Access life itself and return to the joy of living.
Healing Joy is a non-profit association, registered for public purposes in Switzerland, that offers people with serious illnesses (including cancer and neurological diseases) the opportunity to participate in creative, artistic, sporting and therapeutic activities thus promoting a return to the joy of living. During severe and disabling pathologies, it is crucial to get back to “movement”, find the creative impulse in yourself and reconnect to its “healthy part”.
Bringing art into one’s life through activities such as dancing, singing or attending museums or concerts gives us an additional key to improving our mental and physical health.
I wanted to create “Healing Joy” in order to offer patients suffering from serious illnesses – and cancer in particular- the opportunity to participate in various artistic, cultural or sporting activities. I have long wondered how to help improve the well-being of patients by learning from my experience and trying to identify the needs of patients facing terrifying diagnosis and often feeling very helpless in the face of a heavy and distressing reality. Therefore, it seemed essential to me to be able to “get out of the sick hut” by reconnecting to the healthy and healthy part of oneself – that each sick person has despite everything! Illness tends to disconnect us from reality and the joy of life, and we fleet between medical appointments, various therapies and feelings of anguish and loneliness.
However, it seemed crucial to me to get back into movement, to empty my mind by regaining the creative impetus in myself, to project myself into the future, to create, to dare and thus to rediscover the joy of living and the certainty that the “healthy” part of myself will flourish, thus contributing to well-being and / or the healing process. Several studies have shown the benefits of singing and artistic activities in this process, among other things.
Thus, by discussing my idea with different people, the Healing Joy projects was born. Many around me agreed that benefits would be found in art and movement.This is why we offer a range of classes including singing, theatre, dancing, sewing and writing workshops. We will also be organising one-off events such as concerts and conferences.
We are fortunate to be able to count on an executive committee composed in particular of a doctor and two lawyers, an advisory committee comprising twelve doctors representing various medical specialties and an Honorary Committee of which the violinist Renaud Capuçon is the Patron . In addition, about twenty volunteers give their time to set up the Association.
Healing Joy having been created in 2021, we are counting on the year 2022 to really take off!
“One should not seek to heal the body without seeking to heal the soul” Platon.
Delphine Lubomirski-Eggly
Joy is the fruit of an unveiling: it pre-exists in us and it is up to us to make it emerge.
