Heavy Head, 11"x14", colored pencil, M. Rattigan
Wellness Wednesday with Elizabeth and Girija
This was my first wellness Wednesday at work. It is an idea I have been passionate about
for several months: implementing a time to sit and be, with intention. It is hoped it will maximize work flow and
allow conflicts and stress to become untangled and free. Perhaps the “stuck” points can become areas
of new growth, new ideas, a new perspective…
Maybe it’s about becoming aware of stuck points felt in the body and
played like a broken record in the mind.
Acknowledgement of these does not automatically “dissolve and resolve”
the issue at hand, but perhaps can be understood as a sounds, movement, or
color to better be able to know how to respect it, hear it, and learn from it.
Today we all made individual intentions that were rather
similar. Mine was “to be, to sit, and to remain open”. After some initial planning we decided to be
in the movement space with its windows and natural light. The movement room also allowed for us to
choose sitting, laying or moving. Paper, markers, colored pencils, and oil
pastels were available with large paper to be a mat or base to not ruin the
room’s special floor. I put on some
music that I wanted to share and so we began…
I sat cross-legged and felt restless. I gradually uncrossed and moved slowly back
into a laying down position, knees bent, feet flat on the floor. I was conscious of the hardness of the floor
and the discomfort in my lower back and the back of my head. I moved about to try and find comfort:
tilting my hips, lifting my head gently and repositioning it: I still felt pain
and pressure. I imagined the back of my
head like a weight. Its heaviness
created imagined indents and cracks in
the floor where fluid lines like vines pushed through the cracks. I sat with this for a while until I could not
sit with the pain in the back of my head.
I slowly sat up and decided to stand.
I moved to an area with my back facing a wall of windows. I could have stayed where I was but it did
not feel OK. I would have had my back to
Elizabeth. Moving to this new area, I
was open to the inside area of out triangle: Girija now diagonally to my left,
Elizabeth diagonally to my right. With
my eyes closed, I placed my hands on my thighs and rolled down. I noticed the weight of my aching head and
felt a swaying and unsteadiness. I carefully tilted my head side to side, and
repeated this rolling and tilting several times. I imagined heaviness dripping off of my
head. Now it felt time to draw and record.
The paper horizontal, I selected colored pencils. I followed the swaying and rocking rhythm of
the music and created a sphere. The
bottom half incorporated mostly warm colors: orange and red. I thought of the “heat” associated with “weight”
and “burning pain” in my head. I spent
much time with this process trying not to disrupt or disturb my peers whom were
also at this point on the floor drawing.
In a quick glance I noticed Elizabeth’s color scheme of green, yellow
and blue. I remember a friend recently
wished me “healing ribbons of blue and green” when I was having a
headache. I decided to follow Elizabeth’s
color scheme and add blue, green, and yellow.
In the wispy nature of the multi-lined sphere, I imagined hands softly
handling the sphere, guiding it, and holding it without actually touching it.
As I write this, I am reminded of the sensation of opposing magnets held gently
in that space where they push away, but with a delicate external force can co-exist
allowing the energy to remain active in between. The image is called “Heavy Head”.
