Creative Visualization and Genetics

We will finish this week discussing wholeness and empowerment through creative visualization. Creative visualization is the technique of using your imagination to create what you want in life. Is this possible? Some people would say yes. On the other hand, others believe that our behaviors are shaped by our genes or some type of social engineering. 

Our reading comes from the book, Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain. 

Today, you will write about the power of creative visualization vs. genetics. This is metaphysics vs science. 

Hope, Healing, and Wholeness

In his book, Hope and Healing in Urban Education, Shawn Ginwright describes a continuum of well-well-being in response to conditions of justice. He identifies four stages: 1) suffering, 2)surviving, 3)challenging, and 4) thriving.

Ginwright also offers five features of healing. He calls these features CARMA

1. Culture - racial and ethnic identity
2. Agency - ability to act, create, and change
3. Relationships - healthy connections with others
4. Meaning - discovering a purpose
5. Achievement - movement toward goals




We will discuss wholeness, wellness, and empowerment in PREP this week. You will be asked to write about and expand your CARMA to move along the continuum of wholeness.

I wrote the following poem several years ago to capture the need for wholeness in a society that can "chop" you up. The poem is called Chop

Chop

This is not about a pork chop or a lamb chop

This is about chop chop

You see when I extend my hand and you do not shake it

Chop chop

When I say something and you do not like the way it sounds

Chop chop

When I wear my pants a certain way and it causes you to frown

Chop chop

When I read like I need help and you blame it on me instead of helping me

Chop chop

When I make an adolescent mistake in your presence and you cast me away

Chop chop

When you start that anecdotal record that grants me entry into that special type of education without putting my voice on record

Chop chop

When you begin to dislike me and believe that I am dislikable

Chop chop

When you say that I do not love who I am because you have not found a way to love me

Chop chop

When you leave me alone and this cycle starts all over again

Chop chop

When you cage me up

Chop chop

When you lock me out

Chop chop

When you leave me out there on my own

Chop chop

When you bury me too early

Stop stop

There is no more chopping, because I have been chopped up.

I came into this world whole and looked what happened to me.

Chop Chop

The opposite of Chop is Chip. Chip is moving toward wholeness and empowerment. I also wrote the following poem:

This is not about a potato chip or a computer chip

This is about chip chip

I recognize that things are not perfect

Chip chip

I do not live in the best community or go to the best school

Chip chip

I had teachers who did not understand me, therefore could not teach me

Chip chip

My own brothers sometimes approach with felonious ideas

Chip chip

But I met this one Brother named Ben who taught me how to think big

Chip chip

Then I met another Brother named Mosley who told me I was a tall blade of glass, not a short barrel. I am the same height but somehow feel differently

Chip chip

Then there was Brother Fanon who refused to accept that amputation and let his chest expand without limit. I realize I have a chest, too.

Chip Chip

Then there was Brother Myers who helped me get that monkey off my back when others called me a monster

Chip Chip

Then there was the teacher who introduced me to all these brother and sister authors so I could chip away at the things I believed were holding me back.

Chip Chop

I no longer have a chip on my shoulder, but a chip in my mind

Chip Chip

And it is because of all that chipping that my life will turn out fine.

Chip Chip

All thanks to that teacher who gave me brother and sister authors who chipped away their pain, that chipping reached me just the same.

I am now in chip chop shape.

Dear PREP participants, your writings have a metaphysical quality to them. To this end, we will read a text on creative visualization to combat some of the realities laced throughout your writings. 

         WHOLENESS CHOP AND CHIP

Wholeness is suffering, surviving, challenging, and thriving. I read the poems chop and chip. The lines that stood out to me were “when you leave me out there on my own chop-chop, when you bury me to early stop-stop. This line stood out to me because in my head I imagined a person who has been beaten down by the rough life. A person who has lost all hope and think is nothing that’s the image that I thought of when reading this text. In the poem Chip the lines that stood to me were, I no longer have a chip on my shoulder, a chip in my mind chip-chip. And it is because of all that chipping that my life will turn out fine. When I read this I imagined a person growing up living a rough life but with people to support him that made him go somewhere in life. A person that made it. In the continuum of Wholeness, it consists of 4 things. Suffering in within you feel sense of powerlessness loss of hope and internalized oppression. Surviving in within you adapt to circumstances, navigating conditions, acceptance of status quo. Challenging in within you experience critical consciousness, collective action, rejection of status quo, sense of collective power & hope. Thriving in within you experience control of life, collective power, pursuit of dreams, collective responsibility, and sense of collective peace. Wholeness has the word whole in it and I think we are all made of suffering surviving and challenging and thriving. Because yes I do suffer yes I am trying to survive yes I am going through challenges yes I am thriving to better myself whole and live a better life. The poems chop and chip express this continuum in the writing. In the writing chop I can tell he is trying to survive and is suffering through out the whole poem but he is always getting chop-chop. In the poem chip he is going through challenges and is thriving to do better because he says thanks to all the people who pretty much helped him get to where his life is now.

S1N

What I like about this is when you leave me out on my own. I know what you mean by this. I've  been left out in the cold so much it don’t even matter to me no more where I'm at. I just keep doing what I'm good at and that is getting money and staying low it was night I don’t have go nowhere to go I was just up walking around all nights hurting looking for someone to love me.  I came from nun trying to make it out I know I'm make it out. When I was on the run I was sleeping in hallways trying to get some money trying to see some make something work now Im living with my mom paying the bills with my checks. I just wish I can have another life, a better life

S2S

Wholeness: Chop & Chip     

What I think the definition of wholeness is like things about you or your life.

Which lines that stand out to me is when you cage me up chop chop the reason why this stand out to me because I been arrested because what I did in past. My second line that stand out to me is I had teachers who did not understand me, therefore could not teach me chip chip the reason I pick this because when I was a freshmen at my cps school I was not getting the help I suppose to get so I did not do my work most of the time.

My reaction to these to poems is that it’s talking about things we go through daily.

S3H

Wholeness Chop and Chip

         Wholeness, the state of being unbroken or undamaged, and understanding suffering and surviving is a challenge you have to thrive to overcome those obstacles to have wholeness. “I no longer have a chip on my shoulder, but a chip in my mind”. Once you overcome those obstacles that’s holding you back from achieving your dreams or goals you form a different level of understanding. Growing up in a certain community can stereotype who you are to others, but only you can define who you are and your destiny. “All thanks to that teacher who gave me brother and sister authors who chipped away their pain, that chipping reached me just the same. I am now in chip chop shape”. If you surround yourself around people who have wholeness and overcame the obstacles, you also will overcome following there foot steps to do it.

s4N

                                            Chip

What I think about poem call chip is that it letting you know that it can be hard times but you can make things on your just have to listen. Things get hard something but u have to stay strong I recognize that things are not perfect. We do not live in the best community or go to the best school that’s why you have to stay strong in move forward. I am the same sometimes approach with felonious ideas.

s5d

What is whole

Having all its parts - complete.

Have you read the whole book already?

 Fifty-two Cards make a whole deck Chop-Chop

S6B