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Mar. 28th, 2014 06:23 amAll this week Atlanta has been hosting a Science Festival, which is lots of special presentations/demonstrations/lectures/films/etc. all over town. Kind of cool!! The only thing the hubby and I went to was a presentation Wednesday after work, about Art & Meditation. We had a lovely dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant, and then sat in this art gallery *freezing* for a few hours while people talked about meditation. :)
The first speaker was an actual artist who talked about her use of meditation in centering herself for her work, which I thought was rather cool (and her photos were fun to look at). Then there was a yoga teacher who worked in a center for troubled youth and whatnot--drug addictions, homelessness, abuse, you name it--but she didn't talk much about that, she just led us through some breathing exercises. There was one talk from a professor of religion about mindfulness, what it is and how it reduces stress; and one actual empirical talk that presented results of a study of compassion meditation, which I found *very* interesting. And then a lengthy meditation exercise from someone from the Art of Living institute, and we're out the door.
I rather enjoyed the exercises--it reminds me that these calming practices are good to do, and that you really have to work at them, not just do them for two minutes and think you are done. What amused me was about 1 minute into the yoga teacher's breathing work, a gal ahead of me flopped back down in her chair with an impatient huff and within another minutes was working with her phone; she and her date left in the middle of the talks, if I recall correctly. And again at the end, another guy in the same row basically was futzing with his phone while everyone was breathing and relaxing.
There is an irony there, to be checking email and whatnot in the middle of talks on meditation... ;)
The first speaker was an actual artist who talked about her use of meditation in centering herself for her work, which I thought was rather cool (and her photos were fun to look at). Then there was a yoga teacher who worked in a center for troubled youth and whatnot--drug addictions, homelessness, abuse, you name it--but she didn't talk much about that, she just led us through some breathing exercises. There was one talk from a professor of religion about mindfulness, what it is and how it reduces stress; and one actual empirical talk that presented results of a study of compassion meditation, which I found *very* interesting. And then a lengthy meditation exercise from someone from the Art of Living institute, and we're out the door.
I rather enjoyed the exercises--it reminds me that these calming practices are good to do, and that you really have to work at them, not just do them for two minutes and think you are done. What amused me was about 1 minute into the yoga teacher's breathing work, a gal ahead of me flopped back down in her chair with an impatient huff and within another minutes was working with her phone; she and her date left in the middle of the talks, if I recall correctly. And again at the end, another guy in the same row basically was futzing with his phone while everyone was breathing and relaxing.
There is an irony there, to be checking email and whatnot in the middle of talks on meditation... ;)
