There are in our existence spots of time. When time slows down, and pure beauty takes over the mind. For instance, when driving through Yosemite National Park a few years back, I could not really focus on any one thought in particular. Elation filled my chest, and I had never felt as truly centered. To this day, I can look back on my memory and recount the blissful experience. Moments like these remind us that we are more than just drones going about our daily lives; we are human beings. But these moments should not be put aside just for grandiose and wild experiences. If we allow ourselves the ability to actively observe and take in our surroundings, we will be happier, more active people. Observing ones surroundings should not just be a hobby, but a constant practice, building neurological pathways within the brain that will allow your brain to work in new ways that you did not realize it could.

In class on Tuesday morning, we took a class from Ratna Roy on Orissi Rhythms. She discussed with us how integral dance is to developing the mind, and how children in India have a dance class in school as well, which has shown to improve math and science test scores across the board. The reasoning for this is that working the brain in a creative form such as dance, one is using parts of the brain that they have never worked before, building new ways of thinking and interpreting information. When we were dancing, I tripped over myself constantly. There were so many different patterns that we had to learn, and by the time that I felt that I had the hang of the footwork, she would introduce the arm movements and I would look like a flailing blow-up character outside of a used car lot. I really couldn’t keep up.

Another interesting point she brought up was about people thinking that you have to be born a  musician or an artist to be able to create art, as well as being able to spend most of your time doing this. She said that much of this ideology stems from British imperialism, where in India they made dancing illegal. They use the dance to communicate ideas between each other, and this threatened western power. By outlawing dance, they took away other art forms too, for art in India is all interconnected. Singing does not come before dance or vis versa; they commune hand in hand.

Being able to create adds a special place in ones life. It shows them that they are capable of becoming more than their own earthly body, and that they can transcend into sound, images, and stories. Not only is this important for an individual, but it is important for a community to thrive. This is how imperialism came to despise the arts, for they were something that was not straight forward, however it gave people enough power for them to feel threatened.

As humans, it is healthy for us to view the world as De Bottons’ artist, one who takes life i. In order to get the most out of life, we must pay close attention to everything. We let too many beautiful things pass by without any notice, due to stress and the fast paced environment of the twenty first century. By focusing on our environment, we can see our world in different ways than we have before, and when we create with our own hands, we can really notice the subtleties within concepts and landscapes, and we can come to understand how truly beautiful yet fleeting the world around us is. While this can be viewed as a morbid balancing act, I would say that it is quite the contrary. Death is a beautiful force, one that all  living beings must face, and without it life would be a complete bore. Our daily tasks would become pointless in the grand scheme of things. But some people do view life in this way. They fall into complacency, and don’t want their mental walls that they have built around what life is, what social standards have set them to believe, or what to expect next to come toppling down. Because, at the end of the day, life is a complete mystery, and to act like it isn’t is just a ploy to fool oneself. Not to say that I have any answers to how to live ones life. Everyone has their own path. But, how much life are you truly living if you let preconceived notions control you?