Art of Life and Curiosity: Creative Mental Health, Wellbeing and Life Balance Exploration

By Mairead Ashcroft

Art of Life and Curiosity invites you to open any page of the book to discover new perspectives and provide space to break free from old patterns of thought and behaviour. This interactive mental health wellbeing book can enable opportunities to explore universal life topics to improve holistic wellness in unique ways. By combining theoretical modalities and ancient teachings from the Native American Medicine Wheel, Mindfulness practice, and other wisdoms, readers engage in a semi guided practice of contemplation, self-discovery, and compassionate self-care. Art of Life and Curiosity may be a lifelong mentor whose guidance transforms with your changing developments and needs. Mairead’s survival of religious childhood sexual abuse and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has influenced her training as a trauma informed Counsellor, Art Therapist and Wellness Coach, leading to the development of Art of Life and Curiosity. Readers are encouraged to create their own Wellness Wheel using the easy to follow written and visual directions. Mairead’s creative, symbolic art works and reflective questions, add personal allegories to enhance the reader’s involvement in the book by presenting gentle opportunities for contemplation and transformation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Mar 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669889892

Mairead Ashcroft

Creativity and the teachings and philosophies of universal elders encouraged Mairead to realize her seventeen-year longing in the arrest, conviction, and incarceration (2015) of the man who sexually abused her as a young child, an ordained member Catholic Church. As a result of discovering that the old ways still have wisdom relevant to our wellbeing today, Mairead developed and illustrated the Art of Life and Curiosity to share her insight with others. This work of love and compassion is dedicated to Mairead’s four adult children who endured the seventeen-year struggle by her side. Without focusing her own story of trauma, Mairead uses compassion to support others who have experienced similar challenging life events resulting in Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mairead has dedicated many years of study on the effects of trauma on the brain and body, enhancing her counselling, art therapy and life coaching practice and her approach to recovery. Mairead participated in changing Australian laws by speaking in Parliament during the Victorian Inquiry 2011, and Australian Royal Commission into institutional responses into childhood sexual abuse 2014. In 2012 Mairead was awarded and Inspirational Woman’s Award by the Hobson’s Bay City Council in the area of childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence advocacy. Mairead and her adorable side kick, Moon Shadow the Therapy Dog are friendly faces in their hometown of Altona, Melbourne. You can find out more about Mairead on her web page at www.artoflifewithmairead.com or her blog www.artoflifewithmairead.blogspot.com.au

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 by Mairead Ashcroft. 797029

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval

system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the

information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and

places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Xlibris

AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)

AU Local: 02 8310 8187 ([phone] from outside Australia)

www.xlibris.com.au

ISBN: 978-1-6698-8990-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6698-8991-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6698-8989-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023902410

Rev. date: 07/18/2023

This is a book of love and compassion

I dedicate it to my children

Contents

PROLOGUE

PHILOSOPHICAL/HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

Wabi-sabi

Allowing Change

Respect for Mother Earth

Religion

Patriarchy

Industrialisation

Carl Jung

TYPES OF SACRED CIRCLE

Celtic Cross

Native American Medicine Wheel: Northern Hemisphere

Indigenous Australian and Torres Strait Islander Medicine Wheel: Southern Hemisphere

Mandala

The Flower of Life

Guiding practices

Mindfulness Practice

Focused Orientation

CREATING AND USING YOUR WELLNESS CIRCLE

INTRODUCTION TO THE PORTIONS

CREATING YOUR WELLNESS CIRCLE

USING YOUR WELLNESS CIRCLE

• Start by noticing your centre

• Choose a Portion

• Find a counterbalance

• Add ingredients to suit your needs if required

• Embody the experience

• Be curious and open as you explore

• Deepen the meaning for yourself

• Record your insights

PORTION 1: CENTRE

Centre

Balance

Learning

Self

Beauty

Harmony

Peace

PORTION 2: BOUNDARY

Boundary

Connection

PORTION 3: EAST

Emotions

12 Fire

13 Sun

14 Dawn

Day

16 Birth

17 Spring

18 Heart

19 Minerals

20 Work

21 Friendship

PORTION 4: SOUTH

22 South

23 Spiritual

24 Soul

25 Noon

26 Growth

27 Summer

28 Plants

29 Family

30 Organisation

PORTION 5: WEST

31 West

32 Physical

33 Water

34 Body

35 Earth

36 Dusk

37 Maturity

38 Autumn

39 Human

40 Leisure

41 Moon

42 Creativity

43 Sexuality

44 Love

PORTION 6: NORTH

North 45

46 Intellect

47 Mind

48 Air

49 Stars

50 Midnight

51 Death

52 Winter

53 Animals

54 Recovery

55 Sleep

56 Dreams

57 Night

PORTION 7: 58 ABOVE

PORTION 8: 59 BELOW

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

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Prologue

Throughout time and across continents, symbology in art forms have had a strong place in our spiritual and communal imagination. We see evidence of human spiritual and inner world connection in examples such as the Native American Medicine Wheel, Celtic Cross, circular prayer dancing of the Islamic Sufi, Australian Aboriginal artwork, ancient Armenian trigger point tattoo work, and sacred architecture from many parts of the world, representing spirituality and culture. Sacred since Palaeolithic times, the integration of image and other art forms into our faith, culture, and how we represent ourselves in our world have provided us with opportunities for individuality, outward messages of our inner state of being, expressing our passions, values, and dreams. Art of Life and Curiosity will examine universal wisdoms that arise across time and cultures. We will look at meaning making topics that connect us as conscious, thinking beings, and we may process emotions, body felt experiences, and perspectives as they present themselves as they arise while engaging with Art of Life and Curiosity. You will also be encouraged to create your own personal Wellness Wheel. Directions and diagrams will be offered to assist you with this simple process. We will delve into a total of fifty-eight universal topics, each adapted from the philosophies of the Medicine Wheel, Mandala, Celtic cross, Flower of Life and a variety of other sacred practices, familiar life experiences and aspects from nature. By focusing on these areas using Art of Life and Curiosity, you may bring awareness to aspects of your daily life that may be out of balance and preventing you from living according to your values. Equipped with this insight, you can then consider what may or may not need to change to enable you to live with positive intention and authentic meaning. Importantly, Art of Life and Curiosity reminds us that a contented life is one containing a balance of elements and experiences that are held within flexible but strong boundaries.

I practice Transpersonal Creative Arts Therapy which offers many creative approaches for clients to express the topics mentions in addition to their interpersonal, private experience of the world. I do not interpret work but merely offer a safe space for inquiry. As with my clients, you are encouraged to discover your own meanings from messages from your unconscious that shift through your body independently. As if by serendipity, insights and answers to previously untapped wisdom can surface. With the removal of judgment for the aesthetics of the work created, the raw experience may then be explored and understood as a unique, personal message or messages, breaking down language and literacy barriers while offering universally symbolic representations that may be understood in meaningful, transformative ways. We all carry within us, personal answers to our own questions and challenges. They are often tucked away in your unconscious just waiting to be set free. To achieve this we need curiosity, the bravery to delve into places that will unlock some food for thought and a safe place for the exploration to take place. This is what this book, Art of Life and Curiosity can enable for you. I don’t have the answer to your life’s questions. I am, however, qualified to stimulate the space of curiosity for you to explore your solutions.

Many societies have developed appropriate wellness circles as an expression of their spiritual and democratic practice. I the acknowledge and thank the elders past present and emerging from across our earth whose wisdoms I refer to in this book, and whose practices enrich the world in which we live. It has been my honour to have access to these teachings as a base for my wellness recovery. The concepts of the medicine wheel and the sacred circle have influenced my life for several years now. Throughout this book we will examine various circular art forms and their healing influence on the societies that use them. I am a survivor of long-term childhood sexual abuse by an ordained member of the Catholic Church. It was patience, compassion for other survivors and possible ongoing victims, that encouraged me to trek the long, and often painful road to have him face his day in court, for his crimes. He was jailed and is now placed on the National Sex Registry in the USA. Over the seventeen-year period it took to achieve my goal, I found solace by engaging in creativity. While sitting in courtrooms and hospitals, travelling on public transport, attending counselling, or recovering in bed after another evening of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), night terrors and sweats, I created images to help me stay focused on the process and not be swallowed up by the pain and anxieties surrounding that time of my life and the recurring memories of my childhood. I noticed that the symbol of the circle emerged again and again in my work gaining strength with each arrival, as if it were a gentle and protective nurse, set of prevent an all-consuming infection. Creating circular images and the motion of it provided me with a sense of comfort and a feeling of centred peace. Curious about this, I began making inquiries into the archetypal and symbolic meanings of the circle throughout history. I researched and expanded my personal understanding about the sacredness of the circle by looking at its use in such art forms as dance, music and image-making. From these findings and the many illustrations that found their way from my hands onto the pages of my sketch pad, Art of Life and Curiosity was born. The name of the book in an extension of my Counselling, Wellness Coaching and Art Therapy practice Art of Life with Mairead.

The process of creating Art of Life and Curiosity to help keep me focused, support my determination and calm anxieties that accompanied the grim tasks of police statements, medical examinations, media reports, lawyer conferences and waiting. OH, the waiting! This book organically developed into an interactive, introspective tool that promotes mindfulness, aids relaxation, and encourages better mental health by inspiring introspection and curiosity about the universe and our place in it. Anyone searching for gentle and solid but sometimes challenging perspectives in their approach to holistic wellbeing may be guided by Art of Life and Curiosity to rid themselves of judgments from their inner critic and other people’s ‘stuff’ so you might live your life free from guilt, shame, hate and fear of the things that are holding you back. It provides an innovative way to discover and understand your own inner wisdom, remind you to stay grounded and solidify a personal reflective practice. It is up to you to do the work and make the changes that you want to see in your life. You have the ability to cultivate the strengths that you already possess with kind generosity of spirit, and a curious mind.

No one experience, emotion, or aspect of living is more worthwhile than any other. For this reason, the portions of Art of Life and Curiosity are of equal importance, and it is necessary for us to appreciate each of them in order to create life balance. The ideas presented in this book are designed to promote curiosity for novice to intermediate explorers in the genre of mind, body, spiritual and earth discovery. The knowledge I will share with you is based on my studies in holistic counselling, transpersonal art therapy, trauma informed therapies and wellness coaching, along with other research and reflections from my vast experiences as a parent, survivor, wife, and woman born of this time. Throughout my life, I have tried to expand my understanding of where I fit in this immense universe. I was born in Northern Ireland, a place steeped in traditional symbology and myth, and I currently live in Australia, which is also drenched in Indigenous sacred traditions and old wisdom. A couple of years after arriving in Australia in 1966, my family and I moved from non-permanent accommodation in a migrant hostel into a predominantly Greek-populated area of Melbourne, where very few of our neighbours were literate in English. I learned to play Greek games, ate Greek food and participated in Greek traditions that were reminiscent of the sacred traditions of the Australian-Celtic community. During those years, I danced in communal circles, kept sacred time to Irish and Greek music, and sang Irish and Greek songs that expressed a communal connection.

Now in my late fifties, I sing songs and dance dances from many different cultures. I identify myself culturally as an Australian who can devour Greek dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) any day of the week and who has had the privilege of being exposed to traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Native American ceremonies. It is my practice to look for inner wisdom and new perspectives in everything I do, attempting to practice these valuable skills in all my relationships. I am a daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother and friend, yet due to my migration to Australia at an early age and the absence of any extended family in my adopted country, I grew up with a gnawing feeling that the dirt beneath my feet was not my home. I know now that my feelings of disconnect were due greatly to my years of abuse, but I am thankful for the direction that I took to eventually find my place. During my teens, I became interested in investigating who I was, not just geographically but also psychologically, spiritually, and culturally. My search for meaning and a persistent sense of confusion over my ethnic identity sent me on a path of cultural discovery. As a result, I have borrowed from what I have experienced throughout my life, and I hold dear the best elements of the various cultures into which I have been accepted.

Take the opportunity to ignite and unlock your undiscovered self with kind curiosity. I encourage you to make each moment a rewarding and insightful one. Take care and enjoy the ride. It is important to note that the information in this book and the creation of your Wellness Circle are intended as tools to prompt personal exploration for better mental health and wellness and are not a replacement for a therapeutic relationship with a mental health practitioner. If you are triggered or concerned by anything that may arise for you while engaging with this book, please contact your doctor or mental health practitioner. For immediate mental health support and guidance, call a 24-hour telephone counselling hotline in your state or area or if it is an emergency and you are having serious thoughts of harming yourself or others, please call for ambulance assistance or go to an emergency department.

Art of Life and Curiosity

Part 1: Creating your

wellness circle

Art and creativity are my medicine. The stories, images, and the chapters of this book, have been a great part of my ongoing healing. They not only express my thoughts and feelings through inspirations born from creative processes, but they also challenge my internal dialogue at times, forcing me to face my truth head on. I hope that you too, find some of what I share, personally challenging and ultimately healing when you take the time to gently process the material in your own unique and creative way. I encourage you to own what you discover about yourself. Question the validity of your insights and how they may or may not meet your values and needs today. We evolve and grow as we become more enlightened, so continue to be inquisitive about the changes and be open to new perspectives. It may be here that you find your medicine. Learning about the world and my place within it is a continuous pursuit, which leads me to dance, sing, cry, be repelled and be utterly captivated. Learning about the connections between the mind, body, spirit and earth while delving into my life’s personal meaning involves individual searching and some scary experiences, along with joy, sorrow, loss, discovery, wonder and questioning. Do I actually need to know the meaning of my life to feel content? By expressing my emotions and body-felt experiences through image-making, movement, music, and the written word, I seem to have opened up a direct line from my soul to the outside word. Creativity and examining my inner world using the arts, entices me to engage in self-compassionate thoughts, behaviours and actions by tapping into emotional responses. While experiencing the charm, elation, and despair of what is raised before me, I find myself being inquisitive about all that it means to be me. Giving myself permission to allow new experiences to guide me while practicing patient understanding, I believe that I will continue to learn more about aspects of my human and transpersonal existence. Through a range of practices, I strive to link into my spirit, soul or essence and to understand how this connects to others in my own environment. I also ponder the impact that my spirit may have on the rest of the world. Not unlike the Butterfly effect in the Chaos theory coined by Henri Poincaré in 1890, I wonder, does what I do today make a difference to anyone but me? Does the energy that I put out onto the winds affect the rest of the world? Is the collective conscious and unconscious vibrating in the atmosphere and landing where it is in deficit? The integration of practical knowings from experiences in my outside world (Logos) together with internal wisdom from intuition, dream work and other unconscious wisdom (Thanatos) offers me peace and new perspectives on old wounds.

Through learning to examine my life story without judgment but rather inquisitive curiosity and following the guidance of indigenous elders from many cultures, I have gently transformed some of my less than helpful perspectives and behaviours to discover more authentic ways to conduct myself. Since the beginning of humankind, wisdom has been gathered which has not only had practical benefits but has captured nuances of the human psyche. Cycles of nature are still used today to aid humanity not only in crop sewing, hunting, and gathering but also in spiritual, social and psychological metaphors, signs and stories. Of course, much of what was experienced as magic or sorcery until recently can now be explained scientifically, but I am a strong believer that like the messages from many of the parables in the New Testament and the morals in faery tales, there can be much to learn from past understandings of life experiences when examined with an open mind. After all, some of the greatest scientific discoveries began with a seemingly impossible creative idea that developed into wonderous or deadly fruition. You never know, reading Art of Life and Curiosity may just spark such opportunities. Ideas can often set firmly in our minds, known as top-down thinking, blocking us from the possibility of understanding diverse perspectives. This is because our biases may have told us what we already want to know, not what is actually what we need to know nor what is the truth. We may learn, create and heal when we can begin with a curious mind, free from pre-judgment and stereotyping, called bottom-up thinking. Drawing parallels to natural phenomenon and life events is often missing in the modern Western culture. It seems that many of us have forgotten that we are not automatons but of nature and products of Mother Earth. We are part of the cycle like the seasons, sometimes drifting quietly on the gentle breeze and at other times catastrophically finding our way in the storm. For much of the time of we may be just existing like windless sails. Our moods will ebb and flow like the waves with dangerous currents sending us out into waters beyond our depth but if we listened carefully, our elders have taught us where to venture into the sea to keep us safe from the dangerous riptides. Examining the themes offered by the indigenous elders in the form of the Native American Medicine Wheel, the Celtic Cross and the Tibetan Mandela just to name a few, may help us discover an in-depth understanding of where we are situated in our story and what values may be missing in order that we be true to ourselves and open to personal growth. Art of Life and Curiosity is a guide which offers the art of self-exploration. Many philosophies are visited giving offering a taste of the wide bank of knowledge that have culminated over the centuries. You might discover a particular principle that comfortably suits your life experience, and you may find some to which you feel irrelevant. This is a book of unearthing, so I would encourage you to ask yourself why you respond the way you do, and does the response belong to you or has it been passed down through your family, peer expectations or other cultural bias? Are you engaging in defence mechanisms and if so, why? Have you found something that resonates? Where does your life story fit into the philosophy? How can a particular philosophy guide you in creating positive changes in your present? The next few chapters examine a few cultural influences that I have experienced and now question. I believe that for us to understand how we might find healing, it is important to know where the wounds are. Often, old wounds continue to fester under old scars and are covered up in ways that suit our need in one way or another. I began to drink alcohol habitually from the age of twelve while continuing to attend school and all expected activities of the time. The vodka anesthetised my pain, giving me the strength to face the world. My pretty face, natural intelligence, and polite and quiet demeanour protected me from ever having my secrets questioned. This is only one example of processing the truth behind lived experience. No judgment or blame is made; therefore, healing is permitted to evolve with time and self-kindness. This does not mean that anger and sadness have no place, it just means that they require yet another examination.

Philosophical/historical

perspectives

WABI-SABI

None of us are perfect yet we are faced with the illusion of perfection in society on a daily basis through social media and other formats and through one-sided stories that we often tell ourselves. Although most of us understand that we are commonly just as vulnerable and unsure of ourselves as the next person, we tend to find ourselves presenting parts of ourselves that will be acceptable in certain situations and maybe not so much in others. We edit who we are, or who we think we are. This, of course, is a necessary part of living in a cohesive society, but what happens if you edit your personality, quirks, desires, and everything that makes you who you are to the point that the true essence of you, disappears completely so that you can fit into a particular echelon of society? I was coming out of a period of life where I had been keeping deadly secrets for much of my life. I am an adult recovering from living the life of a sexually abused child who also navigated the complexities of domestic violence. I learned to pretend to be something that I was not at a very young age and perfected the pretence well and truly by my teens. I was like a broken porcelain doll, held together with sticky tape and a smile. I was tangled in the social expectations imposed on me as a good Catholic girl of the times and due to my perfect camouflage of quiet, compliant, invisibility and my good girl persona, I was able to avoid some of the confrontation, and at times, remain relatively safe compared to what had been threatened. Looking back, I treasure my inner strength, my tenacity and ability to survive adversity. That harrowing period of life has now passed, or died, and while still in recovery, I have gained a new life enriched with old knowledge. This porcelain doll is now repaired, I like to think, in the way of the Japanese art of Kintsugi or Golden Joinery. This art form takes broken pottery and reconnects the pieces together accentuating the healed joins with resin and gold, platinum, or bronze. Kintsugi adopts the philosophy of wabi-sabi which promotes finding beauty in imperfections and accepting the cycle of life and death. Cultivating an attitude of acceptance and understanding, without judgment, can be challenging, but it can also enable us to enjoy the boundless rewards of tolerance, patience, empathy and a willingness to forgive. Acceptance can free us from hatred, one of the greatest qualities of life diminishing emotions. Not unlike the words of the Godfather, Michael Corleone from the 1990, Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola’s, Godfather III, Never Hate your enemies, it affects your judgement, I too have learned to no longer carry within me hatred, because it is an infectious cloud that poisons thoughts and behaviours and disrupts peace of mind. It can also keep our bodies in an intensified state of anxiety, leading to physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual illnesses. I have a feeling that my sentiment to replace hatred with curiosity, understanding, and compassion, while protecting myself from further hurt in the hope to heal, may be a little different to the goals of Godfather’s advice to the Mob. Nonetheless, when I focus my love on the healing of survivors of childhood trauma, rather than on hatred for the actions of predators, I am able to offer clients one hundred percent of my attention and my unconditional positive regard for their story. This has been my passion, and I believe a destiny gifted to me by the universe. Would I like for my childhood to have been different? Hell yes, but at the same time, opportunities to gain healing have brought me to where I am today, and I would not change one thing about my life. I have found my ikigai, another Japanese term which "is composed of two Japanese words: iki referring to life, and kai, which roughly means ‘the realisation of what one expects and hopes for’" (Richards 2014). There are four primary elements that comprise ikigai. These