BIKBAYE: Seeking synergy in both wellness and art

Note: Bikbaye was keynote speaker at the NYC Winter Jazz Festival in 2019.

The Synergy of Art and Wellness: A Holistic Approach

In today’s busy and increasingly stressful world, achieving holistic healing and wellness is more important than ever. While traditional methods like counseling and medication have their place, there’s a growing acknowledgment of the profound impact that art therapy can have on our mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

What Is Art Therapy?

Art therapy is an integrative mental health and human services profession that enriches lives through active art-making, creative processes, applied psychological theory, and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship. It’s not just about creating pretty pictures; it’s a powerful tool for self-discovery, healing, and personal growth.

Benefits of Art Therapy

1. Emotional Expression and Healing:

   • Art therapy provides a safe and non-judgmental space for individuals to express themselves freely.

   • Through various artistic mediums, people can channel their emotions, thoughts, and experiences in ways that words alone may not capture.

   • Externalizing emotions through art allows for effective examination and processing of difficult feelings such as grief, trauma, anxiety, or depression.

2. Mindfulness and Relaxation:

   • Engaging in the creative process promotes mindfulness and relaxation.

   • Focusing on the moment and the act of creation reduces stress and fosters calmness.

   • Art therapy encourages being present and grounded.

3. Problem-Solving and Stress Reduction:

   • Research shows that art encourages creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

   • Just 45 minutes of art-making can reduce cortisol levels (a stress hormone) in 75 percent of people.

   • Art therapy offers an alternative way to cope with stress and anxiety.

4. Holistic Wellness:

   • Holistic healing involves integrating mind, body, and spirit.

   • Art therapy recognizes this interconnectedness.

   • By engaging in creative expression, individuals address their emotional, physical, and spiritual needs simultaneously.

Art and Wellness: A Harmonious Intersection

As art and wellness continue to intertwine, the possibilities for personal and societal transformation are boundless. The synergy between creative expression and holistic well-being offers a comprehensive approach to health—one that acknowledges the intricate connection between the mind, body, and spirit.

Conclusion

Whether you’re an artist or simply someone seeking balance and healing, consider exploring art therapy. Let the canvas be your sanctuary, where colors, shapes, and lines become tools for self-discovery and well-being. Remember, art is not just what you create; it’s how you connect with yourself and the world around you. 

[Post by Mackboogaloo]

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BIKBAYE- Integrating Initiations (self-discovery)

Integrating Initiations

Conversations with Bikbaye Inejnema

Presented by CoCreavatars!
Edited by Jessica Mortell

It has been the goal the entire time [to integrate the initiations]. And it's a non-ending path of discovery. Trial and error of identifying the exact ways of doing that.

I do know, and wholeheartedly carry the understanding that initiation is the path to a higher understanding of who we are. It’s the path to development, evolution, transcendence. The only way to reach those plateaus is through initiation.

Having a basic understanding, a deeper understanding of the precepts, the purpose of initiation, it exposes different methods of investigation. And that's what initiation is. It is us investigating. We are looking for ways of raising our qualities, and that is something that we're all doing on a daily basis whether we are aware of it or not. We are working towards raising our qualities and evolving.

Initiation mindset is, if you are a guest in someone's house and they offer you the bed or the floor, you take the floor. The non-initiation mindset is, if someone offers you the bed or the floor, you take the bed because you are looking for the most comfort.

Sometimes comfort and gratification are a barrier for long term growth and development.

The floor may be a little uncomfortable, but it's firm, so when you are laying there, and even if you're turning over at night you are using your muscles. Wow, we have a big bed and I still sleep on the floor. And, especially if you're on the ground outside, you connect in a different way. There should be nothing comfortable about initiation.

The Initiation of Homelessness

Further down the line, there's been initiations that took place outside of the country. That was challenging because everything about the environment was so different. In some of those areas I didn't know anyone.

One of my initiations I went to London. I had a one-way ticket and a dream, and that was it. I didn't know anyone there. I didn't know where I was going to stay. But there’s a knowing , and I knew that was somehow that was part of my initiation. I went over there and I stayed a little over a year. During that time I was homeless. And that was an incredible experience.

I learned incredible survival skills, skills that are ancient skills, that I would have never known had I not experienced homelessness.

I was in another country, not knowing anyone, no cell phones, no money and
surviving off Snicker bars and chips with vinegar for several months. During that time of wandering and sleeping on benches where I could, I met individuals who were in low and destructive mind states. By me not having any destination and just walking around at 2:30 in the morning in some neighborhood I didn't know where I was, I ran into a stranger and we had a conversation. And little did I realize that, that conversation distracted him from going to commit suicide, which he was about to do before we met.

And then being taken in by a poor European woman in this little apartment. The entire apartment was maybe 400 hundred square feet. She had a mongrel dog who was handicapped named Jack. She had a weasel, and a cat. A daughter and a son who were in prison. And she said, hey, there's this couch. It looked like a couch out of the junkyard with springs sticking out of it. And she said, it's not much, but you're welcome to it. And that couch looks like a waterbed to me.

We stayed up every night drinking hot cocoa and laughing until the sun came up. And that was a great experience and initiation for me.

Navigating and Integrating Initiations
through the Knowing

[What helped me through that experience] was a knowing. That's the only thing that it was. I came here with that knowing, but I didn't know it at the time. It was a deep knowing what I was subjecting myself to because I felt perfectly safe the entire time.

There was literally no fear. It was an excitement I had while going through that experience although it was tough and challenging. Now I can look back on it and talk about it and I know all of the lessons that I got from it, and I've integrated all of those lessons from that part of my initiation.

That knowing, I don't think that's something that we can we control. A knowing is always there. It's always been there. We can tap into it in deeper ways, but that knowing is in all of us. So the deeper we can tap into that knowing, That's what takes away the fear.

Fear is at the root of all of our inadequacy. Fear is at the root of all of our misunderstandings.

If we dialogue long enough, we can get an understanding. But many don't want that understanding. Why? Because we all have a knowing and we either embrace it, or we run from it. When we embrace it, and the challenges that come up, we can navigate a little easier. We know where it's going to end up based on where we are and the sequence of events. That knowing is the bigger picture. It's not so much something that is right in front of our eyes that we can see with these [physical] eyes. The knowing comes from this eye [third eye].

And with that knowing, the fear dissolves because knowing whatever our biggest fear is, the knowing comes through understanding. And it comes through many of the things in initiation. It contributes to that knowing over time.

That knowing knows. And that's not something that you can teach. And sometimes it's hard to articulate. As you can see, I'm struggling now and I'm a poet. I shouldn't be struggling with words, but I am because that knowing is where all of our medicine is. That's what all of our strength is. Because that knowing, it activates everything else that you are part of, that entire fabric. It activates it in a way that fits the vibrations of that knowing and it reverberates and things manifest. And the strength that we need to get through things, it happens without the effort.

When things are effortless that's when they are in harmony. When we are in harmony with the knowing, that’s when it becomes an aid and a tool to move past anything that comes up.

Are you tapped into your knowing? If you are tapped into your knowing, then you wouldn't see me any different than yourself. You wouldn't see my challenges any different than your challenges, or the way I move past my challenges any different from the way you move past your challenges.

If we're not tapped into the knowing that's where there's doubts, fear, uncertainty about who you are. Because it's not about the world. None of this is about the world. It's about you in the world. The world doesn't need any more lessons. We're here for that.

We can see without these eyes, we can see the past and the future. How about that? Eyes closed, we can see the past and the future and see it visually, right? We can talk without moving our mouths. And hear if we covered up our ears. If you said Bikbaye in your mind, you can hear yourself say that. That's the source. And that's the knowing, the part of us that allows us to move through those challenges.

Little by Little

That knowing is the destination. That's what we want to pursue, and it's through these applications, through these technologies, and slowly integrating them little by little. Next thing you know, you wake up and there's this greater sense of
enlightenment. It's like wow, it happened overnight.

No, it happened little by little and every step we can take closer to that knowing we start to see everything else, even visual reality start to shift. But the knowing is through here [third eye]. That's something that is cultivated.

We've been able to integrate what people would call meditation, now they updated it and call it mindfulness, into the schools out here in LA, and it was amazing.

Now imagine you have all 4th and 5th grade boys and there’s energy everywhere. Many of them have also been diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety and other behavioral disorders, just due to their environment. The attention spans were like 5 seconds, and either they're fighting or they're yelling or they're cursing. The schools where we had our program was where they needed it the most.

So I had to make it a competition for them to buy into it. So it's like, OK, let's see who can just sit quiet for the longest in your chair. Whoever can do it, you get a prize. They're not even really focused on the reason why are we doing, but they do it. And now they gained some confidence about themselves, like wow, I was able to sit quiet for three minutes, whoa.

And next week or two weeks later, let's see who can sit down with their legs folded and with their back straight and just be quiet. Now we do that, and they're in competition. So we did that, and now sit on your knees and do it. In 5 seconds they’re falling all over like oh no, this hurts, ouch, ouch.

Before the end of the program year, they all were able to sit on their knees, eyes closed quiet for 15 minutes. We shocked the entire school administration.

So how do I integrate? This is one of the methods, using their strengths and knowing they’re in competition with each other about everything. Let's use that energy to get good outcomes.

Initiation planted a deep understanding that the energies that we use to do good are the same energies that we use to do bad. That same fire we came here with is always going to be with us. It's really about redirecting the same energy. We redirected their energy of competition in a way where it became something they can benefit from.

Integrating Ancient Technology into the Modern World

Updating ancient technology to fit where we are now and where the world is now, and the cycle that we have entered. We're only going deeper into that cycle of consciousness. Actual tangible, practical examples demonstrate fusing the ideas and knowledge of initiation into the circumstances that humanity finds itself in this moment.

There's not many that are integrating our ancestral technologies in modern times. It's not due to not knowing how. You know how the technology works. But yet still, how does it fit in into this environment to where it makes sense? Because it has to make sense to people.

We only move on what makes sense to us.

Portals

One of the ancient technologies that we use are portals. Visually, these portals look like a shrine, but they are ancestral portals. We honor the ancestral spirit. There's a veneration that we consistently share and give to all of our ancestors. In understanding that because they are no longer in the flesh does not mean that they are absent. And we understand that they're even more powerful where they are now than they were while they were here in the flesh. Reaching them, nourishing them, clothing them, and feeding them, they in turn do the same thing for us.

Prenatal Destiny

And it's updated in the sense that we understand that there's not just one destiny. There's a prenatal destiny, and then there's a conditional destiny that every human being has. A prenatal destiny is a destiny that was given to a human being 7 generations before they were born according to our teachings. And it was given to that individual through the Father’s, Father’s, Father’s, Father’s, Father’s, Father’s, Mother. So it comes from the Mother 7 generations back through the father's bloodline. And that particular destiny is based on what was going on at that time. Meaning whoever that mother was when you go back seven generations, whatever  is going on at that time, those were the wishes, or the destiny that she set for her descendant who wasn't to come for seven generations.

Conditional Destiny

This is where the conditional destiny comes in, and that's the updated technology. Because the conditional destiny is when we are able to make those connections with the ancestral spirits and take whatever it is that we're seeing now, the things that we want to see in our lives, the things we don't want to see in our lives. And when we give them their offerings it shifts the destiny to become more updated based on what is going on now.

The destiny is not written in stone, it's more written in sand with ancestral spirit versus just in stone, just by itself.

For example, if someone is addicted to substances, and I know many individuals,
young and old, that are and have been for a long, long, long time. I've heard people react to those situations, in a way where to justify the person being in that state for so long, It was just God's plan. Or God still has a plan for this person. Or this is just how it was supposed to be.

And we say no. It wasn't supposed to be that way. And we're gonna turn this thing
around, but we're gonna need divine intervention with this. And that comes by way of the ancestral spirit. So that is one example of an update of a technology.

Herbal Technologies

Another technology are the natural herbs that we use for healing. That is something now that we're starting to see more of an integration of but at the same time, it still hasn't been an explosion to where our common fellow human being would look in that direction first, before looking in the modern healing tradition conventional direction. We have a lot of work to do in that arena, but it has been a wonderful, fantastic, and sometimes painful experience integrating that aspect of the technology. Because sometimes you are forced to watch people that you care for suffer, when the suffering wasn't necessary, but because of the conditioning to go to the more conventional means of health care.

That's the frustrating part. We are losing so many of our Elders and Wisdom carriers, and youth at very early ages. They are becoming more ill when it doesn't have to be the case. But the beautiful part of it is when I am able to offer a space where a person would feel comfortable enough to say, OK, Bikbaye, I'll try it, just because it’s you I’ll try it. And for some that did that, to see them witness the results and have am epitome and they never went back to the old
approaches. That's gratifying.

With our Conscious Youth we had a program in several of the elementary schools here in LA. It was an after school rites of passage program. I used to bring herbs to the school and show the children and high school students as well. I’d come and talk about it and let them know what are the healing properties in this medicine. We would even talk about common illnesses - the common cold, headaches – and share natural ways of addressing all of them. And when it can be presented in a tangible way where the person can walk away from the understanding that wow, with $5 I can go to the supermarket and get everything I need to heal myself versus the stress of getting on insurance and going and getting medicines. then this becomes a way of integrating [ancestral technologies] as well.

When we can demonstrate how practical it is that's what we all are attracted to, what is tangible for us. Convenience is one of those things you have to keep in mind as well.

So through integrating natural ways of healing ourselves through educating individuals of things that are very practical within their reach. Most of the time I'm working in the homeless sector and youth sector. All of the individuals come that comprise those populations, if whatever it is that we're doing to try to offer anything for them to hold onto for them to reconnect to, we have to make it plain and tangible to fit their situation.

Integrating Language

So one of the ways that I also integrate is the language. I'm speaking of the Medu Neter, which is the hieroglyphic language of ancient Egypt, that can be translated to the sacred writings, the holy writings. Its not a traditional name.

Medu translates to language. Neter is where the word nature is derived, but Neter is the only way we know how to say God. If you are saying multiple gods is nettaru, the “u” makes it plural in that language.

This language allows us to do more than just communicate. It stimulates through vibration certain passages of our brain that allows for a smoother flow of blood and to get to these areas that are pretty restricted of blood flow. As those passages are stimulated the blood can get to these areas our brain actually grows because it's a muscle, and we're able to use a much greater capacity. So when I'm in the schools or anywhere, it can be a zoom training that I'm facilitating, I will integrate just by starting with how to say greetings, and that's “ujjayi”. I'll stick with that and every morning when I come in for a week, ujjayi. And then I'll say OK today you gonna learn to say goodbye. So for the whole year they may get 20 words. And those 20 words are like a treasure.

The Challenges of Integration

It was painfully challenging once my paradigm started to shift. When I started my initiation with my master, who passed away in 2009, I was really excited to share so much new information that we were not taught in the schools, we were not taught in our churches. I grew as a Christian going to the Baptist Church. My whole family were churchgoing folk. So when I came into the new information through initiation, I was excited to share. In a way I felt like I hit the jackpot and I wanted to share all of this money that I just won.

But in doing so, it's a little difficult because the opposite effect happened and backfired. All of the stigma that comes with an awakening came. That made it very challenging for me because I felt like I just had to keep it all in for myself. And I knew that everyone could benefit from it, not just me, but everybody could if they only accepted it. In my mind, I felt you have to accept this, doesn't this make perfect sense?

I had to navigate through that without taking it personally. And it took me a while to get to that point, because not only did I take it personally, it was hurtful.

But that turned out great because as a result of continuing through initiation and advancing over the years, the same people who didn't understand, now they have a deeper understanding and are very respectful. They honor and invite me for conversations about the same things that they used to say man, you crazy, you
brainwashed.

Integration is Wholeness
We are one, We are Same

Whoever I am interacting with, they are the same as I. Meaning that there's no difference between anyone that is in my environment and myself. For that reason, I feel that there's a certain connectivity that we all have whether we are aware of it or not. So being able to tap into that oneness in those moments, it's not something that we necessarily have to control at that point. The integration happens in those moments when we find ourselves in total harmony with whatever it is that we are communicating, whoever we're communicating to. Once we can harmonize ourselves with the environment, the integration of that happens very organically.

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BIKBAYE- Balance is necessary