{"id":242100,"date":"2026-08-21T15:27:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/?p=242100"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:29:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T14:29:30","slug":"who-do-you-think-you-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/who-do-you-think-you-are\/","title":{"rendered":"Who do you think you are?"},"content":{"rendered":"

River Wolton<\/em><\/strong> reflects on her upcoming course Kreativit\u00e4t, Meditation und die Faktoren des Erwachens<\/a><\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning, a heart-shaking and inspiring piece on grief, creativity and the work of artist Helen Acklam<\/a> appeared on my screen (via Good Grief Festival<\/a>). This sentence leapt out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Acklam\u2019s approach is intrinsically physical and spontaneous: as she observes, \u2018I think with my hands and body. They are slower than my mind and free from judgement; they can tell a different kind of story\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Meditation is an inherently creative activity. We are encouraged to arrive little by little in our bodies, ambiguous and unpredictable yes, yet slower than the zip-zap of thought. To tune into, and fashion an appropriate response from the raw materials of emotion, pattern, aspiration. How is it to think with our hands, with our hearts, with our body? To craft a life aligned with our values, longings and imaginings of freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As practitioners, contemplative or creative, we meet inner and outer judgement. It can sink us in storms of confusion and doubt. The early Buddhist map of the Awakening Factors - capacities to cultivate and develop - can be a navigation aid in these challenging waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve worked in schools and with community arts projects over several decades and encountered both the pervasiveness of the inner critic, and the delight when creativity pushes through obstacles and finds expression. I\u2019ll bring what I\u2019ve learned about freeing ourselves from judgement to this three session online course starting 29th September<\/a>, mapping ingredients such as curiosity, courage, and joy onto a contemplative and creative journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through reflections, discussion, and guided meditations, we\u2019ll explore how to take our selves more lightly, weathering the storms of praise, blame, success and failure. A creative journey can be a lonely one, and it\u2019s joyful to meet others who inhabit the intersection between aspiring creatives and meditators. In particular I\u2019m interested in how meditation practice can bring a lighter sense of self to the creative journey, less of \u2018My Name in Lights\u2019 and more leaning into \u2018What can I serve? What can I bring into being?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope to see you there<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This poem was written when immersed in writer\u2019s block. It\u2019s from Jahr<\/a> 366 poems written during 2020. Thank you to Emma Burleigh<\/a> for her kind permission to use the illustration above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 September\n\nearly morning run\nI misjudge the tide\nand soon I\u2019m ankle deep\n\nlater the sea goes out\nand kids careen\nlegs flapping with delight\nacross the half-mile beach\nspades in hand\n\nin front of the laptop\nI\u2019m at the raw edge\nof coherence\none floppy word\nafter another\nlike dead fish\n\nbut then I remember the toddlers\nwith oversize sunhats\nand fistfuls of sand\nlearning to run<\/pre>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
River Wolton reflects on her upcoming course Creativity, Meditation, and the Awakening Factors: This morning, a heart-shaking and inspiring piece on grief, creativity and the work of artist Helen Acklam appeared on my screen (via Good Grief Festival). This sentence leapt out: Acklam\u2019s approach is intrinsically physical and spontaneous: as she observes, \u2018I think with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":242101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,108,107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-courses","category-teachers"],"acf":[],"ase":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242103,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242100\/revisions\/242103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bodhi-college.org\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}