Dedication, Transformation & the Arts

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Experience the essence of creativity and dedication with Amy Edelstein as we journey with her to CoSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in the Catskills. This episode celebrates Alex and Alison Gray, the visionary artists who have devoted decades to the transformative power of art. For their entire adult life, they have been expressing their own adventures in consciousness through their unique for of art, becoming leaders and pillars of the psychedelic art movement. They exemplify how art can be a conduit for personal and collective growth, and their center stands as one of the rare collective spaces where people can come to explore the inner and artistic expressions in a collective and collaborative fashion. 

For educators seeking to reignite their passion, this episode is a heartfelt exploration of rediscovering the 'why' behind teaching. Amy shares a compelling exercise from her professional development sessions, inviting teachers to open to themselves and re-acquaint themselves with their vocation or calling to teach.  This introspection often reveals a profound sense of purpose that transcends standard metrics like test scores. Experience how nurturing these inner drives can lead to more enriching and vibrant educational experiences for both teachers and their students. Enjoy this episode of the Conscious Classroom, which unravels  the pillars of learning spaces which foster joy, creativity, and transformation.

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Episode Transcript

Amy (00:10):
Welcome to the Conscious Classroom podcast, where we're
exploring tools and perspectivesthat support educators and
anyone who works with teens tocreate more conscious,
supportive and enrichinglearning environments.
I'm your host, amy Edelstein,and I'll be sharing
transformative insights andeasy-to-implement classroom
supports that are all drawn frommindful awareness and systems

(00:32):
thinking.
The themes we'll discuss aredesigned to improve your own joy
and fulfillment in your workand increase your impact on the
world we share.
Let's get on with this nextepisode.
Hello and welcome to thisepisode of the Conscious

(00:57):
Classroom.
My name is Amy Edelstein.
Today I want to talk aboutdedication, transformation and
the arts.
I had the opportunity to govisit the center of Alex and
Alison Grey, called CoSM Chapelof Sacred Mirrors up in the
Catskills in New York.

(01:17):
If you've never heard of Alexand Alison Gray, they are unique
.
They are a phenomena.
They both have been practicingartists very prolific and
performance artists as well,since the 1970s, and Alex even
earlier than that.

(01:38):
They were independent in theirown exploration of consciousness
and purpose and being, and whenthey met they really truly
found each other as soulmates.
And for the last 50 years theyhave been married creating,

(02:02):
producing collaborative art.
Creating producingcollaborative art, orchestrating
event spaces for artists andcreatives to come together and

(02:23):
to teach and to mentor and tomake art a form of exploration
of our higher human potentials.
I first met them probablyaround 2007, when their center
was in Chelsea.
The Chapel of Sacred Mirrorswas a beautiful event and art
space in Chelsea.
I was helping to organize a NewYear's Eve dialogue about human
transformation and our higherpotentials with them and then,

(02:46):
of course, being who they are,they had a blowout New Year's
Eve party with music and danceafterwards.
What impresses me about them asmentors and teachers is that
they're completely passionateabout their purpose and their

(03:08):
craft.
It got me thinking a lot aboutthe energetic difference between
the learning environment thatis created around people who are
passionate about their craftand about teaching and about
nurturing their students'potentials to emerge art

(03:31):
students, writing students andwhat happens in the classroom.
Because classroom teachers are,they give their time, their
life, decade after decade, totheir students and to teaching.
And yet the rigid structure ofthe way our school system is

(03:58):
organized and the teaching totests and the way that we are,
in a lot of ways, presented withroadblocks around creating
long-term supportive mentoringrelationships with our students
leads to a very dry anddesiccated atmosphere,

(04:30):
desiccated atmosphere, whereasthe atmosphere around the grays
is just brimming with invitationto create and to learn.
The grays also run art programsand monthly gatherings where
they're creating art alongsideeveryone who comes.
Often, when we're teachers, weare presenting knowledge, not

(04:56):
learning and creating alongsideour students.
I really started to feel thatthere's a key in this, that it's
not just because they're freefrom the education structure in
the way that it is, and it's notjust because they have been
influenced by and are reallystrong proponents of the

(05:16):
psychedelic revolution which I'mnot, but I just respect their
work and their lifelongdedication and their intimations
of how we can live in anon-separate way, in a way that
fosters goodness and kindnessand love and vision and harmony
among all creatures.

(05:38):
The key that I think lies inthis is how they stay true to
what their higher vision is.
When I work with teachers and Ido professional development
with them, one of the exercisesI often do is a simple sentence

(06:00):
completion and we do free formstream of conscious journaling,
answering the sentence stem.
I teach because and I invitepeople for five to 10 minutes to
keep answering that questionand maybe the surface quest
surface answers will be I teachbecause it's my job.

(06:21):
I teach because I my pension, Iteach because this was the
degree I got, and then I invitethem to keep going deeper.
What is it that inspireseducators to educate?
What is it about?
Immersing in learning anddiscovery and creativity and

(06:42):
potential that is so meaningful?
And I've had teachers come tome with tears streaming down
their face saying nobody hasasked me that since I graduated
college, I haven't given myselftime to think about what my

(07:03):
purpose is in teaching.
Being measured by studentattendance and student test
scores is not going to feed oursouls, it just won't.
Won't.

(07:32):
Connecting with our desire for abetter world, one that really
expresses heaven on earth, andseeing if we can inspire in our
students a way of thinking andbelieving in their own potential
and in their creativity and inthe inherent goodness of life,
despite all the bad things thathappen, that we can stay

(07:54):
connected with our purpose as ateacher, if you find yourself
teaching out of a deficit, outof a lack, if you find yourself
teaching out of a deficit out ofa lack, trying to dig yourself

(08:16):
or your students or your schoolor your district out of a hole,
you simply won't get there.
You'll smother your heart'spassion with the practical and
with trying to keep pace, andyou'll always feel behind.

(08:36):
The only way to teach andinspire that kind of creativity
is to connect with our purpose.
Because once we're firmlyrooted in what we care about,
that vision of the possiblefloods our whole being.
And even if it hasn't come tofruition yet, even if it hasn't

(08:57):
come into being yet, even if wecan't see it manifest, because
we're so connected with ourheart's purpose and with what we
care about and what we want tosee and we're meditating on what
we want to see and not on lackand deficit that starts to
become more real to us.
And when what we care aboutbecomes more real to us, that

(09:22):
passion spills over into theclassroom.
And all of a sudden we areteaching from the fullness of
our vision and not from thedeficit of where we seem to be
right now, given the lenses thatwe're told to look through.

(09:46):
Teaching from deficit is a habit.
We're given those lenses, butit is just a habit, and it's a
habit that we can change.
And the way we change it isthrough giving time and space to
our own meditation, our owncontemplation, our own study of

(10:10):
the great role models acrosshistory, well known, little
known, legend, myth and fable,ancient texts and modern insight
and practice, mindfulness.

(10:30):
Practice is wonderful.
It's only wonderful if we do it.
Knowing about it, being able torelate the benefits, as ChapGPT
described them to us, is good.
It's better to know about itthan not know about it.

(10:52):
But immersing yourself in thepresent moment, learning and
training to be able to observe,without judgment and reactivity,
everything that's happening inour experience, in our minds, in
our memories, in our plans andour overwhelm, being able to let

(11:16):
all that rise and pass away andrise and pass away like endless
waves on the shore while weremain steady, is the training
that helps us stay present andinspired by our vision.
Training that helps us staypresent and inspired by our

(11:38):
vision If we're constantlypulled off our vision because
we're overwhelmed by what wehave to do or we're worried
about what our mind is tellingus about how well we did or
didn't do in the lastinteraction with someone we care
about or someone who holdsinfluence over us.
If we can't stay steady in ourpractice, it will be hard to

(12:00):
stay steady in our vision.
When I had the good fortune tomeet Nelson Mandela in
Johannesburg, south Africa, in2002, just 10 years after a part
, I'd ended Standing right nextto him and looking at his face.

(12:22):
He did not have an easy life,both politically and personally.
He had a very hard time and thejoy in his eyes and the
luminosity in his face didn'tcome from an easy life of rest.

(12:45):
It came from the, the fruits ofa life deeply lived and one
that never gave up on his visionof the possible.
If you're a teacher and you'relooking in the mirror, if you're

(13:07):
anyone and looking in themirror and you don't see that
luminosity and you don't seethat luminosity and you don't
see that kindness because you'reexhausted and you're
overwhelmed and you're bitterand you're constantly behind and
consider that an emergency.

(13:31):
And consider that an emergencyfor yourself as well as for the
state of your students andwhether your students are your
younger employees or your bossor your family or your classroom
.
What I mean is those in yourcircles.

(13:56):
If you look back and you don'tsee that luminosity and that
kindness and living warmth, putyour attention on your ideals,
put your attention on what youcare about, on a vision of the

(14:19):
possible, and give yourself thatimportant, really essential
practice of cultivating yourstability in your presence
through different forms ofmindfulness practice and really

(14:39):
do the practice, really clockthose hours.
You know, if you want to learnto play an instrument, you have
to practice.
If you want to learn a language, you have to practice.
If you want to learn a language, you have to clock the hours.
If you want to be a better chef, you definitely have to clock

(15:03):
the hours.
And that's the one I haven'treally mastered yet.
If you want to realize a lifethat's fueled by the ineffable,
by the numinous, by discovery,by emergence, by an inner

(15:29):
richness that is, as they callit, the pearl beyond price, we
have to give it space and time.
And if you're concerned aboutthe bullying you see in
classrooms, if you're concernedabout the anxiety you see in

(15:51):
your students, if you'reconcerned about the elevated
temperature of media rhetoric orthe nastiness of our comedy
these days, put the time intoyour mindfulness and your

(16:12):
compassion building.
Give yourself that treat.
It does take work and it doestake discipline.
And I know when it's been along week or a day it's hard to

(16:33):
find the discipline and time andspace to do it.
And yet, if we care about thefuture of education, we have to
put in the time.
And when we put in the time.
It's going to have its ownmagnet.
It's going to propel us intowanting to put more time into it

(16:58):
, wanting to put more space intoour practice, wanting to push
aside the constant demand fororder in our busy lives and give
ourselves to a contemplationthat brings about relaxation and

(17:22):
love and care and order.
So let's do a nice long practiceright now, and oftentimes we do
just five minutes, thinkingthat maybe you were driving or
maybe you're in a space whereyou can't do a slightly longer

(17:43):
practice.
So if you're in one of thoseenvironments where you can't
stop, pause here with acommitment to yourself that you
are going to come back, whetherit's to this practice or your
own practice, and give yourselfsome time, give yourself some

(18:05):
space to contemplate the unknown, known.

(18:34):
So take a deep breath in and adeep breath out.
Take another deep breath in andanother full exhalation.
Let your breath return tonormal, to natural breath.

(18:57):
In this deep breath.
Slightly longer practice, maybe10 or minutes or so, we're
going to cultivate well-being.
So allow yourself to roll yourshoulders back, to move your

(19:20):
neck from side to side, lettingout any kinks or pops, stretch
your feet, pointing your toesdownward and flexing them up,
and then making a few circleswith your ankles, going one
direction and then even it outthe opposite direction.

(19:43):
Do the same with your wrists,stretching your wrists up and
pointing your fingers down, andwhen you move to any way that

(20:04):
you feel like would help yourbody arrive, come to stillness
and allow your body to find itsnatural repose.
It's natural stillness, lettingyourself simply be, with

(20:48):
nothing else to do, no activityyou need to follow.
And now rest your attention inyour inner eye on the most

(21:35):
beautiful flower or field offlowers that you can imagine,
feeling the vibrancy, therichness of color, the delicate
shape and form, bringing to mindsomething so beautiful you feel

(22:12):
you can't appreciate it enough.
You stretch your heart and takeit in, and yet its beauty is
even beyond that.

(22:37):
Release, trying and, as youinhale, know that you are taking
in the beauty and, as youexhale, allow your cells to

(23:04):
absorb everything beautiful.
Go at your own pace, withoutguidance, with the rhythm of
taking in effulgence andsplendor and grace and

(23:28):
luminosity, color and balance,and the rhythm of allowing all

(25:49):
that to seep into every cell inyour body, feeling the infinite
beauty in our mind's eye.
Thank you.
Now, as you release the imageof beauty, allow yourself to
breathe in love and care foryourself and breathe out love
and care and breathing out afullness and abundance and

(26:37):
overflowingness of care foreverything in the whole cosmos.
Breathing in kindness and care,filling your being with

(27:27):
kindness and care, filling yourheart and letting your heart
radiate out that beautiful careand light to your whole body, to

(27:48):
your mind, to your organs, toyour hands, to your feet,
feeling yourself with love andcare, kindness and well-being.

(28:12):
Filling the universe with loveand care, with kindness and

(29:15):
well-being.
As you release the image ofkindness flooding in and
kindness reaching out to thefarthest corners of the universe
, allow your attention to comeback to your form, seated on a
chair or cushion To your handswhat a gift they are resting on

(29:49):
your thighs and as you lookaround you, appreciating the
gift of your beautifulsurroundings, even if there's
only one shape or color that ispleasing, find that shape and

(30:31):
allow yourself to shift from ourmeditation into the world of
activity, maintaining this innereye on the richness and

(30:52):
abundance of love and care inthe present and the potential of
the future for a world animatedby this.
Thank you for your effort andintention and commitment and

(31:14):
I'll see you next time.
Thank you for listening to theconscious classroom.
I'm your host, amy edelstein.
Please check out the show noteson innerstrengthfoundationnet
for links and more information,and if you enjoyed this podcast,
please share it with a friendand pass the love on.
See you next time.