Parkinson's: Your Brain on Art

 

Snarky Parky & me

A Journey Into Parkinson's with Nancy Mellon

Coordinated by Corrine Bayraktaroglu

Your Brain On Art

 Last week I talked about some of the amazing art opportunities that are on the internet. And wouldn't you know it, more information about our brain and art came through my email swamp this week. Synchronicity at work!

I want to pause first and tell you about my first Harmonica class. It was fun! The class was packed. There were 18 participants.  Pam, our wonderful leader, went over some basics.

She told us why it would be good for us to play a harmonica. 

•      Research has shown that it will help our breathing capacity.  (Playing around on the Harmonica left me kind of breathless, which tells me that I really need the workout.)

•      Learning a new instrument also helps the plasticity of our brains. Which basically means that your brain can rewire, to grow new ways to handle things.

•      Plus it helps your mood to play an instrument either alone or better yet with friends.

Then Pam showed us how she would like us to hold our mouths, (more like a square, open pucker, -not like the tightly pursed lips pictured in the book. Which I was glad for. I'd tried that and it hadn't worked well for me. Plus, watching Pam demonstrate for us how to position our mouths, in a really CLOSE-closeup on zoom was kind of ghoulish, but fun! She showed us how we needed to clamp our lips on the Harmonica, not blow into it in front of it. It made me think of eating a harmonica sandwich.)

She also explained that the music in this book is written in color coded numbers. It is easy to understand (but not to do.) One to ten, matches the numbers above the tiny holes on the Harmonica. In the book,  the numbers are in blue or red. The red ones mean blow your breath out through the harmonica- the blue ones mean draw a breath back in through the harmonica. (That is  much harder for me than blowing out, why?)

We are supposed to play around on our harmonica this week to try to get used to where the tiny holes are. And harder yet, start to figure out what tiny number we are blowing into.

We also are to practice the warm ups every day. Eeekk- 2 concepts, I have always had trouble with- practice -and every day. (Ask me about how my daily meditation practice is coming along. Probably better not.)

 I can, sort of,  now play a very short, squeaky version of Amazing Grace.  (Which Pam did not tell us to practice. I am such a rebel. Not.)

 “In Your Brain on Art, by Magsamen and Ross , they describe how a person's neural circuitry changes in response to activities like learning a new song, or a new dance step, or how to play a character onstage.”

 “Scientific studies increasingly confirm ...The arts in all of their modalities can improve our physical and mental health, and amplify our ability to prevent, manage, or recover from disease challenges,”

  “Engaging with art, either as maker or user, can help us thrive.”

So on to the next art project!

Do you keep a journal or a sketch book? (The following information came from a blog post by ? A woman with Parkinson's. I'm sorry, I think I found her in a Davis Phinney Foundation e mail. I don't remember her name.)

These are ideas, for a person with Parkinson's, for filling in your sketch book.

First, she  reminds us to: “Resist the temptation to think you have to be an artist or must fill a page every day.” 

And “Remember, this is your sketchbook and no matter how you choose to fill it, you will find the process well worth it.”

•                 Consider your sketchbook as a tool to inform and inspire others about Parkinson’s. Educate your viewer with a page (or pages) of Parkinson’s facts and Illustrate (draw, cut and paste, use a photo…). 

•                 Express how it feels to live with Parkinson’s (yours or someone you know) via art, decoupage, poem, story, etc.

•                 Sketch or paint everyday objects and relate them to some facet of Parkinson’s.

•                 Focus a page on one color and how that color is expressed in relation to Parkinson’s:

•                  Black=the day of diagnosis or when a person with Parkinson’s moved into a clinical residential setting,

•      Orange=determination to finish something like an exercise session or a challenge, Green=life, living well today.

“Putting images, thoughts, celebrations and concerns on pages releases them from my mind in a deliberate way that is truly revitalizing. “

 TheSketchBookProject.com 

If you want to you can add your sketchbook to a global art library

I've  kept journals off and on my whole life. In Yellow Springs, it has been a blessing in my life, to have met for years, with a weekly journaling group led by Fran Simon.

Except when I am following a book like  “The Artists Way” which has you do regular morning pages, I don't write in my journals every day- that regularity bugaboo comes in play here for me. I seem to go in bursts. 

I love to go back through the journals and see what I was thinking at the time. Sometimes I have added art. I have always loved the idea of carrying a sketch book with me wherever I go.  And I often do, but usually I also carry a book and end up reading instead of sketching.

The Isolation Journal's have a 30 day journaling challenge just starting this month. I thought this quote by Suleika was particularly good: “ It’s absolutely fine for your journaling to be a private practice. But here at the Isolation Journals, we’ve seen firsthand the power of sharing our stories—how the “I” becomes a “you” and then a “we.” In each other’s stories, we can hear echoes of our own, which helps us feel a little more connected, a little less alone.”

I really like that: “in each other's stories we hear echos of our own, which help us feel a little more connected, a little less alone.”

So here is my idea:  If anyone wants to share their stories on this blog, send them to me. I would be delighted. I'd like us all to feel a little more connected, a little less alone.

Cheers,

Nancy & the Snark