The importance of art and creativity in finding meaning
Dude, what if… Matrix?
I saw The Matrix Resurrections at the cinema earlier this week, and aside from questioning reality, I’ve also been mildly obsessing about vampires and reflecting on Gorgons. As you do!
Well, it is still the dead of winter in the UK! So in the last week of 2021, why not have a slightly dark edition of Friday Feels? But you’ll see how much light there is in the darkness!
Here’s 5 inspiring tidbits from my world of coaching, meditation and breathwork:
1. Song of the week
Love Song for a Vampire by Annie Lennox (Listen on Spotify or watch on YouTube)
You know, that seasonal Christmas classic! 😉 I have been learning to play and sing this on guitar recently. And oh my! The lyrics really are so beautiful! I also appreciate the depths of Annie Lennox’s powerful voice and these words:
“For it is the drum of drums,
It is the song of songs…
Oh, loneliness, oh, hopelessness,
To search the ends of time,
For there is in all the world,
No greater love than mine” 😭
2. Quote of the week
“The choice is an illusion. You already know what you have to do.”
― Bugs, The Matrix Resurrections
How often do you know what you have to do? And yet you put off making a decision? Um-ing and ah-ing over different choices, hesitating… perhaps you’re scared to commit. Or worried about making the wrong decision. To stay or to leave. To buy or not. To pick that option or another. Perhaps choice is an illusion. Can you trust that, deep down, you DO know what you have to do? In any decision in life! You already know what you have to do. It’s the courage to take ACTION that really counts.
Side note: If you’re geeky about The Matrix Saga and its philosophical and spiritual themes, I took part in a conscious chat about the film series with Brendon Culliton and Craig Seaton, which is worth checking out!
3. Practice of the week
Sobriety! Since February 2018, I’ve been tracking periods of sobriety. That is, time without alcohol. I use this free Android app called Sober Time. I wanted to reduce how much I was drinking and I’ve kept track ever since. As a meditation teacher, I realised that drinking booze was wholly incompatible to meditation. Like, I can’t meditate when I am hungover. Period. So my ability to, y’know, DO MY JOB was totally compromised. Turns out, I really need my brain for the work I do! 😉
This is my second sober Christmas and New Years and although it’s been tricky at points, I am really appreciating the clear mind and motivation/energy that normally would be drained from me. This is no judgment on alcohol and drinking. I just know – through a lot of lived experience – that being sober is very important if I am to keep growing beyond my comfort zone. Alcohol clouds my mind, drains my energy and fuels anxiety. I spent so much of my teens, 20s and into my early 30s drinking heavily at weekends, and I managed to get this far! Just what might I be able to achieve SOBER?! 🤯
4. Article of the week
I wrote one song with Jeff Tweedy, Vulture
Have you ever had a piece of art just totally shift something for you? I saw Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze in Vienna in 2018, and a profound insight was born at that moment. Like a tectonic plate shifting, magma of new awareness and passion has continued to stir within me ever since. The story of Klimt’s frieze speaks of the essential role art plays in saving humanity from the suffering of illness, sickness and death. I was captivated by the haunting Gorgons, three female monsters from Greek mythology symbolising humanity’s struggle against these forces.
At the time, I had recently also learnt of the work of Viennese psychologist Viktor Frankl and his book Man’s Search For Meaning. I realised how art could tell stories that speak to our soul. And how finding meaning when faced with deep suffering is how we can find strength. Art communicates these deep truths in such a profound way, and in doing so we can ultimately save humanity.
I stopped studying art at school around year 8 and went down the route of SCIENCE. So perhaps this realisation about the value of art in society is stating the bleeding obvious. But taking in Klimt’s frieze in that moment, I felt so deeply the essential value and nature of art…
Gosh, this is a LONG winded way of saying, I appreciate art! And I am so appreciative of creating art and being more creative in general. For Christmas, I was given this brilliant book by the musician Jeff Tweedy, from the band Wilco: How to Write One Song. Expect more songs and guitar playing from me! And PLEASE please please, keep creating art. Your soul and the world needs you to do it. Stat!
5. Client win of the week
“Think back to this time last year… WOW!”
I’ve loved supporting clients in reflecting back on their wins of 2021. There’s so much that’s happened for them! Do you believe your life can change in a year? Or even less? I’ve seen it time and time again. Both in my own life and my transformations and those of my coaching clients. Career transformations, deep shifts in mental health, better physical health, repairing old and building new relationships, levelling up in finances, discovering new hobbies and reigniting passion for old ones… you are allowed to change!
For so many people, the pandemic has been a catalyst that’s forced big changes. But what if YOU decided how you wanted your life to go? Rather than waiting for the external circumstances to permit you to change in meaningful ways? You are the architect of your own life – your successes and wins, and also your pitfalls and suffering, to a point. So what life do you want to create? It’s all to play for. And I believe in you! Go get ’em!
Work with me
Sunday 2nd January 2022: Coaching and Breathwork Workshop
Let’s come together and welcome in New Year energy at my coaching and breathwork workshop!
On Sunday 2nd January from 10am – 1.30pm in a cosy location in Manchester, let’s release what you want to leave behind in 2021 and allow in what you want to renew your focus on in 2022. Grab a ticket to my workshop here.
Event: Coaching and Breathwork Workshop – Release and Renew for 2022 (in-person)
Date and time: Sun, 2 January 2022, 10:00 – 13:30 GMT
Location: Active Wellness Cafe, 79a Lever Street, Manchester, M1 1FL
All that’s left to say is I send you SO MUCH love!
Keep dreaming big.
Trust yourself and what your gut is telling you.
It’s not indulgent to follow your dreams. It’s your god-given right for this lifetime to do that.
Follow your own path. And let others do the same.
We’re all on our own journey. Walking each other home.
I am CLAPPING and WOOING at you from my path, marvelling at your awesomeness.
Keep going! 2022 is waiting for you with open arms.
Big love,
Briony x
P.S. What is this Friday Feels email about? In case you’re reading this for the first time (hello!), I post a weekly blog with snippets from my world of coaching, meditation and breathwork. My intention is to share useful, joyful or interesting tidbits, which may serve you in some way 🙏
