Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 07 June 2022

Hits: 257

 Healing power of art, an illustration by Fayez Barakat, via College of Medicine

The healing power of art became the inspiration for a portable museum dedicated to beauty and consolation, a unique book about art which is also about psychology and healing: a true piece of art therapy.

Art Against Despair:Pictures to Restore Hope and Healing-A Must-see and read book

‘One of the most unexpectedly useful things we can do when we're feeling glum or out of sorts is to look at pictures. The best works of art can lift our spirits, remind us of what we love and return perspective to our situation. A few moments in front of the right picture can rescue.'

Photo: The School of Life

‘This is a collection of the world’s most consoling and uplifting images, accompanied by small essays that talk about the works in a way that offers us comfort and inspiration. The images in the book range wildly across time and space: from ancient to modern art, east to west, north to south, taking in photography, painting, abstract and figurative art. All the images have been carefully chosen to help us with a particular problem we might face: a broken heart, a difficulty at work, the meanness of others, the challenges of family and friends… We’re invited to look at art with unusual depth and then find our way towards new hope and courage.’

Read Extract HERE

Buy the book HERE

How Art Can Heal

Nonverbal therapy helps people work through trauma and build resilience.

BY GIRIJA KAIMAL

Photo:AmericanScientist

‘One-fourth of the global population is at risk of developing a mental health challenge in their lifetime, and one-fifth of children and adolescents could develop mental health problems, according to a 2014 World Health Organization report. Wars, adversity, discrimination, natural disasters, and illnesses such as COVID-19 further exacerbate these unmet needs for psychosocial support.

'Oscar Wilde once said, “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Art provides a way to communicate experiences when individuals lack verbal skills or when words are insufficient. Humans evolved artistic expression as an imaginative tool for adapting to changing conditions and solving problems. Other scholars and I have asserted that art making is an integral part of human functioning, and that it helps humans survive. As an art therapist, I have spent decades trying to understand the role of art making as a therapeutic tool…’- Continue to read

Artists Who Experience Their Own Healing Process Through Art

By Renee Phillips

Painting by Tara Moorman

‘When we announced our call for artists for our Healing Power of ART 2020 exhibition, we asked artists to let us know if they create art as a modality for healing. We are honored to introduce you to several artists who not only create outstanding works of art, they are artists who experience their own healing process through art.

This website was created based on our belief that art serves as a positive catalyst for enhancing the well-being of individuals, society and the environment. We believe that art has the power to heal, inspire, provoke, challenge and offer hope. We will continue to share healing art and articles about art and healing…’- Continue to read

‘Colours help my heart and mind to heal’:

Hiromi Tango, the artist using rainbows to cheer up the world

Hiromi Tango in front of her piece Red Moon at her studio in Tweed Heads. Photo: David Maurice Smith/Oculi/The Guardian

'From her studio in Tweed Heads, in the New South Wales northern rivers region, artist Hiromi Tango has become well-known for making rainbow art to aid her mental health and that of others. Yet for the two years prior to the pandemic, she wore only white: her way of grieving humanity’s environmental impact, evidenced in reef coral bleaching.

The grief was also personal. Tango wanted to metaphorically “cleanse” her spirituality, genetics and memory. So, she covered herself in white housepaint for Bleached Genes, a photographic series that was “based on my father being bedbound and going through dementia, and him not realising who I am sometimes”.

When we speak, the 46-year-old Japanese-born artist is in Hobart to unveil her new work Rainbow Dream Moon Rainbow: a vibrant playground and meditation space inside a graffitied Hobart warehouse, as part of Dark Mofo festival. The rainbow panels, platforms and human-sized mouse wheels were painted and fabricated by freelance artists and craftspeople on the apple isle; they’re scattered in multiple rooms amid projections of rotating rainbow spirals. It is an Instagram-ready space for immersive selfies; at its peak so far, there has been an hour-long queue outside to enter...'- Continue to read

Ocean Mandala by Sumit Mehndiratta. "Ocean Mandala" was inspired by the Pacific Ocean. Mandala is a Sanskrit

word meaning 'circle' and is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the Universe.

GCGI is our journey of hope and the sweet fruit of a labour of love. It is free to access, and it is ad-free too. We spend hundreds of hours, volunteering our labour and time, spreading the word about what is good and what matters most. If you think that's a worthy mission, as we do—one with powerful leverage to make the world a better place—then, please consider offering your moral and spiritual support by joining our circle of friends, spreading the word about the GCGI and forwarding the website to all those who may be interested.

Related/similar articles: A pick from our archive

World in Chaos: The Healing Power of Gardens

The healing power of Dawn 

Music to Heal the World

Interfaith Spiritual Music to Heal the World, GCGI 1st Conference, Oxford 2002

Compassion, kindness, hope, courage and joy: The Path to a More Loving World

 ‘Hope is a thing with feathers’

New Year calls us to hope beyond despair and light beyond darkness

In a world that seems so troubled, how do we hold on to hope?

Meister Eckhart: A Mystic Warrior for Our Times and the Healing Powers of the Four Es

Build a Better World: The Healing Power of Doing Good

Healing the world as if the web of life mattered: In Praise of Ancient Wisdom

Healing Our Way to a more Caring, Kinder and Fairer Society: A View from a CEO and a Recovered Economist

Rediscovering the art of healing ourselves and all that is around us

Spirituality and Environmentalism: Healing Ourselves and our Troubled World

One who dreams is called a prophet

We are not the Masters, We are the Servants: Time to Reassess our Relationship with Nature

Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 02 June 2022

Hits: 314

Paul Oestreicher examines the contract between the monarch

and the public in the UK and the Commonwealth*

 Members of the royal family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace watch the Royal Air Force flypast during

the Trooping the Colour parade on June 2, 2022, in London.-Chris Jackson / Getty Images

‘THE Firm needs a balcony from which to wave, and a people to return the compliment, and maybe even cheer. The sun may shine.

From the unthinkable moment when the longest and most popular reign in British history comes to a peaceful end, King Charles, if he chooses to, and his consort will reign — but not rule. That is of the essence of our polity. The citizens, no longer subjects, will peacefully go their own way and think their own thoughts. Some may even wonder: how long will this circus survive?

Come the next reign, which may still be quite some way off, one thing is clear: revolution is not in the air. My guess is that the next monarch may choose to continue to share his private passions and convictions with the people. That will neither frighten the royal horses nor destabilise the status quo. It may simply add some spice to life at the Palace. Changes are as natural as the hitherto moderate climate of these isles.

These reflections are clearly no more than my uncertain predictions. Nothing beyond the present moment is ever certain.

I have said all this with equanimity, even though my much-respected training vicar, Stanley Evans, long since promoted to higher realms, would be angry — very angry.

A leading light in the Christian Socialism of the East End of London, he would say: “It is none of your business to reflect on what will be. You must state in no uncertain terms what should and shall be. The inherited privilege of the few is wrong, wrong, wrong. Challenge it!”

I have to confess that, even while I was his curate, Stanley was right never to quite trust me. Marxist fundamentalism is as foreign to me as are its Christian varieties. Nevertheless, he was right in siding with Wat Tyler’s priest, John Ball, proclaiming to the peasants on Blackheath in June 1381, before they marched on Westminster, that “Under God, all shall be equal.”

That is why the economy, the just distribution of our common wealth, matters more than our mode of national management. For challenging the rich, Tyler and Ball were hanged, drawn, and quartered. The Archbishop concurred (but then, the rebels had beheaded his predecessor).

WITH a New Zealand degree in politics, two books on Christian-Marxist dialogue, and a lifetime as a church diplomat based in England but ministering far beyond, I was always on the frontiers of non-party politics.

My first seven years were lived in Nazi Germany. New Zealand then gave my family refuge. Europe, Western and Eastern, of which England (Brexit be damned) will always be a part, became my workshop. At 90, I am back in the South Pacific. My three passports sit lightly together.

These are my credentials for this reflection on what good governance might look like in years to come.

So, back to my start. Ceremonials do matter. The English love it — even our flag. But never, never, “My country right or wrong.” That’s pernicious. Traditions go deep. The kings and queens of this sceptred isle, to whom Shakespeare gave character and meaning, frame our history. Yet the people made it.

Charles and Camilla will need a new framework. To crown them surrounded by the hierarchy of the Church of England would be an anachronism, faintly ridiculous, far away from where the great majority of the people are.

Solemnity, yes, given our history; even Christian solemnity, with the assurance of freedom of religion and conscience for all. Goodbye to “protecting the Protestant Religion” of Elizabeth l. Welcome to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Jews, Muslims, and those of other faiths should be made to feel part of this realm, as well as those whose faith is known to God alone.

The post-Elizabethan age, when it arrives, will trigger a debate. Do we really want a monarchy? The question needs to be asked, although I shudder at one more referendum. The issue might well engender massive heat and division at the expense of what really matters: the maintenance of a just and open society — the very thing that is in the process of being lost, both in the barely United Kingdom and in the rest of Europe.

LET me explain by using the example of the erstwhile British colony of New Zealand, which is gradually adopting its much more poetic Maori name of Aotearoa: Land of the Long White Cloud. It has kept the Union flag beside the Southern Cross on its flag, and this by popular choice. There was no need, given the almost universal love of the Queen, to put the monarchy question to the people. Post-Elizabeth, that is very likely to happen.’

*This article was first published in Church Times on 27 May 2022.

Read the original publication HERE

Paul Oestreicher – an inspirational peace campaigner. Photo:vaincrelaviolence.org 

…’In 1986, just after the birth of our second son, Paul, I was awarded my PhD and soon after I was given a full time post as senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at Coventry Polytechnic (now University).

Soon after my appointment, a dear friend of mine from New Zealand, Prof. Kevin Clements, visited me at Coventry. I had organised a dinner at a small, cosy restaurant near the cathedral. He asked me if a dear friend of his from New Zealand, who lived in Coventry, could join us too.

I did not know at the time that I was going to meet a globally known and respected person, a man that was going to have a major impact on my life in years to come.

They arrived at the restaurant where I was waiting for them. Kevin introduced me to Canon Paul Oestreicher, a residentiary canon of Coventry Cathedral and director of the Cathedral's Centre for International Reconciliation, a member of the General Synod of the Church of England, Chair of Amnesty International UK from 1975-1979; Vice President, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND); and a lifetime worker for peace and social Justice.

Paul and I became very good friends. I shared many wonderful and enriching times with him at his office at the cathedral, listening to his stories, learning from his wisdom and insight. A truly wonderful man. We also had many wonderful times, sharing food and drinks at our respective homes, alongside our families…’: Coventry and I: The story of a boy from Iran who became a man in Coventry

More articles by Canon Oestreicher from the GCGI Archive: 

Canon Dr. Paul Oestreicher ANZAC DAY 2020 GCGI Sunday 26 April Sermon

THIS ENGLISH BREXIT- Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher

 The Disintegration of this Disunited Kingdom- Canon Dr Paul Oestreicher 

 THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME, A HUNDRED YEARS ON

And finally, my heartfelt congratulations to Paul for his award of OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours “for services to Peace, Human Rights and Reconciliation”. …Jubilee honours for Paul Oestreicher, lifelong peace activist

With our best wishes to Paul from all of us in Coventry.