or emotional state on the other. The objective is to develop a sensitivity between two people where no one is leading and no one is following. Practice harmonizing your movement with the other person's movement and create a third movement which is neither mine nor yours but ours.
As this therapy is practiced over time, the individual becomes freer and lives life more fully. They identify with their Original Self. This breaks their lower ego identification with the wounds and raises the individual to partake in the pleasure, love and the celebration of Life.
TEACHING CHILDREN TO EXPRESS THEIR INNER WORLD
TEACHING CHILDREN TO EXPRESS THEIR INNER WORLD
Susan Bello PhD, ATR
Published in Encounter vol. 15, Number 3, Autumn 2002
I. BASIC NEED FOR DEVELOPING THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY
Education can be transformed only by transforming the educator. Throughout the world, it is becoming more and more evident that the educator needs educating. It is not a question of educating the child, but rather the educator.
(Krishnamurti)
Educators need to learn how to work with the Whole Human being the body, mind and spirit. If we want to develop qualities of the creative personality as well as introduce emotional education, we need to train educators how to implement this new model into the existing system. Educators influence the thoughts of thousands of children during their careers. After families, they can be one of the most powerful influences in our society for impacting the minds of our youth. There is a vast difference between educating for necessary skills one must acquire in order to gain productive employment versus educating to help a person grow as a human being. Great civilizations have been founded by those who integrate educating the whole person- their body, mind and spirit; and help students connect to something that gives life deeper meaning, in addition to imparting techniques and intellectual knowledge.
The expressions of violence we are witnessing today in the schools represent a reaction to the absence of a basic human need to connect to something which gives life deeper meaning. A prevalent disorder affecting our society stems from a loss of contact with our authentic self. Symptoms are boredom, dysfunctional relationships, abuse of self and others, addictions, and a feeling that life has no purpose. Teachers can be a nurturing connection and, if they are receptive to their inner world and develop their creative, imaginative, intuitive, emotional, and symbolic forms of intelligence they can impart these ways of knowing onto their students.
Teaching educators to work with their inner world and the creative personality expands the role of academic learning to include other ways of knowing in addition to the rational mind. I believe it is vitally important to foster creative personality characteristics in people of all ages. Jungian psychologist Marie von Franz once said that a culture which does not encourage the creative potential of its members does not evolve and will stagnate and vanish. Encouraging more creative personalities will ignite more creative ideas and innovative approaches toward doing things differently. Developing creativity is not only about taking children to the theatre, museums or making pinto bean collages; it involves encouraging characteristics of the creative personality. Creative potential exists not only in artists, but in all of us. I have witnessed that creative personality characteristics can be taught. If you are a creative personality, you will be inquisitive, courageous, committed to your project, self-motivated and innovative. You will think differently than other people. You will bring your creativity to whatever work you choose to do. Some characteristics of the creative personality are:
The ability to live with uncertainty
Ability to access deeper regions of the unconscious
Ability to feel emotions intensely
Nonconformity, independent thinker
Receptive to different ideas
Self-motivated
Persistent
Curious
Adventurous
Innovative, ingenuity
Impulsive, spontaneous
Can be extremely sensitive
Global thinking - ability to perceive interconnections between apparently separate subjects
Ability to perceive something from multiple perspectives
Values internal rather than external approval
Ability to think symbolically (abstractly)
Variety of interests
Appreciates solitude
Art educators have a vital role to play in introducing a new set of values to children our future generations. We all know how deeply one teacher can touch a childs world view and influence their life in a meaningful wayone significant teacher who inspires students to access their innate hidden potentials and hopefully through guidance and support contribute them to society. Children thrive if they believe that whatever I think, might work. The teacher is someone who does not criticize. She opens the doors of perception to explore infinite possibilities through our multiple intelligence. A classroom environment where students are encouraged to engage in many ways to see something, incorporating their emotions, thoughts and experiences as well as the subject matter/data is NOT what we are doing today. Naomi Verdirame, kindergarten, N.Y.
The time is ripe to introduce emotional education, supporting the unfolding of each students authentic Self. Most of us have learned very well to be people pleasers, to repress our authentic Self and not speak our truth if we sense it will be disapproved of or is different from what other people think. The development of the authentic Self is directly linked to expressing oneself creatively. In our overscheduled agendas, some time is needed for both teachers and students alike to be quiet, still the mind and allow the creative mind to emerge.
As the amount of information to be absorbed is increased, the students are overwhelmed and have fewer opportunities to think. In general children today have less spare time for finding themselves and less quiet time to create from within. No time is set aside for the encouragement of thinking skills or the development of ideas. We have to encourage questioning, reflection and exploration of ideas to facilitate learning without controlling the total learning situation; time is necessary for creative and imaginative inter-connections to develop, gel and emerge in the students. Naomi Verdirame, kindergarten, N.Y.
It appears that many school districts consider Art Education to be frivolous or unnecessary, although art is one of the few subjects where soul expression can occur.
For the past two years I have worked for the NYC Board of Education as an art cluster teacher. I dont have a room to teach out of, thats why they call me the art on a cart lady! Its challenging to say the least, but I accept this challenge daily for one reason. I know how imperative and necessary meaningful artistic experiences are to the development of children. That is why when I was asked to try a Spontaneous Painting lesson with one of my classes, I jumped at the opportunity. And if I can pull it off anyone can. As with any lesson, the first attempt is as much a learning experience for the teacher as it is for the children. All I know is that we all walked away having gained so much from this spontaneous painting lesson and the ever annoying practical limitations of insufficient time and physical space appeared trivial when I realized how much we all got out of this experience. When a student turned to me and said, I will remember this for the rest of my life I knew then the potential that Spontaneous Painting has in the classroom and in life. (Danielle Aronow, 4th grade teacher, N.Y.C)
II. EMOTIONAL EDUCATION AND THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY CAN BE TAUGHT THROUGH SPONTANEOUS PAINTING
Spontaneous Painting is a self-discovery process and unique approach in.
Art Education that develops the creative personality and aligns the participant with their authentic self. When our consciousness is not dominated by rational thinking, we can develop other ways of knowing. I am referring to our essential aptitudes, innate talents, intuition, emotional life, imagination, creative intelligence, symbolic intelligence, inspiration, and so on.
Spontaneous Painting offers students an opportunity to get in touch with their emotions, and express them in a creative manner. Little attention has been given to the emotional aspects of individuals except when obvious problems have already become apparent. In the education of normally healthy children in todays world, offering them a means to express these inner ways of knowing, in addition to rational linear thought, promotes preventative mental health and equilibrium.
Each individual is unique. This method of painting allows our essential nature, living in the unconscious of the individual to come forth. As students are able to express these unknown aspects of themselves, their dormant potentials are born in the art class through the creative process. The symbolic images expressed in the paintings represent dynamic forces within the human psyche that are vehicles directing each individuals unique self along the path of self-actualization.
The commitment of the emotional educator should be to awaken the individual to explore what they love to do and then step back and allow their creative process to unfold. Providing students with tools to discover their passion and how to develop it, according to Joseph Campbell, should be an important role of the emotional educator. The teacher who works with emotional education needs to be trained in how to be an empathic listener to the needs and inner voice of each students authentic self, and guide them in supportive, compassionate ways without imposing their will or judging them. We need to create a safe, stable environment in order for the authentic self to unfold. The key words are: listen, accept, empathize and allow for spontaneity. John Miller (Kane, 1999) writes that two qualities the soulful teacher can bring to the classroom are presence and caring. By presence, Miller means that the teacher is able to listen deeply. The caring teacher relates the subject to the needs and interests of the students. A Spontaneous Painting facilitator practices both by creating an atmosphere of intimacy and safety where risks can be ventured in a nonjudgmental environment.
Spontaneously painting ones internal symbols encourages the individuation process to occur. Individuation, according to the psychiatrist C.G. Jung, is a process of developing the individual personality and establishing ones true identity. We can say that ones true identity expresses itself through symbolic imagery in Spontaneous Painting. I have observed that the inherent human ability to paint images, motivated by deep emotion, is capable of awakening a self-directing principle in the psyche. It is this self-directing principle, unleashed by the symbol, that guides the individual through their creative process toward individuation.
In the art room, we ask students to spontaneously paint whatever emotion they are feeling. Warm-ups are presented before each painting session, facilitating participants to relax the constant chatter of the rational mind and contact the intuitive, emotional or imaginal mind. Some of these exercises include meditation for centering, movements to music and guided imagery, to name a few. The warm-ups generally involve auditory and kinesthetic exercises connecting people to their corporeal unconscious. We are working from a holistic model addressing the Whole Human - the body, mind and spirit. There are no good or bad emotions and no correct emotional response is expected as a result of the warm-up. We create a safe space for students to express their anger, sadness, loneliness, confusion, fears, etc. or whatever emotion is evoked as a result of the warm-up exercise. We emphasize not to copy external images or preconceived ideas, and to paint with no concern for aesthetic considerations. In Spontaneous Painting the educator does not give students a predetermined topic to paint. She/he leaves it open-ended. Emotions are expressed onto a blank canvas or paper and usually the painter goes into an alpha or flow state (when there is enough painting time). In these mental states one looses sense of time and is so immersed in what they are doing that they are not bothered by outside distractions. There is so much more to us than the reality perceived by the conscious mind.
Most people do not understand the meaning of the symbolic images they have painted. Something very powerful has been expressed and oftentimes the rational mind is unaware of this part living just a hairs breath below the conscious level. They see it for the first time, expressed in a painting. We treat the symbolic image as a guide from the unconscious (McNiff, 1989) and ask it, Who are you? Why have I painted you? What would you like to tell me? Participants write and give the painting a voice. I am
Evelyn Candell, Art teacher
I was starving
and did not know.
Music tendrils seep into dried crevices
of my soul.
Touch me now
For I am weeping
Hold me, for I despair
Wisps of death smoke
Encircle my feet as I walk
Friends warm hands
Slip from my grasp
And I am weeping come, dance and sing and hold me
And I'll be consoled.
Excerpts from Evelyn's writing two weeks later:
There is ecstasy and delight in stepping into this painting; touching the beauty of paint that has caught this wondrous moment; the happiness of the brush in my hand. I breathe deeply aware of the exquisiteness of life and surrender to the beauty of the universe that is here in this one moment. I want to dance; I need to move in space. I want to connect to the painting.
Sasha Ettingers painting expressed this to her:
Through a soft focus,
I look back, On memories
That have shaped my life,
I embrace my dreams
Longing,
For something,
Eager,
To make a lasting imprint
On someone elses life
Why not,
On my own,
In the present,
I feel,
A deeper regard,
For myself,
A self love,
That fits,
More naturally,
And,
As brilliant hues
Come into focus,
I am eager,
To choose the colors,
That my palette will hold,
At last,
My heart is open,
To all of the possibilities,
That my eyes,
Are yet to see.
Michael, 4th grade
I am a boy that is dancing on a really loud drum beet.
I am a drum, I am playing for the boy.
I am the heart that brings love into the boy.
I am the yellow circle that is bringing the boy and the drum together.
Derek, 4th grade
I think that this is a good picture that I made.
It reminds me of when I first saw the first caterpiller.
It was so fun watching the caterpiller turn into a butterfly.
I was four years old til I saw it. Thats why I made that picture.
After a writing session everyone comes together and engages in interactive group process exercises to understand the meanings of each others paintings. Participants can share how they feel when they identify with someone elses painting. For example: Tommy says: Andy, if your painting were mine, I would be feelingvery confused and. We create safety when people can share their feelings and no one is being criticized or judged. When children are asked to evaluate other childrens work it often makes them feel exposed. The emotional educator can bridge to other group members and ask, Does anyone else feel confused like Tommy did about Andys painting? (Ormont,1992) Andy, the painter, understands that people are talking about themselves, their feelings, and it is not directly about him. He can gain a greater understanding about the meaning of his painting after hearing the collective voice and decide which comments he can relate to.
Having their emotional world be affirmed and understood by others is very nurturing. First a foundation must be established where people respect individual differences of thought and feelings and the class provides safety, protection and trust. The Spontaneous Painting Process is deceptively complex and should not be taught without proper orientation because many intense feelings can arise and teachers need to be trained in emotional education.
One art educator, who has taken this course, responds: I want to integrate all the positive learning from this class in Spontaneous Painting so that I may pass them on to others by example. I see for the first time that this type of teaching could bridge the gaps of hatred, prejudice in the classroom by learning that we can work together in harmony and express our feelings in a constructive way.
If we never address the emotional world in our daily lessons and interactions, not as a specific activity but interwoven as a natural part of life and daily communication, we disassociate from a rich part of our mind. Educators are faced with the challenge of creating a balance between these two very important, opposite ways of knowing: emotions, creative self-expression and logical, intellectual evaluation. In order to do this, isnt it time we start preparing teachers about how to work with emotional education? Art is essential. Human beings have always and will always need to create. Children especially need to have opportunities to express in spontaneous ways. Children have multitude forms of intelligence. In a classroom curriculum shaped by tests there is less opportunity for children to call upon intelligence other than those strictly academic ones. This results in children leaving our schools as unbalanced human beings. Real life is not a multiple-choice test but a series of often confusing problems to solve. We are sending our children into the world without necessary life skills if we do not provide time in every childs day for nonverbal, spontaneous creative expression.
As art teachers we feel that art should be scheduled as often as gym. Art scheduled once or twice weekly for forty minutes is insufficient. We feel that children need an open block of time to create without interruptions and develop a concept from inception to completion. Pam Costello and Barbara Brennan, Nosho district, L.I.
My goal is to train art educators to facilitate emotional education and develop characteristics of the creative personality within themselves; so that they can be models equipped with understanding and insight about the creative process because they have experienced it firsthand. How can educators influence their students to walk in the world persevering to realize their dreams, establish an inner locus of control, explore the unknown and function freely, according to their intrinsic nature - if they have not undergone personal transformation and understood the dynamics of the creative process for themselves? And, doesnt this help us move toward the deeper realms of the art and the soul of teaching? (Kane, 1999, p.175).
For further information about workshops in Emotional Education through Spontaneous Painting contact Dr. Bello at email: susanbello@hotmail.com or telephone 212.956.2291
Bibliography
Susan Bello, Pintando Sua Alma:um metodo de desenvolver a personalidade criativa, Brasilia, UnB, 1996
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: the psychology of optimal experience, New York, Harper & Row, 1990
Erik Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle, New York, W.W. Norton, 1959
Jeffrey Kane, ed., Information and Transformation: Essays on Learning and Thinking, Upper Saddle, New Jersey, Merrill, 1999
Krishnamurti, Educating the Educator, Parabola, Fall 2000
McNiff, Shaun, Depth Psychology of Art, Springfield, Ill.,Charles C. Thomas, 1989
Ormont, Louis, The Group Therapy Experience, NewYork, St. Martins Press, 1992 Susan Bello
Susan Bello PhD, ATR
Published in Encounter vol. 15, Number 3, Autumn 2002
I. BASIC NEED FOR DEVELOPING THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY
Education can be transformed only by transforming the educator. Throughout the world, it is becoming more and more evident that the educator needs educating. It is not a question of educating the child, but rather the educator.
(Krishnamurti)
Educators need to learn how to work with the Whole Human being the body, mind and spirit. If we want to develop qualities of the creative personality as well as introduce emotional education, we need to train educators how to implement this new model into the existing system. Educators influence the thoughts of thousands of children during their careers. After families, they can be one of the most powerful influences in our society for impacting the minds of our youth. There is a vast difference between educating for necessary skills one must acquire in order to gain productive employment versus educating to help a person grow as a human being. Great civilizations have been founded by those who integrate educating the whole person- their body, mind and spirit; and help students connect to something that gives life deeper meaning, in addition to imparting techniques and intellectual knowledge.
The expressions of violence we are witnessing today in the schools represent a reaction to the absence of a basic human need to connect to something which gives life deeper meaning. A prevalent disorder affecting our society stems from a loss of contact with our authentic self. Symptoms are boredom, dysfunctional relationships, abuse of self and others, addictions, and a feeling that life has no purpose. Teachers can be a nurturing connection and, if they are receptive to their inner world and develop their creative, imaginative, intuitive, emotional, and symbolic forms of intelligence they can impart these ways of knowing onto their students.
Teaching educators to work with their inner world and the creative personality expands the role of academic learning to include other ways of knowing in addition to the rational mind. I believe it is vitally important to foster creative personality characteristics in people of all ages. Jungian psychologist Marie von Franz once said that a culture which does not encourage the creative potential of its members does not evolve and will stagnate and vanish. Encouraging more creative personalities will ignite more creative ideas and innovative approaches toward doing things differently. Developing creativity is not only about taking children to the theatre, museums or making pinto bean collages; it involves encouraging characteristics of the creative personality. Creative potential exists not only in artists, but in all of us. I have witnessed that creative personality characteristics can be taught. If you are a creative personality, you will be inquisitive, courageous, committed to your project, self-motivated and innovative. You will think differently than other people. You will bring your creativity to whatever work you choose to do. Some characteristics of the creative personality are:
The ability to live with uncertainty
Ability to access deeper regions of the unconscious
Ability to feel emotions intensely
Nonconformity, independent thinker
Receptive to different ideas
Self-motivated
Persistent
Curious
Adventurous
Innovative, ingenuity
Impulsive, spontaneous
Can be extremely sensitive
Global thinking - ability to perceive interconnections between apparently separate subjects
Ability to perceive something from multiple perspectives
Values internal rather than external approval
Ability to think symbolically (abstractly)
Variety of interests
Appreciates solitude
Art educators have a vital role to play in introducing a new set of values to children our future generations. We all know how deeply one teacher can touch a childs world view and influence their life in a meaningful wayone significant teacher who inspires students to access their innate hidden potentials and hopefully through guidance and support contribute them to society. Children thrive if they believe that whatever I think, might work. The teacher is someone who does not criticize. She opens the doors of perception to explore infinite possibilities through our multiple intelligence. A classroom environment where students are encouraged to engage in many ways to see something, incorporating their emotions, thoughts and experiences as well as the subject matter/data is NOT what we are doing today. Naomi Verdirame, kindergarten, N.Y.
The time is ripe to introduce emotional education, supporting the unfolding of each students authentic Self. Most of us have learned very well to be people pleasers, to repress our authentic Self and not speak our truth if we sense it will be disapproved of or is different from what other people think. The development of the authentic Self is directly linked to expressing oneself creatively. In our overscheduled agendas, some time is needed for both teachers and students alike to be quiet, still the mind and allow the creative mind to emerge.
As the amount of information to be absorbed is increased, the students are overwhelmed and have fewer opportunities to think. In general children today have less spare time for finding themselves and less quiet time to create from within. No time is set aside for the encouragement of thinking skills or the development of ideas. We have to encourage questioning, reflection and exploration of ideas to facilitate learning without controlling the total learning situation; time is necessary for creative and imaginative inter-connections to develop, gel and emerge in the students. Naomi Verdirame, kindergarten, N.Y.
It appears that many school districts consider Art Education to be frivolous or unnecessary, although art is one of the few subjects where soul expression can occur.
For the past two years I have worked for the NYC Board of Education as an art cluster teacher. I dont have a room to teach out of, thats why they call me the art on a cart lady! Its challenging to say the least, but I accept this challenge daily for one reason. I know how imperative and necessary meaningful artistic experiences are to the development of children. That is why when I was asked to try a Spontaneous Painting lesson with one of my classes, I jumped at the opportunity. And if I can pull it off anyone can. As with any lesson, the first attempt is as much a learning experience for the teacher as it is for the children. All I know is that we all walked away having gained so much from this spontaneous painting lesson and the ever annoying practical limitations of insufficient time and physical space appeared trivial when I realized how much we all got out of this experience. When a student turned to me and said, I will remember this for the rest of my life I knew then the potential that Spontaneous Painting has in the classroom and in life. (Danielle Aronow, 4th grade teacher, N.Y.C)
II. EMOTIONAL EDUCATION AND THE CREATIVE PERSONALITY CAN BE TAUGHT THROUGH SPONTANEOUS PAINTING
Spontaneous Painting is a self-discovery process and unique approach in.
Art Education that develops the creative personality and aligns the participant with their authentic self. When our consciousness is not dominated by rational thinking, we can develop other ways of knowing. I am referring to our essential aptitudes, innate talents, intuition, emotional life, imagination, creative intelligence, symbolic intelligence, inspiration, and so on.
Spontaneous Painting offers students an opportunity to get in touch with their emotions, and express them in a creative manner. Little attention has been given to the emotional aspects of individuals except when obvious problems have already become apparent. In the education of normally healthy children in todays world, offering them a means to express these inner ways of knowing, in addition to rational linear thought, promotes preventative mental health and equilibrium.
Each individual is unique. This method of painting allows our essential nature, living in the unconscious of the individual to come forth. As students are able to express these unknown aspects of themselves, their dormant potentials are born in the art class through the creative process. The symbolic images expressed in the paintings represent dynamic forces within the human psyche that are vehicles directing each individuals unique self along the path of self-actualization.
The commitment of the emotional educator should be to awaken the individual to explore what they love to do and then step back and allow their creative process to unfold. Providing students with tools to discover their passion and how to develop it, according to Joseph Campbell, should be an important role of the emotional educator. The teacher who works with emotional education needs to be trained in how to be an empathic listener to the needs and inner voice of each students authentic self, and guide them in supportive, compassionate ways without imposing their will or judging them. We need to create a safe, stable environment in order for the authentic self to unfold. The key words are: listen, accept, empathize and allow for spontaneity. John Miller (Kane, 1999) writes that two qualities the soulful teacher can bring to the classroom are presence and caring. By presence, Miller means that the teacher is able to listen deeply. The caring teacher relates the subject to the needs and interests of the students. A Spontaneous Painting facilitator practices both by creating an atmosphere of intimacy and safety where risks can be ventured in a nonjudgmental environment.
Spontaneously painting ones internal symbols encourages the individuation process to occur. Individuation, according to the psychiatrist C.G. Jung, is a process of developing the individual personality and establishing ones true identity. We can say that ones true identity expresses itself through symbolic imagery in Spontaneous Painting. I have observed that the inherent human ability to paint images, motivated by deep emotion, is capable of awakening a self-directing principle in the psyche. It is this self-directing principle, unleashed by the symbol, that guides the individual through their creative process toward individuation.
In the art room, we ask students to spontaneously paint whatever emotion they are feeling. Warm-ups are presented before each painting session, facilitating participants to relax the constant chatter of the rational mind and contact the intuitive, emotional or imaginal mind. Some of these exercises include meditation for centering, movements to music and guided imagery, to name a few. The warm-ups generally involve auditory and kinesthetic exercises connecting people to their corporeal unconscious. We are working from a holistic model addressing the Whole Human - the body, mind and spirit. There are no good or bad emotions and no correct emotional response is expected as a result of the warm-up. We create a safe space for students to express their anger, sadness, loneliness, confusion, fears, etc. or whatever emotion is evoked as a result of the warm-up exercise. We emphasize not to copy external images or preconceived ideas, and to paint with no concern for aesthetic considerations. In Spontaneous Painting the educator does not give students a predetermined topic to paint. She/he leaves it open-ended. Emotions are expressed onto a blank canvas or paper and usually the painter goes into an alpha or flow state (when there is enough painting time). In these mental states one looses sense of time and is so immersed in what they are doing that they are not bothered by outside distractions. There is so much more to us than the reality perceived by the conscious mind.
Most people do not understand the meaning of the symbolic images they have painted. Something very powerful has been expressed and oftentimes the rational mind is unaware of this part living just a hairs breath below the conscious level. They see it for the first time, expressed in a painting. We treat the symbolic image as a guide from the unconscious (McNiff, 1989) and ask it, Who are you? Why have I painted you? What would you like to tell me? Participants write and give the painting a voice. I am
Evelyn Candell, Art teacher
I was starving
and did not know.
Music tendrils seep into dried crevices
of my soul.
Touch me now
For I am weeping
Hold me, for I despair
Wisps of death smoke
Encircle my feet as I walk
Friends warm hands
Slip from my grasp
And I am weeping come, dance and sing and hold me
And I'll be consoled.
Excerpts from Evelyn's writing two weeks later:
There is ecstasy and delight in stepping into this painting; touching the beauty of paint that has caught this wondrous moment; the happiness of the brush in my hand. I breathe deeply aware of the exquisiteness of life and surrender to the beauty of the universe that is here in this one moment. I want to dance; I need to move in space. I want to connect to the painting.
Sasha Ettingers painting expressed this to her:
Through a soft focus,
I look back, On memories
That have shaped my life,
I embrace my dreams
Longing,
For something,
Eager,
To make a lasting imprint
On someone elses life
Why not,
On my own,
In the present,
I feel,
A deeper regard,
For myself,
A self love,
That fits,
More naturally,
And,
As brilliant hues
Come into focus,
I am eager,
To choose the colors,
That my palette will hold,
At last,
My heart is open,
To all of the possibilities,
That my eyes,
Are yet to see.
Michael, 4th grade
I am a boy that is dancing on a really loud drum beet.
I am a drum, I am playing for the boy.
I am the heart that brings love into the boy.
I am the yellow circle that is bringing the boy and the drum together.
Derek, 4th grade
I think that this is a good picture that I made.
It reminds me of when I first saw the first caterpiller.
It was so fun watching the caterpiller turn into a butterfly.
I was four years old til I saw it. Thats why I made that picture.
After a writing session everyone comes together and engages in interactive group process exercises to understand the meanings of each others paintings. Participants can share how they feel when they identify with someone elses painting. For example: Tommy says: Andy, if your painting were mine, I would be feelingvery confused and. We create safety when people can share their feelings and no one is being criticized or judged. When children are asked to evaluate other childrens work it often makes them feel exposed. The emotional educator can bridge to other group members and ask, Does anyone else feel confused like Tommy did about Andys painting? (Ormont,1992) Andy, the painter, understands that people are talking about themselves, their feelings, and it is not directly about him. He can gain a greater understanding about the meaning of his painting after hearing the collective voice and decide which comments he can relate to.
Having their emotional world be affirmed and understood by others is very nurturing. First a foundation must be established where people respect individual differences of thought and feelings and the class provides safety, protection and trust. The Spontaneous Painting Process is deceptively complex and should not be taught without proper orientation because many intense feelings can arise and teachers need to be trained in emotional education.
One art educator, who has taken this course, responds: I want to integrate all the positive learning from this class in Spontaneous Painting so that I may pass them on to others by example. I see for the first time that this type of teaching could bridge the gaps of hatred, prejudice in the classroom by learning that we can work together in harmony and express our feelings in a constructive way.
If we never address the emotional world in our daily lessons and interactions, not as a specific activity but interwoven as a natural part of life and daily communication, we disassociate from a rich part of our mind. Educators are faced with the challenge of creating a balance between these two very important, opposite ways of knowing: emotions, creative self-expression and logical, intellectual evaluation. In order to do this, isnt it time we start preparing teachers about how to work with emotional education? Art is essential. Human beings have always and will always need to create. Children especially need to have opportunities to express in spontaneous ways. Children have multitude forms of intelligence. In a classroom curriculum shaped by tests there is less opportunity for children to call upon intelligence other than those strictly academic ones. This results in children leaving our schools as unbalanced human beings. Real life is not a multiple-choice test but a series of often confusing problems to solve. We are sending our children into the world without necessary life skills if we do not provide time in every childs day for nonverbal, spontaneous creative expression.
As art teachers we feel that art should be scheduled as often as gym. Art scheduled once or twice weekly for forty minutes is insufficient. We feel that children need an open block of time to create without interruptions and develop a concept from inception to completion. Pam Costello and Barbara Brennan, Nosho district, L.I.
My goal is to train art educators to facilitate emotional education and develop characteristics of the creative personality within themselves; so that they can be models equipped with understanding and insight about the creative process because they have experienced it firsthand. How can educators influence their students to walk in the world persevering to realize their dreams, establish an inner locus of control, explore the unknown and function freely, according to their intrinsic nature - if they have not undergone personal transformation and understood the dynamics of the creative process for themselves? And, doesnt this help us move toward the deeper realms of the art and the soul of teaching? (Kane, 1999, p.175).
For further information about workshops in Emotional Education through Spontaneous Painting contact Dr. Bello at email: susanbello@hotmail.com or telephone 212.956.2291
Bibliography
Susan Bello, Pintando Sua Alma:um metodo de desenvolver a personalidade criativa, Brasilia, UnB, 1996
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: the psychology of optimal experience, New York, Harper & Row, 1990
Erik Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle, New York, W.W. Norton, 1959
Jeffrey Kane, ed., Information and Transformation: Essays on Learning and Thinking, Upper Saddle, New Jersey, Merrill, 1999
Krishnamurti, Educating the Educator, Parabola, Fall 2000
McNiff, Shaun, Depth Psychology of Art, Springfield, Ill.,Charles C. Thomas, 1989
Ormont, Louis, The Group Therapy Experience, NewYork, St. Martins Press, 1992 Susan Bello
What is Spontaneous Painting
What is Spontaneous Painting?
The I.am.I Spontaneous Painting Process is a self-discovery and unique approach in the creative arts that develops the participant's authentic Self and creative personality. This process benefits both artists as well as people with no prior artistic experience who are curious to connect to their artist within.
Participants learn how to spontaneously create powerful paintings and express onto a blank canvas their unconscious symbolic images. When consciousness is not dominated by rational thinking, we can develop our innate multiple intelligences through creative expression, such as our emotional intelligence, personal essential aptitudes, intuition, precognition, creative personality, and transcendent states.
THE SYMBOL
When we face a blank canvas and spontaneously express with no preconceived ideas, and are open to receive whatever colors or forms spontaneously arise, we open a channel for our unconscious contents to communicate an innate intelligence in a symbolic language. The symbol is a psychic energy that exists in a dormant state in the unconscious. Inside of everyone exists an unknown essential Self yearning to create, if given the opportunity. The act of Spontaneous Painting catalyzes the symbols of one's authentic Self (true identity), resulting in qualitative changes in our relationship to ourselves, and the way we relate toward one another. Through this process people gain greater insight into their inner goals and life purpose.
"That which we were born to become exists as a seed inside of us and the challenge is to liberate this potential."
Participants are stimulated to question their "limiting beliefs", have breakthroughs that may stimulate the development of new thought patterns, as well as initiate new painting styles. The objective is to paint with no concern for beauty or judgments, expressing powerful emotions. Instead of coping with painful emotions through addictions to food, drugs, alcohol, or suppressing them which leads to anxiety, depression, rage and even violence - approaches to Whole Brain Learning like The Spontaneous Painting Process offer individuals healthy, creative outlets to express all their emotions.This kind of creative Self-expression is a key for mental health preservation.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROCESS
To understand the dynamics of the creative process and the blocks that inhibit the process of the creator. To discuss the conditions which are favorable for developing a creative environment in which risk-taking can occur.
To be familiar with the characteristics of the creative personality and develop teaching methodologies to encourage these characteristics in participants.
To stimulate creative intelligence through engaging in various activities such as creative writing, visualizations, artistic forms of expression in various mediums, Biodanza movement, and other forms of corporeal expression, Buddhist meditation, and other vias of stimulating creative thought.
To become familiar with various states of consciousness, natural intelligences, and language systems besides those of rational and intellectual perception. for example, spiritual, symbolic learning and various symbolic language systems which express in artistic creations, dreams, and the tarot.
To develop emotional and spiritual education and explore new teaching methodologies in Whole Brain Learning.
To promote opportunities for participants to transmit to the canvas the emotions they experience at an unconscious level, awakening Self-awareness.
To encourage the participants in their search for understanding another potential of art. Study the intimate relationship between creativity and archetypal image, and how Spontaneous Painting is a way of expressing an immanent and transcendent reality, through the exploration of essential unconscious contents that aid in strengthening one's authentic Self identity.
To introduce the learning of communication skills for working with groups, facilitating comprehension of the systematic processes occurring in groups and how to create harmony and facilitate methods of meaningful interaction, open discussion, and empathic community.
To encourage participants to develop an internal source of inspiration and the self-confidence to believe in their intuitive, creative voice (or muse).
– –
The Spontaneous Painting Method consists of Five Stages:
Stage One - Set-up the materials for painting.
Stage Two - Different types of preparatory exercises are presented before each painting session, enabling participants to relax the constant chatter and critical voice of the rational mind, and contact hidden dimensions of one's inner emotional landscape.
Stage Three: Working individually and in small groups we utilize various creative channels of expression: painting, clay.
Stage Four: Stream of consciousness writing explores the meaning of the symbolic images.
Stage Five: Additionally through verbal sharing in group process participants help to decipher the symbolic language of each other's paintings.
A culture, which does not encourage the creative potential of its members does not evolve, will stagnate and weaken its chances for survival.
CREATIVE PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
The ability to take risks
Nonconformity, independent thinker
Receptive to different ideas
Self-motivated
Persistent
Curious
Adventurous
Innovative, ingenuity
Impulsive, spontaneous
Ability to access deeper regions of the unconscious
Ability to feel things intensely
Extremely sensitive
Ability to perceive interconnections between apparently separate subjects
Global thinking
Seeks internal rather than external approval
Ability to think symbolically (abstractly)
Openness to new experiences
Variety of interests
Appreciates solitude
The Spontaneous Painting Process is unique in its approach to art therapy and art education in that it focuses not on pathology, but on developing the special light within each one of us. Once each person understands and actualizes their creative potentials, they can contribute new dreams, inventions, professions, and methods to enrich society.
It is my hope to expand the definition of creativity so that ever more people, not only artists, but all of us believe in our capability as co-creators of our own lives, and shape them to correspond to our heart's desires and unique talents.
__________________________________________________________
The Organization for the Arts and Whole Brain Learning is part of the 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, Organization for the Arts and Expressive Therapy, Inc.
We recognize art as a healing agent for personal and social transformation. In a world culture that increasingly prioritizes intellectual knowledge for the job market, society needs to rethink priorities and seek a balance that also values and dedicates time to educating the inner authentic Self. Whole Brain Learning art programs provide people - of all ages, cultures, social classes from the advantaged to the homeless, and populations with or without special needs - with effective tools to discover their innate potentials and develop emotional, spiritual, and creative literacy. No prior artistic experience is needed in order to benefit from this method.
The I.am.I™ Spontaneous Painting Process is a method that can be applied in education, business, mental health, prisons, hospitals, and elderly care. Creative self-expression is a natural human gift we all can develop if given the opportunity. When large numbers of people paint spontaneously, they can align with their inner goals, unique talents, and creativity. Together, as we form a critical mass and enhance society, and there will be an evolutionary breakthrough in human consciousness.
___________________________________________________________________________________
To Send email to this group: spontaneouspainting@googlegroups.com
The I.am.I Spontaneous Painting Process is a self-discovery and unique approach in the creative arts that develops the participant's authentic Self and creative personality. This process benefits both artists as well as people with no prior artistic experience who are curious to connect to their artist within.
Participants learn how to spontaneously create powerful paintings and express onto a blank canvas their unconscious symbolic images. When consciousness is not dominated by rational thinking, we can develop our innate multiple intelligences through creative expression, such as our emotional intelligence, personal essential aptitudes, intuition, precognition, creative personality, and transcendent states.
THE SYMBOL
When we face a blank canvas and spontaneously express with no preconceived ideas, and are open to receive whatever colors or forms spontaneously arise, we open a channel for our unconscious contents to communicate an innate intelligence in a symbolic language. The symbol is a psychic energy that exists in a dormant state in the unconscious. Inside of everyone exists an unknown essential Self yearning to create, if given the opportunity. The act of Spontaneous Painting catalyzes the symbols of one's authentic Self (true identity), resulting in qualitative changes in our relationship to ourselves, and the way we relate toward one another. Through this process people gain greater insight into their inner goals and life purpose.
"That which we were born to become exists as a seed inside of us and the challenge is to liberate this potential."
Participants are stimulated to question their "limiting beliefs", have breakthroughs that may stimulate the development of new thought patterns, as well as initiate new painting styles. The objective is to paint with no concern for beauty or judgments, expressing powerful emotions. Instead of coping with painful emotions through addictions to food, drugs, alcohol, or suppressing them which leads to anxiety, depression, rage and even violence - approaches to Whole Brain Learning like The Spontaneous Painting Process offer individuals healthy, creative outlets to express all their emotions.This kind of creative Self-expression is a key for mental health preservation.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROCESS
To understand the dynamics of the creative process and the blocks that inhibit the process of the creator. To discuss the conditions which are favorable for developing a creative environment in which risk-taking can occur.
To be familiar with the characteristics of the creative personality and develop teaching methodologies to encourage these characteristics in participants.
To stimulate creative intelligence through engaging in various activities such as creative writing, visualizations, artistic forms of expression in various mediums, Biodanza movement, and other forms of corporeal expression, Buddhist meditation, and other vias of stimulating creative thought.
To become familiar with various states of consciousness, natural intelligences, and language systems besides those of rational and intellectual perception. for example, spiritual, symbolic learning and various symbolic language systems which express in artistic creations, dreams, and the tarot.
To develop emotional and spiritual education and explore new teaching methodologies in Whole Brain Learning.
To promote opportunities for participants to transmit to the canvas the emotions they experience at an unconscious level, awakening Self-awareness.
To encourage the participants in their search for understanding another potential of art. Study the intimate relationship between creativity and archetypal image, and how Spontaneous Painting is a way of expressing an immanent and transcendent reality, through the exploration of essential unconscious contents that aid in strengthening one's authentic Self identity.
To introduce the learning of communication skills for working with groups, facilitating comprehension of the systematic processes occurring in groups and how to create harmony and facilitate methods of meaningful interaction, open discussion, and empathic community.
To encourage participants to develop an internal source of inspiration and the self-confidence to believe in their intuitive, creative voice (or muse).
– –
The Spontaneous Painting Method consists of Five Stages:
Stage One - Set-up the materials for painting.
Stage Two - Different types of preparatory exercises are presented before each painting session, enabling participants to relax the constant chatter and critical voice of the rational mind, and contact hidden dimensions of one's inner emotional landscape.
Stage Three: Working individually and in small groups we utilize various creative channels of expression: painting, clay.
Stage Four: Stream of consciousness writing explores the meaning of the symbolic images.
Stage Five: Additionally through verbal sharing in group process participants help to decipher the symbolic language of each other's paintings.
A culture, which does not encourage the creative potential of its members does not evolve, will stagnate and weaken its chances for survival.
CREATIVE PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS
The ability to take risks
Nonconformity, independent thinker
Receptive to different ideas
Self-motivated
Persistent
Curious
Adventurous
Innovative, ingenuity
Impulsive, spontaneous
Ability to access deeper regions of the unconscious
Ability to feel things intensely
Extremely sensitive
Ability to perceive interconnections between apparently separate subjects
Global thinking
Seeks internal rather than external approval
Ability to think symbolically (abstractly)
Openness to new experiences
Variety of interests
Appreciates solitude
The Spontaneous Painting Process is unique in its approach to art therapy and art education in that it focuses not on pathology, but on developing the special light within each one of us. Once each person understands and actualizes their creative potentials, they can contribute new dreams, inventions, professions, and methods to enrich society.
It is my hope to expand the definition of creativity so that ever more people, not only artists, but all of us believe in our capability as co-creators of our own lives, and shape them to correspond to our heart's desires and unique talents.
__________________________________________________________
The Organization for the Arts and Whole Brain Learning is part of the 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, Organization for the Arts and Expressive Therapy, Inc.
We recognize art as a healing agent for personal and social transformation. In a world culture that increasingly prioritizes intellectual knowledge for the job market, society needs to rethink priorities and seek a balance that also values and dedicates time to educating the inner authentic Self. Whole Brain Learning art programs provide people - of all ages, cultures, social classes from the advantaged to the homeless, and populations with or without special needs - with effective tools to discover their innate potentials and develop emotional, spiritual, and creative literacy. No prior artistic experience is needed in order to benefit from this method.
The I.am.I™ Spontaneous Painting Process is a method that can be applied in education, business, mental health, prisons, hospitals, and elderly care. Creative self-expression is a natural human gift we all can develop if given the opportunity. When large numbers of people paint spontaneously, they can align with their inner goals, unique talents, and creativity. Together, as we form a critical mass and enhance society, and there will be an evolutionary breakthrough in human consciousness.
___________________________________________________________________________________
To Send email to this group: spontaneouspainting@googlegroups.com
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