Well-being for Seniors
Expanding the horizons of our work in the community, we have flagged off programs for Senior Citizens in different parts of the country
Svasti- Well-being through Arts and Play for Senior Citizens at Antara Senior Living, Dehradun
We flagged off our 3 day program Svasti – Well-being through Arts and Play for Senior Citizens at Antara Senior Living, Dehradun.
Svasti aspires to provide for physical, psychosocial and emotional well-being through multi-Arts. Through this program we wish to create a space for interaction and play, combined with mindful self-awareness and contemplation, leading to better self-expression, building a sense of aliveness and instilling a sense of hope and happiness. The first session opened with the Treevellers’ Katte which was inclusive of many ecosystems – of being, of aspiring, of revelling. The second day at Svasti, involved splashing colours on a shared canvas, drawing lines and circles, making connections, within ourselves and with others, using oil pastels, paints and a host of colours from inside and out. The third day harnessed the power of stories. The participants wove stories from words pulled right out of the air. Ruhaniyat – the meditative mehfil that was the culmination of the three day programme brought the participants together with poetry and music. They shared poems that had affected them or that had “remained with them from childhood.” The warmth and fragrance of an evening of shared songs and stories lingered in the room.
Building Communities- Rotary’s Silver Talkies, Bangalore
impART’s first footprint at the Rotary’s Silver Talkies ADDA saw 16 Senior Citizens using props and their bodies as tools to represent the trees they had found within themselves, during the Treevellers’ Katte. Through the use of tree photos and a variety of props, the members were facilitated to reconnect with the playfulness, abundance, expansiveness, beauty and mentorship of trees.
The next session with the group reaffirmed that we all have tales to tell. The sense of impermanence that runs through all our lives was reinforced by the facilitator’s instructions to make and break and again make and break, or blend back the clay into its formlessness. The role of the arts in drawing out our common stories was reinforced in this simple and profound session.