By: Trevor Brooks
‘Healing’ is a short film used as a medium to help patients and viewers go through a journey of experimental sensory images to bring themselves centred and back to life’s human connection. Hart Ginsburg is the creator behind these types of films and has created a series that aim to use his skillset as a psychotherapist and apply an alternative approach to healing of the mind.
Hart is the founder of an organization called Digital Tapestries (https://www.digitaltapestries.site/), where their purpose is to provide an abundant of resources such as abstract films, books, live workshops, and visual materials for patients who look for unique ways to help improve mental health. It is a very different approach, one that is more than needed in these past few years due to the pandemic causing people anxiety from job loss, social distancing from loved ones, and some suffering from COVID-19.
The film itself is mostly soft music with abstract imagery and very little dialogue. The images represent the experiences that Hart visions with his interactions as a psychotherapist and what he sees in his world. Hart has lived in both Western and Eastern parts of the world, which influences the types of imagery seen in this film. The images look to be photoshopped in a way to convey the emotional feelings that aim to be meditative for the viewer.
When watching ‘Healing’, expect to keep an open mind, with no judgment of what is being shown. Some of the images depict how one’s life can be so busy and fast paced without realizing that stressors can catch up to individual leading to potential burnout in life. The video serves as a reminder to let the mind slow down from what you are doing and take the time to reflect on what is going on around you.
It’s a good feeling when watching this. To get the best experience out of this is to isolate yourself from every distraction, put on some headphones and just follow the journey. Think of it was a form of a 10-minute meditation. Remember to breathe. When watching this the first time, 10 minutes might seem a lot to process and understand what you are watching. But when you are able to settle in and notice how much time was taken away from you from doing too much tasks that may not be necessary to complete.
In human nature as we get older, it always seems like there is a never-ending invisible load of tasks that you think you ‘have’ to do. And as you get older, you end up conditioning yourself to doing these tasks and not realize that you are forgetting who you are and what you enjoy to do in life. And when one task goes wrong leading to ruin the rest of the day of completing the rest, that feeling of stress could just cause you to blame yourself for being a failure to keep up with what you once were able to do in your younger days.
This is why mental health awareness has become prevalent in the mainstream media. It serves as a reminder that not everything has to be scheduled or have a deadline. You might be doing things for others because you want the best for them, only to forget that you have yet to do something what’s best for you. I’m a believer that it always starts with you and taking care of yourself first before taking care of others.
What I like about this film is that it does help calm your mind down and gives you the time to reflect. One of the mottos I strongly stand behind is “Health is Wealth, Time is Valuable”. When you are kid, you likely all the time in the world to do anything you want. As an adult, time may seem constrained with so many things that get in the way of life. When you start to hit the walls of depression and anxiety, this film is trying to tell you to wake up your senses, and reconnect with yourself to bring you back to the present.
‘Healing’ is a beautiful film, and is good for the mind, body, and soul. Hart Ginsburg has good intentions behind making this for the viewers to experience this unique form of healing. You never know when it is necessary, until you really starting looking for an answer.