Sacred vibrations of cultural experiences provide foundations of well-being
Since the birth of architecture, buildings have been regarded as things of beauty and meaning, they express the values and beliefs of the people that created them. The great power of the art of architecture conveys beautiful ideas and feelings. Exploring in Sharjah to learn and evolve through Islamic history, art, culture, sciences, and islamic discoveries at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation was a really cool experience.
When I walked through the door I felt the light of awareness come over me the kind that allows us to access the inner knowing, not with the intention of understanding but the kind to experience a civilization within the museum. With my own inner journey I feel a daily draw to empty of attachment to the self, and to surrender to the divine, to give up my perceptions, conditioning of how things should be, in exchange for being fully receptive to God’s love to manifest through me. In presence, the words I read on the walls of this living cultural experience became like a placeholder of the sacred vibration of a civilization. It made me reflect deeply on the important role of faith in living heritage in developing character in the future generation. As early as the 5th century Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates deliberate on the development of character and it’s role in developing cohesive, connected communities. My curiosity, led me down the path of how virtuous traits of character are developed in a stable and enduring way nowadays. I notice in that moment executive function at play, stealth focus, no distractions, remembering and using new information. I melt into the engagement of this real immersive experience creating emotional safety for the visitors, building trust, cultivating empathy and self-awareness. A full wave of energy flows through my body recognising the powerful play of the environment of exhibitions in the well-being of communities.
I wonder how student communities felt in their engagement within a virtual environment for 8 hours a day, did they feel emotional safety observing and interacting in an online classroom. Could they build trust in this environment, particularly in a secondary school virtual environment where each virtual subject classroom had a melting pot of many different personalities and social, emotional intelligence, this sustained experience must have been really uncomfortable for so many students.
My mind drifted again as I stood amongst the most influential Islamic scientific achievements and contributions by great Muslim scholars. I reached out to touch the 3D models and felt the tactile wonder of the inventions, I smiled and imagined them touching, refining and playing with their idea until that Eureka moment where everything falls into place! Objects can bear such powerful communicative, emotional, and personally meaningful characteristics; for me touching an inventors ground breaking invention was a powerful model of success, it sent magical electricity through my body!
I stopped in my tracks again to reflect on the stark contrast of my experiences over the last two years of complete immersion, surrendering, consuming and observing the algorithms of the metaverse. I let myself just feel for a moment, head quiet, heart open and what ensued was a form of bereavement for the collective loss of real human life and the development of humanities virtues in our children. I had a lucid dream about writing the National Performance Plan for online life of the future generation. The prescribed annual cycle without periodised macro and/or micro cycles just continuous stimulation 365 days x 2 — frequency of use (7 days a week), intensity (6–15 second continuous dopamine hits), time (School 8 hours (during term time), Social +/- 3hrs a day might vary out of term time) and type ( Online learning, Tik Tok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Minecraft, Fortnight, television) of exposure as a systems approach. My heart and soul cried out at how the visualised outcome and reality felt. A demand on their cognitive and emotional system which they are not necessarily well adapted to, in fact, that none of us are. How do these children ignite and re-charge the battery of their souls and grow the seeds of their authentic selves within these parameters? Aristotle taught and believed a ‘cardio centric’ model of human anatomy where the heart was the true centre of human intelligence and not the brain. I want to sit with and gaze into the eyes of a beautiful souls’, beating heart and ask how life experiences over the last two years has made their heart feel operating within a metaverse to connect with family, friends and community.
Scientific evidence based consistency showed lowered physical activity levels, less outdoor time, higher sedentary behaviour that included leisure screen time and more sleep during the pandemic (Bahkir and Grandee, 2020). Sudden increase in complaints of irritability without internet connectivity and smartphone; gambling, inability to concentrate; absenteeism in online educational classes or work due to disturbed sleep cycle, and unavoidable excessive use of smart-phones have been reported in the media (Smith et al., 2020).
The two crucial negative impacts of screen time on the physical health of children & adolescents is that of sleep problems and increased risk of myopia (Singh and Balhara, 2021). A large number of original studies also indicate excessive screen time has adverse health effects in long run such as physical health symptoms like eye strain, sleep disturbance, carpal tunnel syndrome, neck pain as well as mental health problems ranging from difficulties in concentration, obsession to diagnosable mental illness such as anxiety, depression and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (Király et al., 2020; Meyer et al., 2020; Oberle et al., 2020; Stavridou et al., 2021)
Statistics are a kind of information, yes, but so is human experience and love in action. Never has there been a more important relationship between the individual and the community in schools, museums, community centres, parks and playgrounds as places of social activity which offer a multitude of experiences. They are places where self and society reveal themselves, where human nature exerts itself in complex surprising and unfathomable ways. In all well designed public environments, rules and regulations, protocols, social conventions, and trained and thoughtful staff all contribute to directing children towards successful engagement to re-address the balance between online and offline life.
I felt such a powerful driving force of a unifying narrative fostered by the Sharjah Municipality to readdress the balance between online and offline life again nurturing the foundations of wellbeing.
I sit in my morning meditations and feel the sacred vibrations of the words of source, who’s divine composition mysteriously transforms and unveils my spirit of all that prevents it from uniting to Al-Wadud; to the origin of love. And there i be..
