Serenity The Focus Of Next Wellness Series Program, September 26

By Nancy K. Crevier

On Tuesday, September 26, from 7 to 9 pm, Jo-Ann Frank, MD, and local artist and teacher Arlene Spoonfeather will present a workshop on Centering and Creativity at C.H. Booth Library as part of the ongoing “Enhancing Wellness” series. A special presentation by Newtown resident Pushpa Kapur on the practice of pranayama will start the evening.

Pranayama is the art of controlling breath to increase wellness in the body.

“Pranayama is what you do for your body and mind,” said Ms Kapur. “Prana is the life force that every animated creature has and yama is control. So, this is the control of your breathing.

“Breathing,” she pointed out, “is the first and the last thing you do in life. Nothing is more important.”

Proper breathing techniques can relax the body and carry oxygen to every cell of the body, said Ms Kapur, stabilizing a person mentally and physically.

Ms Kapur began studying pranayama in India under Ram Kumar, a disciple of Swami Ram Dev, five years ago. While participants at the September 26 program will be introduced on only a very introductory level to pranayama that can be used in a car or in the office, regular practice can lead to different levels of breath control, she said. “It is a rejuvenating thing. It is amazing what regular, daily practice does for the whole day,” said Ms Kapur.

Dr Frank, who recently retired from emergency medicine at New Milford Hospital, hopes to unravel the mystery surrounding labyrinths for participants that evening.

Labyrinths are winding paths that, in their larger forms, can be walked, run, biked, skipped, or danced, said Dr Frank, or traced with a finger or toothpick in handheld versions to bring connectedness and calm. They have existed for at least 3,500 years, she said, and while they are most commonly thought of in connection with solo, silent meditation, labyrinths do not need to be so solemn and are frequently walked in groups.

Her involvement with labyrinths was what she called “serendipitous.” While visiting in France, she walked the marble labyrinth built into the floor of the Chartres Cathedral. She found it interesting, but it was not until a year later when a local Mount Kisco, N.Y., church sponsored a labyrinth walk that she experienced a sense of serenity and revived interest in labyrinths.

“[Walking a labyrinth] is the one time in your life when all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and breathe,” she said.

In 1999, when dying trees were razed on her property leaving an expanse of land, she mulled over that space for another year before realizing it was an opportunity to build her own labyrinth. The labyrinth, a Santa Rosa contemporary pattern, was finished in 2001 and has been a source of serenity and joy for her.

While her labyrinth is circular in nature, labyrinths can be of any shape and are not always symmetrical, she said. People commonly confuse labyrinths with mazes she said, adding that they are actually quite opposite. “A labyrinth has no dead ends. There is only one path, with a beginning and an end. A maze has lots of dead ends and you can get lost.”

The benefits of walking a labyrinth differ for everyone, but most people find the movement around the circuit to be calming. Studies have shown that experiencing a labyrinth can lower blood pressure, regulate breathing, and decrease pain, she said. For those who incorporate labyrinths regularly into their lives, it can be a method of sorting out confusion or reaching decisions.

“You experience different energy when a labyrinth is walked regularly,” Dr Frank said.

On Tuesday at the library, Dr Frank hopes to make those unfamiliar with what a labyrinth is more comfortable and teach participants to draw their own labyrinth. “A labyrinth is a metaphor for what life is like, constantly going back and forth, but you’re where you are supposed to be. It is one of many different ways of connecting with ourselves.”

Arlene Spoonfeather noted that Newtown has a large, but quiet, offering of arts, and she is happy to have the opportunity to share an unusual art technique that she said has “really centered me. It really stopped my life, changed my art, and gave me a whole new view of my art.” The deceptively simple act of moving an inked brush across paper is, said Ms Spoonfeather, “A way of grounding yourself and using energy outside of yourself to make a mark. It is really like channeling energy.”

Ms Spoonfeather has been an artist her whole life, practicing weaving, felting, painting and sculpture. The name of her program, “Point of the Brush,” is actually a double-entendre of sorts, she said. “It’s the physical point of the brush, and the point of holding a brush.”

Using only brush, ink, and paper, she hopes to convey that art, in some cases, does not have to be about making beautiful things, or about making anything at all, a concept she adopted from Buddhism.

“Art is preparing oneself to simply make a mark, to have the opportunity as a human to make a mark,” said Ms Spoonfeather. “Brush and ink eliminated everything I thought about art and forced me to sit down with just black on white.”

Instructions on how to hold the brush, how to sit, how to breathe, and how to put the brush to paper will accompany a guided exercise of using a brush dipped in water and placed on paper, only gradually adding color.

“It’s about being in the moment,” said Ms Spoonfeather. “We are so rushed in all we do. I hope that participants will walk away with a little confidence and a sense of peace and connectedness.”

The Enhancing Wellness series runs every Tuesday evening through October 17. PLEASE NOTE: The Centering and Creativity workshop is currently full. To be placed on the waiting list for that program or to register for the upcoming programs, Relieving Stress, Botanical Medicine, or Nutrition, call the C.H. Booth Library at 426-4533.