Perseverance through The Arts
By: Edna Berhane
How to Use Poetry to Inspire Others
The first thing that you have to do is find a time in your life that you experienced a hardship or a triumph and think of the emotions that were going through your mind and body. Next, write all those emotions down. They don't have to be perfect or in poetry format they just have to be somewhere. Then you can start turning them into metaphors, simple phrases, or stanzas. Now, just let your mind flow and hand follow!
Depending on how personal your poetry is, you can chose to share it with family, friends, or in a poetry group or you can keep it to yourself. Having others that can relate to what you have gone through can help them persevere. Also, if you didn't completely overcome something, write about it, then share it with others, THEY can help YOU overcome it with some motivation. People everywhere use poetry as a beautiful escape.
What Would You Do if You Were Trapped in Space?
What is the film Gravity about?
Gravity is a film about one women's struggle to get back to Earth after the others were killed in an asteroid crash or later got lost.
What is the film Interstellar about?
Interstellar is a movie about a NASA crew that goes into space to find another planet that can support human life. Throughout the movie they face struggles such as death, different time ratios, and back-stabbers.
What do they have to do with perseverance?
In both films the characters thought about giving up and either dying or going back to Earth. In Interstellar they remember that they all have family back on Earth that they want to save so they keep on working to find a new livable planet even if they may not see their family in 100 Earth years. In Gravity the protagonist thinks about her daughter and how she wants to see her again. She works hard and finds a Asian space station radio that she tries to communicate with to get back to Earth.
Music = work
If you are an expert at what you do, music probably won't do much. Since you can already do your work efficiently, the music will get drained out. If you are a beginner or struggle with your work then the music will only distract you. Doing your work in silence will be your best bet. Also if you are a procrastinator you would have to experiment with this. If you aren't a big procrastinator you might be able to manage the music without getting too distracted.
If you are an average worker then having music will most likely help you persevere through your difficult work. Your mood will improve if you listen to your favorite music. Also, when performing a repetitive task the background music will make the work more efficient and have a better quality than having no background music. Familiar music with no lyrics is the best way to go even if you tend to get distracted sometimes.
Studies found on http://www.sparringmind.com/music-productivity/
Can poetry help you?
Lots of poets like Charles C. Finn write about true things going on in their lives. They can't say what is happening most of the time when they are talking, so they write it out. They are able to express themselves on a deeper level because they aren't thinking of perfection. I can personally relate to this.
Lots of times when I'm faced with an adversity, I like to write poetry expressing the way I feel so my emotions don't all come out at once. Writing poetry helps because sometimes people can't relate or help you, so you have to help yourself. If what you are going through is too personal then making poetry is perfect for you. You are able to get all your emotions out but, you don't have to tell anyone. Also, if you are scared that somebody might find it you can just burn, rip, or delete it. However, if you want help you would need to give your poetry to somebody else to read and give you advice on how to persevere and triumph through the adversities(you can even do it under an anonymous name).
What have we learned from art class?
You may not have noticed but art always gives you perseverance lessons that you can apply to everyday life. When you make a mistake you have to find a way to cover it up or incorporate it in your work, you simply can't give up. Laura Porras, an art teacher from David Brewer Elementary School also agrees. She believes that working through your mistakes in an art class will transition into everyday life. Once you know how to clean up or work around a mistake in art you can later apply that knowledge to other places such as homework, your job(s), relationship problems, and much more.
Laura Porras interview - http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/article/20150506/NEWS/150509648