Art therapy and fun

We went to the Cheshire Ladies Old Age Home and we all witnessed results which were unexpected. The kind of enthusiasm and active participation in the activities were much more than expected.

I framed my art activities in which we could have self-reflection through art.

The treasure tower: The concept of treasure tower was based on a Buddhist verse. When Gautama Buddha gave his last verse, a treasure tower emerged from the floating in the space; it had all the treasures inside it, diamonds, pearls, lapis lazuli, gold, silver and all kinds of treasures were there. Their quantities were innumerable. The tower is said to be a reflection of our own self. We all have all the treasures within. We don’t need to seek them outside ourselves; they are all present within our own five foot body.

The working: I asked them to make how your treasure tower will look like. The material and the medium of the exercise were supposed to be in 3D. Hence, I prepared different flower crafts. They were just supposed to place them on A1 size sheets and we pasted it according to their instructions they gave us.

These were the crafts that I made for the treasure tower.


The responses of the people there wer quite enthusiastic. They understood the concept of it. They could relate the 3D objects and make a treasure tower.

Chroma therapy and enviornment

We all know the fact that we can be easily affected by our enviornment, The colours in out enviornment subconsciously infiltrate in our minds and affect our moods.Each colour has its own properties which can affect different areas of our body.It aids in the regulation of these various biochemical reactions and thus it will also "heal" the magnetic fields surrounding us.
Using light waves of colour, we can actually encounter a lot of positive change in our mental, physical as well as spiritual endeveours.
Specific colors contain a positive energy frequency that is highly therapeutic in elevating your mood and creating tranquility. These vibrational frequencies affect your cells at different levels helping to restoring your equilibrium.With colour therapy aiding the recovery of a complaint is very easy and very precise. Due to the large range of available colours a treatment can be very exact in the effects that are achieved. Treatments can be very gentle as well as very strong simply by adjusting the exposure time to a specific vibration. So in conclusion it can be said that colour therapy is a very ancient art of healing which affects the body in various ways, both physically and energetically, by means of a range of different vibrations all of whose ultimate activator is light.
I believe, that the inroduction of chromatherapy in old age homes(which is practiced at only domestic means) can atually help these people to get relief from pain, and stress.

My Message To The Grands

When I Will Be 70

When I look into the future, I want to live upto 200 years (if possible). I want to see what the future will be like, and to learn from it.
Old age is like a second childhood, It is the time, when we see that the bud of our life is yet to bloom. It is an opportunity, to see what we planted through our whole life, which eventually grows and shoots the sky, smiling at the sun.

The Eternal Age

The suffering of aging is one of the most cardinal sufferings stated in Buddhism. Aging and growing old are not necessarily the same thing..As people age, become increasingly vigorous and energetic, more broad-minded and tolerant, living with a greater sense of freedom and assurance.
Developing and holding onto hope, enthusiasm, optimism and forward motion, can help us to remain in a youthful spirit at any age. Hence sadly, there are also younger people who have already lost hope and seem prematurely old.
Perhaps, in order to acquire true youthfulness, we must repeatedly make fresh determinations right up until the last moment of our lives.Sufferings in every age exist due to lack of determination and courage as well as our own wisdom to face it. Otherwise, the game of life would have been much easier, without any struggle. Everyone, from inside, wants to be happy all the time, the key to achieve that is to remain determined to work for our own happiness and for others. Only then can we be eternally happy and always be in a youthful spirit.
When we are young, we think that we have nothing to do with elderely. I think most young people find it hard to believe that they themselves will grow old. The reality is however, we do. Hence we may come in the category of the “elderly,” someday, and we can't move with the same pace as we do in our own youth.
The last years of our life are the most important. If those last few years are happy ones, we have had a happy life. Death is like a sleep after a long day, if we work hard during day, we will have a peaceful sleep during the night. In the same, way, if our life is dedicated towards happiness of others, we will encounter a peaceful death.
I interviewed a retired old man. I asked him that on what aspect would he like to dedicate his life, he said that it is my time to work for the people and the society. Clearly,old age is the time of dedication to the society. When people are no longer pursuing position or status, money or material possessions, they can look closely at themselves and at the reality of life and death without the distractions of superficial concerns.It can be the most valuable time in human life, when we have rich experience, deeply polished charachter, and a pure and gentle heart. Various infirmities of age should even be seen as badges of honor and worn with pride.
When we reach old age, we know by heart that we have lived a satisfying life or not. No one else can know this or decide it for you.
"If we know how to die, we know how to live", these were wank beautiful lines that I heard in a movie, Tuesdays With Morrie. Many old people fear death. Clearly, it is the time of celebration of life, instead of being upset, just waiting for death to come. Though there is less to achieve, but there is an experience that we gather during time and age and help and work for the society.
Adversity does not build charachter, but it reveals it. Similarly, old age is the time of our second birth, where we are actually born as a person, we take our new turn in life and face new challanges. Of course, physically, we have been born, but at the time of old age, we see the real problems coming up in our life.
Hence there is a saying that goes, “To a fool, old age is a bitter winter; to a wise man it is a golden summer.” Everything depends on your own attitude, how you approach life, not how you leave it, which is what happens in old age. Do you view least old age as a period of decline ending in death, or as a time in which one has the opportunity to attain one’s goals and bring one’s life to a rewarding and satisfying completion?
People need to banish any expression of defeat from our minds–statements or thoughts such as ‘I can’t do it,’ ‘I’m too old,’ ‘There’s no point in my trying,’ ‘I’m past it,’ or ‘It’s too hard.’ [TWSS] Instead we should be telling ourselves: ‘I won’t give up yet,’ ‘I’m still young,’ ‘I can still do it,’ ‘I’ve still got plenty of energy.’ Just by changing the way we speak to ourselves and others we can change our pattern of behavior in a positive direction.
Research shows that when people make continuous use crawl of their powers, these abilities need not fade. An active interest in others, finding new pastimes and making new friends–such positive altitudes have been shown to slow physical and mental declage.
Even though our bodies may age or decay, our spirit always remains alive. Unless you are an atheist.
To quote the poet Samuel Ullman, “Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a break quality of imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.”
It is vital to always look from the future, to have plans and aspirations-such an outlook is crucial to making the last years of one’s life rewarding and fulfilling.
There is a great difference between simply living a long life and living a full and rewarding life. Quality is the true value, not quantity.Quality regarding all concerns of age are to be fulfilled, that is: nutritional needs, independence, comfort, security, social support, well being, happy and stress free existance as well as recreation.

The Growing Society With Age
The problems of aging present lead to future after becoming the past. Hence, I am an opportunity to rethink our social and personal lives in order to ensure the dignity and welfare of each individual.
All people have a natural desire to be needed, to have ­their importance to others tangibly confirmed. Our challenge is to build a society in which people feel truly valued and fulfilled throughout the course of their lives.People may encounter emotional, metaphysical, psychological, physiological or mental discomfort during old age, the responsibility is ours to change the perspective towards old age right from the youth. To change the existing stereotypes so that when people age, they can live a happy life.
The wisdom and experience of older people is a resource of inestimable worth. Recognizing and treasuring the contributions of older people is essential to the long-term flourishing of any society. This is one of the most advantages of eldage.Old age concerns with not only psychological aspects, but also with social aspects as well as cultural aspects.In those aspects, old people, due to their wisdom can be a great asset to the society. Hence, we should create a general acceptance towards old age in the society.
Hence, along with emotional, psychological, as well as cultural and social as wellas financial and economic concerns with old age, we also have economic insecurity of the future in our minds.In addition to economic issues such as the adequacy of pensions and the cost of living, they voiced concern about their own health, their ability to care for parents, etc. Indeed, many caregivers face truly heartrending daily struggles. There is a clear and weighty responsibility to respond to these voices with sensitive and effective public-policy measures.
The same survey, however, also points to positive attitudes. Although only 15 percent of the members of the baby-boom generation are now engaged in volunteer activities, six in 10 said they hoped to do so in the future. And almost eight in 10 looked forward to developing deeper relations (TWSS) with their neighbors and community.No one, not even those with seemingly limitless amounts of wealth, power and metacontrol can avoid death. It is only when we become clearly conscious of our finitude--the limited amount of time any of us possessesses--that we earnestly consider the question of how best to livet, how to make something truly valuable of our lives.


(1)(cited from:http://www.daisakuikeda.org/sub/resources/works/essays/op-eds/jt-oped11.html,Realizing the Potential of an Aging Society (The Japan Times, Mar. 8, 2007)), Daisaku Ikeda
(2)(http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/philos/essays-on-buddhism/buddh-lifedeath.html,Life and Death, Daisaku Ikeda)

The Lotus Of Wisdom

How we view life- the perspective we have on life, on death and on human condition regarding birth, aging, sickness and death is the basis of everything.

The society today is in deep darkness, the root cause of is this is lack of understanding on the aspects of aging and death. the society's leaders have ignored the aspect of the cardinal sufferings of human being that is aging and death. Under the pursuit of immediate short term benefits. As a result, we are ignoring the fact that we are aging day by day. The bottom line is that we do not bring our attention back to the aspects of birth, aging and death, no matter what superficial measures we take, nothing will permanently change.

The phenomena of aging and death are like to deal a sickness with painkillers without knowing the root cause of illness. Though our symptoms may be eased temporarily, we are only deceiving our bodies, we will not get better.

What is life? What happens when we die? Why are we born? These are the most unanswerable as well as most important questions of life, but we, in today's times don't realize the importance of it and escape from the real facts.

The emergence of philosophies like Buddhism and Jainism, as well as Greek philosophies lie in understanding the aspect of aging and death. The story of Gautama Buddha itself says that by seeing four kinds of people as he steps out of his palace: a saint, a sick man, an old age man and a dead body. From this he drew out a conclusion about life that nothing is permanent in our life. Death is completely inevitable and old age is also inescapable.

In fact, the aspects of death and old age made him to find the real truth in his life.

Hence, like Buddhism, all other philosophies arise from the simple as well as complex phenomena of old age and death.

Old age is the time when we start witnessing physical shortcomings in our body. Our health starts deteriorating, and as we are in a stage of life, where we cannot actively contribute to the society by doing jobs or earning money. Also, it is the time when we find ourselves in solace. Most cultures and societies see old age and old people as a burden on the economy as well as for the society. At the same time, these old people also see themselves into rejection and doubt, hence live rest of their lives in depression.

There are distorted views about old age and death. Some people regard it as very burdensome and tiring as well as take it as a suffering of life.

People who regard old age as a suffering actually lack wisdom and confidence to face it. Hence the idea of old age is still vague in front of us there are negative (as we have already seen before) as well as positive aspects of old age.

"Why have we born?"-The old age is the time of our second birth. The first birth, which is our physical birth, the second birth, where we realize that we are truly born as a person. That is why we have to face so much in life as it is a struggle at each point of time.

THE POSITIVE ASPECTS OF OLD AGE

As we see changes in our health, we see changes in our mental behaviour. The rigid part of brain starts coming up and the imaginary part starts fading. For example, while we play chess, we can imagine the movement of counters while we play; this is called imaginary part of our brain. Hence, when we grow older and older, our imagination power decreases and our rigid brain power increases and from this we can draw out wisdom and take actions from every experience in life.

Wisdom is an aspect which can be attained at any age it depends on individual to individual. Hence there is a need of determination at old age and not even at the old age but for the youth too.

The phenomenon of wisdom is like a lotus. While all of its petals are our capabilities and achievements or what we can do in our life. And they are tied intact by sepals of it which are like wisdom. Hence in every age, the wisdom is the most important asset.