Walking a labyrinth is an activity that like jogging, bicycling, or swimming, allows us to get into a state of mind that psychologists call the “zone” or the “flow.”   This psychological space is the present moment, and it is temporarily apart from concerns about the future and regrets about the past. It is a space for recovering a sense of balance in a turbulent life.

Labyrinths offer safe and calming spaces for reflective walking when we are dealing with anxiety, grief, or feelings of disconnection.  The Warren walking meditation labyrinth project is working to raise public awareness of the silent emotional struggles that burden our communities, and to raise town-wide interest in labyrinths as behavioral health assets.   As a community, our willingness to install one or more public labyrinths signals our care for each other as neighbors.  The Warren labyrinth project offers talks, exhibits, and experiences to help us consider what we would want from a town labyrinth.

To spark and spread discussion, Blue Skies has recently painted a temporary labyrinth in the parking lot of Thrive Behavioral Health and the East Bay Recovery Center, at the corner of Joyce Street and Railroad Avenue in downtown Warren and just west of the bike path and north of the police station.  Everyone is invited to walk the labyrinth and let us know what might make the experience more meaningful. 

HOW TO WALK A LABYRINTH.  Meditation and gentle, rhythmic walking help relieve anxiety.  Feeling  each footstep naturally grounds us as we sense the flow of a path as it turns and spirals towards the labyrinth center.  At the center, we pause, remind ourselves of changes in how we are feeling, then continue to gently walk back to the labyrinth entrance.

Some labyrinth walkers prefer to walk in silence, some prefer listening to music, and others prefer to feel themselves softly humming as they walk.  Labyrinth walkers vary in how long and how frequently they walk the labyrinth.  Whether walking day or night, walking has  been used formally as a meditation, creatively as part of a ceremony/ritual, or individually for personal healing or transformation.

Tom Flanagan interviews Carrie Sandman of Sandman Art Therapy in Warren, RI.  Art is therapeutic on multiple dimensions.  We are able to express some of our feelings and concerns with art when we do not have the words or understand the feelings that are complicting our lives.  Loss of loved ones, life changes, and daily pressures can contribute to anxieties which, when unaddressed, can lead to poor choices.  Art can bring meaning back into our lives and can help us understand ourselfves in new ways.  In this session, we will hear from an art therapist whose practice includes a less familiar approach known as Sand Tray therapy.  While artistic activities can feel playful, they are also a means toward some genuinely seriously positive impacts.

Tom Flanagan interviews John Schilkowsky, Clinical Director at Pappas OPT. Pain is a very subjective experience.  Chronic pain and acute pain have different psychological effects.  Think of how a subtle search for tooth pain can come into focus when a conversation turns to dentistry.  If one anxiously seeks to find a source of a pain, in part to explain a feeling of anxiety, a source can be found.  Even if it is a small pain, dwelling on an unmanaged pain can grow into an enormous discomfort.  Fears about future effects of pain on work and on our quality of life can press upon us.  Pain., large and small, may nudge people toward self-medication, however occupational and physical therapy is a real option.   In this session, we will hear from a clinical care giver how one physical therapy practice engages anxious clients.

Tom Flanagan of Blue Skies RI interviews Hannah Oxley of Oxley BreathWork to introduce friends and famliy with anxious loved ones to the practice of breathe control.  There are a variety of forms of breathe control and also a range of understandings about breathe control.  Hannah will share experiences from her practice to address interests in encouraging anxious loved ones to explore this practice. Hannah also will provide some paths directly into this field of anxiety therapy.