Beauty and the Brain

**When two kinds of beautiful come together— an aha moment and a time for sharing what’s merging for this month’s *Resting* practice.**

Beauty and the Brain
Ever since reading *The Soul of Desire*: *Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community* by Curt Thompson, MD, his insights keep stirring in my mind, particularly in conversations about beauty. He makes connections on how the brain works with our “seeing” and what Hans Urs von Balthasar proposes about the three transcendentals whereby “beauty is first, followed by goodness, which is followed by truth.” According to Thompson, and others, “How our brain works is that before we “think” is that “we must first encounter things with our senses. First we sense, then we make sense of what we sense” “being immersed in the beautiful and the good necessarily enables us to comprehend what is true” (42) Balthazar suggests “that it is beauty that beckons us, that captivates us that draws us in” (43)
With this in mind, the invitation for us in resting our souls in God, is through Visio Divina (image) prayer.

Visio Divina

(meaning divine vision, seeing with the eyes of your heart)

History: Visio Divina came from the Lectio Divina (divine reading, a slow reading of Scripture practice) which was an early 6th century monastic prayer practice begun by Benedict of Nursia. The movement of this prayer uses a visual to help guide and set our minds on prayer thus allowing God to speak into our hearts through the image.

Offering #1: Contemplative prayer while creating images. In congruence with this month’s Reflection posting Dwelling Places: Negative Space is an exploration from Eyes of the Heart by Christine Paintner. She gives us more on negative space and then leads us in contemplative practice(s) with photography:

“Positive space refers to the subject of your image, while negative space–is everything else around it. Both are important. Negative space gives a place for the eye to rest. We might consider negative space as the silence that gives meaning to music and keeps it from sounding like a cacophony. The negative spaces of our own lives are those moments of rest and release from doing.”

She sets a beautiful tone for this practice in her book which focuses on photography, but I’d like to extend this to any artistic expression you may lean towards whether painting, drawing, or even collage.

In choosing Photography–explore “photographing empty spaces like sky, water, or choose a subject in the distance and include them at the very edge of the image.”

In choosing painting, drawing, or collage, create your own wide open, empty spaces, keeping a subject in the distance or at the very edge of your composition.

As we work from a place of resting, listening, and in prayerful creating, here are some reflective questions:

As you are making choices, notice something else in your life drawing you in? Maybe a flower, or friend, a song or words of comfort.
As you explore, notice the ways background clutter can distract you from what you want to focus on. How is this like your own life?
What is being revealed within you? What is hidden?
How might God be speaking to you about these subtle’s of revealing and hidden?

When two kinds of beautiful come together— an aha moment and a time for sharing what’s merging for this month’s Resting practice.