DelightFull believes that the three disciplines: the creative arts, health and wellness, and social activism are essential to our personal growth; our healing and evolution, which in turn directly leads to planetary healing, since we, individually, make up the world at large.
Delight believes that growth can only happen in an environment that has let go of its past, and, ultimately, healed. Growth loves a nurturing, accepting, and blank slate. The three disciplines can help us get on this blank slate and move forward. Here's how:
FIRST, we must ask ourselves how do I heal and let go of my past, so I can make room for my growth?
DelightFull believes that the creative arts can aid anyone in their healing. Can Delight guide you in your own life? No, not unless she knows you. So, we’ll start with examples.
Writing (a form of creative expression) can allow you to open up, and be honest with yourself about the emotions and experiences you’ve long held deep inside of your mind. Maybe you write your story through a third-person experience or a first-person experience that helps you accept previous feelings and happenings. Maybe you don’t write a story, and you journal instead. Journaling is a magical form of winding down after a long day, where you can empty your mind and make sense of some of the leftover floating thoughts in your mind, or feelings in your heart.
Drawing (another form of creative expression) can also aid you, allowing yourself to find the inner child inside of you that loved to create beautiful, fun, mysterious, and insightful visual art; before anyone told you your doodles were ugly or not worthy.
Dancing (another form of creative expression) allows us to tap into our bodies and find a way to physically express how we feel when we hear music that naturally resonates with us! Dancing can be a hard boundary for people to cross because of the possibility of judgment from others. But that in and of itself makes dancing so sought after; can you imagine what might come out of our body once we stop caring what others think?
Cooking is another form of creativity, expressed through the art of culinary.
DelightFull believes that creative arts can help us first in remembering the magic inside each of us.
SECONDLY, once we have remembered the magic inside each of us, Delight believes that naturally, a sense of nurture for this magic rises. When we find something we like, we want to take care of it so we can continue to have / use it. This is where health and wellness comes in. Once we have recognized the magic in us, we want to make sure we take care of the magic, and create an environment where our magic can flourish.
Some practices for our health and wellness:
Diet is a big component in health and wellness that we certainly like to deny. Your physical health and your mental health are partners in crime. If one or the other fault, the other feels the consequences. Think of the food you put inside of you as the fuel a car needs to run. You wouldn’t put regular gas in a car that requires premium, right? So, once we have recognized the magic inside of us, we want to make sure it is supported with the food that give us good energy and gives us the ability to run.
Meditation is a practice that allows us to turn off all stimulations and set aside time for us to catch up with ourselves. Mediation DOES NOT look or feel a certain way. Meditation can be used as a practice of mindfulness. We can be more mindful of how our minds work; how we think about our self, our life, other people, etc., which can bring light to some thoughts and feelings that we hold that actually do not serve our best self; This practice can help us recognize and filter out those negative thoughts. When we begin to want to nurture that magic we found inside of ourselves, we want to treat it with kindness and make sure it grows to be kind. What better way than to start with the thoughts constantly running through our head who affect our being: “Let me see what’s going on in here.”
Meditation can also be a practice, after mindfulness, to empty our mind and to return to the present moment. Our monkey minds can turn to random, meaningless thoughts if bored long enough, and it is our responsibility to be able to identify these empty thoughts and separate ourselves from them. If we continuously believe the thoughts in our head and let them affect our behavior, we are not intentionally and mindfully living. Through this perspective of meditation, we sit down and return to the heart and soul, who experience life far beyond than what the monkey mind can define and rationalize.
The thoughts running through our head are not always helpful. When we sit down with no stimulation, we can find ourselves running through hundreds of thoughts at a time. Sometimes, we don’t want to think about those thoughts and when we can’t stop them, we decide to distract ourselves. What if there was a reason the same thoughts kept coming up in your head? What if you never dealt with this thought properly? If we confront our thoughts head on, we have the ability to understand these thoughts a little better and maybe even start to understand why it is that these thoughts are stuck in our subconscious; who wouldn’t love to move on from past thoughts? The only way to do this is to let those thoughts come, let them surface, don’t judge them, don’t scare them away, and confront them. When we start our journey of meditation, we can find ourselves thinking a lot. THAT IS OKAY. You are not doing anything wrong. This is the first step. What do you keep thinking about? Stay in that thought. Say hello, discover a new perspective on that thought, and ponder on it. But we must remember the most important and last step. You must say goodbye to that thought when you are done with it. For it is nothing more special than a human thought. The breath can help bring us back.
Our breath is very important. It is a gift of life. Without receiving oxygen into our body, we would not be able to live. If our life is so dependent on oxygen, we must make sure that the manner in which we are receiving oxygen is supporting us, as well. Deep, mindful breaths can support us, in contrast to the fast, shallow breaths that coincide with our breaths during the flight or fight instinct. The more mindful we receive oxygen, the more help oxygen can be to our lives.
Yoga is a beautiful philosophy that can guide and aid us in our approach to our own lives, and also gives us tools to assist us through hard times in our lives. Contrary to popular belief, physical yoga postures are only one 1/8 of the practice of yoga. The physical movement of yoga is where most start in yoga culture today, and where some sages actually stated must be the first step. Since our body is our vessel for our soul to live on Earth, the body must support us in finding our calm center. If our body is not still, our mind cannot be still either. Yoga [postures] is our practice towards having control over our bodies again. Yoga postures are our practice towards freedom from bodily pain. After we have begun our journey in yoga postures, there are seven other limbs of yoga waiting.
Once we have begun to take care of ourselves through a pure and loving practice, DelightFull believes that the idea of service naturally rises in our hearts and minds. “I have taken care of myself, now I need to help others take care of themselves as well. Others need to know this!” This sense of urgency to spread knowledge with the world rises after our needs have been met. This is a sign of growth, maturity, and gratitude.
THIRD, we turn to activism.
Social Activism can come in many shapes and sizes. Your contribution to the world can be organizing your local community, or it can be running for president of your country. You can advocate for a healthier lunch at your children’s elementary school, or you can implement meditation meetings at your place of work. What do you feel most passionate about? What do you want to focus your energy on? There might have been an experience of yours that has negatively impacted you, that you promised, if possible, you would not let anyone else experience. Our choice of activism can vary, but one thing stays the same: we want to help others, as we have helped ourselves.
