Art and Meditation Retreats

with Zangmo Alexander in Bressingham, Diss, South Norfolk, UK

Art activities can nourish us on our journey of personal development, self discovery and self expression. To make and to look at Art fully invites us to pay attention and be present to what is happening with our senses, thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of learning to be in the here and now, present to and aware of what is happening with our five senses, thoughts and feelings in a gentle, accepting way. This can deeply enrich our creativity, because we learn to pay attention and be more aware and awake.

Combining Mindfulness with Art helps us be more in touch with ourselves, helps us express ourselves creatively in a way which feels real for us, and can also benefit other areas of our daily life. It derives from Buddhist meditation, and can be practised in a non-religious way with great benefit, enabling stress reduction, self awareness and greater well being, as documented by university and medical research in the USA and the UK.

In Art and Meditation Day Retreats with artist, art teacher and meditator Zangmo, we combine simple Buddhist meditation techniques with creative activities drawing and painting in response to nature or from within. The Art and Meditation Day Retreat is suitable for people of any faith or none.

Previous experience with art is not needed. Anyone can come, whether or not they have any prior art experience. The aim is not to produce a 'good' work of art, but to explore the process of combining creative and mindfulness activities!

One student's response to an Art and meditation retreat day:

" Always feeling our breathing and being mindful of our emotions.... The 'wow' on unblocking my mind... it was still, marks and patterns were on the paper without the busy mind judging and criticising. How liberating, spacious and free!"

Zangmo Alexander, the facilitator, is an art teacher, artist and nun who has been on the 8 week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Course with the Centre for Mindfulness Research at Bangor University as well as practising mindfulness for many years. During her two year Masters Degree in Fine Art at Norwich School of Art and Design, she explored ways of integrating her own creative and mindfulness practices, and sees the process of art making as part of a spiritual path.

Enquiries and Bookings: 01379 687360