Spirituality, Art and Chiropractors

Drawing at the V&A museum, London 

Spirituality, art and chiropractors may seem odd bedfellows, but this week I’ve decided that they are actually closer than I’d thought.  Maybe it's the fact that it’s my 60^th year, or maybe that this year has seen my second brush with cancer, or maybe it’s just because it’s snowing and almost Christmas, but I’m very aware of the questions around spirituality and life’s ‘bigger’ picture. 

This week we had a wonderful days art lesson at the V&A museum in London. Armed with our drawing pads and creative muscles on the alert we headed to Kensington.

"Art Is About Seeing The World", as the Columbian artist Cifuentes said, looking at what is. However, as soon as you start to draw the mind immediately tries to tell you what it ‘ought’ to be seeing, rather than what it actually is seeing.  You look at the arm of a beautiful statue and before you know it your mind is telling you ‘this is what an arm looks like – straight line here, kink there, back to straight line here’.  Of course the arm isn’t like that at all and every arm is unique. The reality is that the body has no straight lines, it only has surfaces and those surfaces are uneven. The best a line can do is to represent and point you towards something close to reality, but it isn’t reality. What stops me seeing what is really there, right in front of me? Firstly I’m too busy, I want to rush on, but seeing needs time; secondly it requires silence, just being, and a heavy dollop of patience, to sit and see what is really there; and thirdly it’s about ego – my mind thinks it knows better than reality.  

 

Rodin’s The Prodigal

After lunch we did an exercise where we had to draw something in one of the galleries, but with our left (or less preferred) hand. Why draw with the other hand? Because we get in our own way – in all of the ways I just outlined above. How do you silence that controlling, ‘know it all’, ‘take short cuts’ kind of thinking, to get yourself out of your own way? In order to draw using the right side of your brain, the side that connects us with the deeper layers of meaning in life, means that you have to take the pen out of the hand of the left-brain.  We don't know what is in us; we don't know our potential because we insist on being in control of our life, in the left-brain kind of way that feels safer.

As I seriously attempted to focus on my drawing, I found myself startled by the hijacking of three words - Meditate, Contemplate and Prayer.  As a new kid on the block to the world of meditation I am still learning that meditation is about being still, silent, present to your self, to the moment and to whatever. Contemplation comes from the Latin word ‘to gaze; to see’.  That is the essence of art – being still, silent and gazing, looking, seeing what is, not what you lazily presumed.  It’s where, like art, we stop looking for what we think should or shouldn't be there and experience first hand what is there. Prayer, like putting the pencil to the paper to begin to create an imperfect offering of a drawing, is our response to what we see - formulating some words of awe, thankfulness, questioning or requesting.

There was one point at the V&A where our teacher introduced the ‘draw with your left hand’ exercise where she said

“I’m going to take away your control; to loosen you up”.

That’s what life does to you if you let it. That's what having a cancer diagnosis does to you if you let it. It loosens you up. It gives you the opportunity to learn to be still (meditate); the opportunity to learn to see what’s actually around you, rather than all the straight line, mental models we surround ourselves with. To see the surfaces, the tones, the curves, the actual experience of gazing at something (contemplate); to every now and then respond with a feeling or some words (prayer) to try and shape some direction of the experience (start drawing something).

So where does the chiropractor fit in?  I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for the past few months. I have to be honest and say whilst I’ve never been an atheist about chiropractors, I have certainly been some where between a skeptic and an agnostic. But I can honestly say I feel better, lighter, and freer than I have in years. Why? Because what I discovered is that after years of bad posture (I have a PhD in Slouching) my spine was all tensed up and so the energy, the potential, within, wasn't getting released to the nervous system, in order to live a life that was possible. And it was that that made me think about Religion. Religion as I had come to know it, (and maybe most of us have known it and many have rejected in its modern form) is a religion of straight lines, predictability, ‘I know’, everything having to confirm to our mental patterns (fundamentalist theology), lifeless and not connected to peoples daily experiences of reality. 

The word Religion actually comes from the word re-ligio = to re-ligament; to realign. That's what chiropractic does – it realigns.  So, when we get true religion it should realign us, not bend us out of shape. Maybe that's how we know the difference between true and false religion - does it realign me, free up the potential within, release compassion, empathy and the pursuit of the meaningful life?

-TW

The cafe ceiling at the V&A 

How do you find the right words....and who’s listening anyway?

Yes, this could be anywhere! It's actually the Delhi skyline to my right, as I write. India has the largest youth population in the world = approx 0.6 Billion 

I can still remember a memorable conversation with a close friend at my 50^th birthday bash, about what it would look like to live in Community – a group of close friends doing life together; cooking together, owning only one lawn mower, chuntering over life events each evening and creating an entwined mesh of care and support for each other through the years, come what may. 

Now, ten years on, my friends & family still hear that same old dream, from time to time (usually after I’ve had a glass or two), a dream of belonging, a dream of individuals who ‘see’ and ‘hear’ one another.

I confess that what I witness of ‘normal life’ right now doesn’t do it for me. Technology rules and I too have succumbed, but I believe it’s threatening to drive us further away from each other, not bring us closer. Like an unspoken conspiracy, it actually distances us from each other; we keep text messages as short and as obscure as possible and waste obscene amounts of time scrolling through innocuous FB drivel. I do it, but it’s getting me down.

We seem to be making a migration away from face to face time - from giving each other unhurried time, thoughtful time and ‘I want to invest in you’ time.

So, what needs to be said?

Well, I’m using a Blog, because what I want to say doesn’t fit a Text, a Tweet or a FB sound bite, but to be honest I could probably share what I have to say that way and maybe it would have the same response as my Blog.

Text: We’re both quitting our jobs with EL

Tweet: Funding dried up. Training model not sustainable. Taking a new focus.

FB: 2.2 Billion new people will arrive on planet earth in the next 30+ years (1.3bn in Africa and 0.7bn in Asia). They will all need to discover how to LEAD themselves and their relationships, if they are to survive. The world is changing fast. There is an acute need to equip the coming generations with the Motivation, Mind-sets and Skills to LEAD themselves.
Emerging Leaders has reached and trained 40,000 over the past 10 years, but this is only a drop in the ocean. We need to act fast, use the brilliance of technology, to spread our Leadership for Life training and get it onto a digital platform.
Trevor and Jane will start engaging with this enigma (challenge), and to do that they will be leaving the ‘in the field’, EL training team at the end of the year (Dave Pepper is taking over as CEO), to research how this can be done, so that millions can get trained, not just a few. Learning to LEAD YOURSELF is essential, because there is NO sustainable change anywhere in the world without good, strong effective Leaders. So, that’s where we’re headed…please wish us well….and do stay connected with us….be our community!

- JB

Celebrating at the end of our last India visit - 50 Trainers equipped for 10 M&S garment factories in Bangalore and Chennai to train 11, 228 workers. They have, to date, trained 4,127 in 7 months

The Country of a Thousand Hills

Early morning on a Rwandan hillside - the view from my platform at the Sorwathe guest house

It’s not long after 6am and I’m sitting on an area of wooden decking outside our guesthouse, high on a Rwandan hillside 

The air is trying to be fresh, but as I inhale I sense a denseness that hints to a scorching day waiting in the wings.

Down in the bowl of the valley I can hear goats crying, cockerels calling, the occasional insistent bellowing of cows and some hearty wood-chopping. But above, around and encompassing all these sounds there is birdsong, filling in all the gaps; like the backdrop of a thousand choir voices, they create a rich cacophony of an impromptu symphony.

As I focus my gaze, pathway-tracks can easily be picked out, some running like contours on a map, others traversing hairily up the steep sides of hills, through rough scrub or tea bushes, to reach tin shacks or tiny hamlets. 

Around each dwelling can be seen stumpy banana trees and a few scratty crops, often on terraced plots.

This is the country of a thousand lush hills and any Rwandan living in rural parts (that’s 95% of the population), needs to be built of sturdy stuff and have the aptitude of a mountain goat. But more than that....they must have an iron will and deep resilience to survive here.

None of the homes below me have running water, toilets or electricity. The focus for these families centres around one thing....keeping body and soul together and making it through another day.

‘Wealthy' homes in the valley with coffee beans drying

I’ve tried to imaging what it’s like to wake at first light, cold and hungry to face another day of hardship and struggle. 

As I write I watch a man carrying a 20 litre jerry can on his head, ascending a steep escarpment through a wood of eucalyptus trees. I don’t know where he has come from or where he is going, but I know instinctively that he does this every single day. 

Near-by a gaggle of cheery construction workers have arrived to work on an extension to the Tea Factory to my right, where we’ve been training. 

Mr Peiris the Sorwathe manager, a pack of prize tea and us

 Sorwathe Tea has an impressive reputation world wide for producing a pukka-cuppa. Last week we trained an eager group of 75 managers, supervisors and cooperative leaders (even the 3 Bosses attended).

I wondered before the training started if we would really be able to connect with this group in a way that would change their lives and make a tangible difference or was I in LaLa land? We were in a country that had suffered such mind-boggling trauma and atrocities during the genocide of ‘94, what did we have to offer? 

At the end of the 3 day training they gave us their verdict...
“Yes”, they said, “This is the most useful training we have ever had”
“Why?”, we asked. “Because you have shown us that it is our THINKING that is keeping us small and keeping our potential from growing...It is the poverty of our mindsets that keeps us in actual poverty and we can see that if we can Change our thinking we will Change our lives for the better” 

Trevor is full swing with our translator Freddy

I heard their words and reflected on the massive mental challenges that threaten to swamp and overwhelm them every day - and this group were ‘wealthy’ compared to the thousands who live in aching poverty, picking tea leaves every day for £10 per month.

I wondered what was needed most to bring about Mindset Change in us all. 

My observations of the group prompted me to think that they didn’t so much need to be taught ‘WHAT’ to think (the collection and digestion of knowledge), over the 3 days, but rather to learn ‘HOW’ to think.

It was very noticeable that they didn’t find it easy to....
- think creatively
- problem solve
- activate their curiosity
- stick with a problem
- use Focus and be Proactive around addressing difficulties
- awaken their imagination
- or have an, “Ok, well what else can I try?” attitude

All these attributes will be needed if they’re going to LEAD themselves out of poverty and onto a road that will change their world and the world around them for the better.

Leadership requires CREATIVITY, CURIOSITY and a never ending commitment to living in a mental ‘stretch zone’; the place where COURAGE is forged.

And this is what I hope for them all....to become courageous leaders....because there is no sustainable change anywhere in the world without good, strong and effective LEADERSHIP. 





- JB

The Normal Life

‘A normal Life'

Just before leaving on our latest trip Jane did this drawing.  Looking at the choppy discomfort of the waters led us into a discussions about, "what is the normal life?".

Much of the time I think I view the normal life as the calm sea and the sun shining and the picnic basket overflowing.

If that is the case, then the storm wind, the hail, the raging sea, or the doldrum sea, the grey skies and the empty picnic basket, become the "abnormal life", which means I conclude that something is wrong.  If that's the case then all of my energy goes into getting my life "back to normal".  And given that the majority of life is the rough sea and the sparse picnic basket, then most of life is wasted chasing the "normal life".

What we call "normal" is often where our life-muscles get flabby and soft and we become less equipped to deal with the "abnormal life".

Being here in Cape Town amidst such beauty and challenge I realised once again that I need to develop a clear view of the "normal life".

The normal life is not solely a calm sea and bright sunshine and a full picnic basket, it is all of the richness of every experience that comes my way, without making a judgment on it.

So I wrote my own mantra on the normal life

- Life just is.....Life is what it is

- Embrace life in its totality - love and pain and the whole damn thing!

- Do not give way to fear

- Do not give up when the short sprint turns into a marathon

- Do not let go of the daily disciplines of life

- When the sun is shining, or when the sea is raging, live each day built around the daily disciplines of the anti-fragile life.

Every day:-

• Exercise
• Meditate
• Write and process
• Read and expand
• Let go of my small ego-self to be embraced by a larger story
• Practice kindness, forgiveness and generosity
• Practice smiling
• Walk slowly with my head held up
• Weep with those who are weeping and laugh with those who are rejoicing

(....and taste every sip of South African wine when you are here)

TW

Big Skies

Somewhere, between the thin crevice of 17 & 18 I fell through and found myself on the paved-path to becoming a primary school teacher. 

I can vaguely remember my dad saying something like....”Teaching will be ideal Jane...you’ll always have a job.. and the long holidays will be perfect for when you have children of your own”. And that was it (Flip!!)

My secret dream of going to art college and becoming a fabric designer was man-handled out of my mind and I duly did, ’the sensible thing’ (for all the right reasons, at the time).

I look back now and wonder, why did I let that door of my dreams swing shut so easily? It was almost certainly due to a serious lack of self-belief, courage and what some might call 'personal grit’, but I think it was mostly to do with something else....simply not having a plan. 

Having a PLAN for your life doesn’t sound very funky or attractive. Who wants a plan for their life at 17 (too boring), so let's call it VISION. 

I had NO vision for my life.... 

And it struck me this morning, between my first and second cuppa, that 'lack of vision’, or a considered plan, is probably the main culprit for so many LOST possibilities in life; things that nearly happened in our lives, but didn’t, because we took the easier, safer path. 

The off piste adventures and the thrilling relationships that didn’t find us, the risks and challenges that we never took, the ones that would have shaped us into more courageous people.......

But the truth is, it’s never too late to wake up to life; to wake up to the plethora of possibilities that are waiting for us to grab hold of. 

We simply have to get that vision out of our heads and make it reality

This week I’ve been on an art course at St Ives School of Painting with Trevor. 

It’s been thrilling to take a deep dive into charcoals and printing-inks and stand for days at an easel. 

We stood on the same paint-stained, weathered studios-floorboard that was home to Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and their infamous troop of artist chums... and we smelt their creative struggles.....and gazed at the same raging sea-views....and were filled with the same awe and wonder and the drama of all things that happen without words.

And I realised that it’s never too late to seize the day... and take back your lost dreams. 

- JB

                    “Creativity takes courage” - Henri Matisse 

Making Peace

I’m sipping my 3^rd cup of tepid camomile tea and gazing, in contemplatory mood, out across an endless sea of rooftops, stretching forever and eventually into a subtle smog.

A procession with frenetic drummers in making its way along the street below, but I’m far too high up to see what’s going on. 

The metro, which runs across the city on a sky-track, rumbles past over my shoulder. Ibiza music floods our smart restaurant and a large Indian family near by chatter excitedly over their extravagant Sunday brunch, while the chirruping of a thousand car horns acts as a screen-saver to the day…. and every day, here in Bangalore, a city of over 4.3 million humans.

The past week has delivered the usual onslaught of emotions, impressions and internal muddle that I always feel when arriving in a new culture. My last trip to India was in 2009, which feels a lifetime ago. But it feels weirdly good to be back.

This time we’re here at the invitation of M&S, to train in 2 textile factories. To give everyone involved a taster of the EL training, as before we’re only been in Africa, in the agricultural sector of the business. So, they want to see if it will work here.

The young women and girls sang their scriptures to us, accompanies by our friend Sridhar on the drums

This past week I’ve been fascinated by the lives of those around me. …. the woman hauling baskets of sand on her head heads to a building site, the girl tapping on my window at the traffic lights pleading with me with gentle persistence to buy a balloon from her, the man in the gutter with no legs calling silently for alms, the focused seamstress at her machine making one of 1,000 lumber jackets for GAP, the tiny, old woman taking her offering to the temple (she goes twice a day).

The make massive knives from old pipes or train parts

 And yesterday we went to visit a community of 70 Sikhs, who once, long ago were weapon-makers to the Indian Kings of old. 

They crafted the swords, sabres and armour and followed the armies around. But, there’s little call for these things today, so they have slipped into the pain of poverty and their amazing talents and skills are fast being lost.

Our new friend Rishi and his wife Rima have been working with the whole community, trying to help them develop new skills to make extra income and teaching the children computer skills. 

They live very simple lives (25 to a small house), draw water from a well hole every other day (water is rationed) and, like us, worry about their children and their future. 

I’m reflecting today on how we are all knitted together in a shared humanity of suffering, struggle, spirituality and survival. But mostly I’m flooded with a sense of how I have so much to learn from being amidst this amazing people group; a massive continent of 1.3 billion people. I see that it’s rich in so many ways.

In particular I see that everyone takes his or her spiritual growth seriously. They are not afraid to talk instantly about things of the heart and to discuss any aspect of personal growth. 

They rise at 5.30am to meditate every day (and often it’s 4.30)….why? 

Because it matters to them, to train the mind and still the spirit, to learn how to spot and control the ego and make peace with themselves every day.

Yesterday I finished THRIVE, by Arianne Huffington. I could share so much from it...what a great book. But here is how she ends (sorry it’s long, but do read it):

“If we’re lucky we’ll have about 30,000 days of life...and the truth is we can't thrive and lead the lives we want (as opposed to the lives we settle for), without going inwards....life is shaped from the inside out. 

So let’s stop living in the shallows, stop hurting our health and our relationships by striving so relentlessly after success as the world defines it - and instead tap into the riches, the joy and amazing possibilities that our lives embody. 

And it doesn’t matter what your entry point is, or what form your 'wake-up call' takes. It could be burnout, sickness, addiction, the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a line of poetry that stirs something ineffable in you, or a scientific study about the power and benefits of slowing down, getting more sleep or meditation or mindfulness that speaks to you. Whatever your entry point is - embrace it! 

....there are almost no worldly signals reminding us to stay connected to the essence of who we are, to take care of ourselves along the way, to reach out to others, to pause to wonder and to connect to that place from which everything is possible.

Archimedes said, “Give me a place to stand and I will move the world”

So find your place to stand - your place of wisdom and peace and strength. And from that place, remake the world in your own image, according to your own definition of success, so that all of us - women & men - can THRIVE and live lives with MORE joy, MORE compassion, MORE gratitude...and yes, MORE love. 

Onward, upward ...and inward” 

The ancient clan of weapon makers and our new friends Sridhar, Rishi and Rima (back row, 3rd, 4th & 5th from the left)

 Namaste 

- JB