Bindi Shah
Artwork created by the participants of the meditation classes for childless not by choice.
Last year’s group artwork brought such release, healing and joy – that I knew I wanted to create something with the meditation group again this year.
The topic of ‘A letter to the person who hurt me the most’ really resonated and I gave the participants 2 prompts:
Prompt 1: Think about your experiences around childlessness and 1 or 2 people involved along your journey. What would you like to express to them? What would you say to the hospital or clinic doctors, to parents, to partners, to friends, siblings, to work colleagues, to yourself.
What emotions come up when you think about the hurt? Regret, guilt, anger, bitterness, sadness.
Prompt 2: What are you releasing about that part of your childless journey? How do you see yourself now and how do you see each other.
Nature and roots are always a big aspect of the classes and at the end of each meditation class we ground and connect to each other. We have also had a couple of visits to the V&A museum in London and the cafe there has beautiful wallpaper of branches and roots which remind us of the classes. With that in mind, I looked for inspiration in nature and thought of a wildflower garden.
Wildflowers are all different and free-spirited, but they are connected in the space of a garden, which reminds me of the connection of the women within the classes. We are all different and varied with our childlessness, and we all come together in the wildflower garden of the classes. There are many different reasons for the childlessness within the classes, and people are at different parts of their journey – some are new to the realisation of childlessness, some are years into their healing and movement forward. We all connect in the classes together.
There were some powerful, beautiful sentences which I was given, I also added my own sentences and the energy of everyone who comes to the classes. There were various people who had brought hurt along the childless journey: Mothers, partners, sisters, doctors, God, ex-husbands, themselves, wider society, clinical professionals.
I hope that you enjoy seeing the group artwork as much as I have loved creating it with the powerful sentences and energy of the meditation class members. A group piece also means that those who are not yet ready to share on their own, have their words and feelings heard too, in this World Childless Week for our stories. The words, as wildflowers, mean so much and in sharing, there is release.
Bindi Shah and the meditation group
Please watch the video too, it shows the artwork in more detail with some of the sentences read.
Bindi Shah
Bindi Shah guides meditation classes specifically for childless not by choice. Meditation is an amazing tool to calm the mind and ease anxiety, something very much needed for our community. However in wider classes there can often be pro-natal language; with these specific childless not by choice classes Bindi provides a safe, nurturing place of understanding. The classes are over zoom with a different meditation theme each week. With her background in life coaching, she also provides mentorship for childless women, and runs the popular Write to Heal workshops.