Art & Pain

I read recently that Liam Neeson turned to art-making after his wife died to aid in his healing process. Others throughout time have used art for its cathartic benefits including Frida Kahlo, to name just one. It is no secret that art, music, poetry and other forms of self-expression aid in the healing process. But how? From a neuroscience perspective, art activates the emotional brain (amygdala ) quicker and easier than the left thinking brain. Art allows for feelings and emotions to be expressed instead of leaving them unaddressed where they can trigger anger, frustration and sadness in the brain and body. Art provides a calming and relaxing experience that supports the immune system, decreasing blood pressure and physical pain. When we focus on a creative practice, our minds are not focused on the pain or distractions of illness. Have you ever doodled? Doodling is a great example of how we can refocus our brains to a creative practice providing a distraction from worry, anxiety and many times physical pain.

Not only does art provide a tool to express feelings non-verbally, but it provides a vehicle to gain a sense of control when much of our lives can feel out of control. It offers a sense of accomplishment. It can be done at home or in the hospital or during medical treatments. Words can not always explain the impact an illness has on one's life, but art offers that opportunity. When we engage in art-making that isn't product focused, but rather process-focused, we can allow the enjoyment of self-expression to be present. We can let what happens happen and not be caught up with how something should look, but rather let the process unfold without judgment. With art-making, clients can give voice to the aspects of their lives that provide joy and to those that are challenging and painful. The art-work then becomes a tool to discuss life with a chronic illness.

Be well in body, mind & spirit.

Write & Draw your New Years Changes Out

So, a New Year has arrived again and everyone or almost everyone puts in place a list of resolutions he or she would like to address in the next 12 months. Maybe it concerns weight or spending, or eating, or a job search or relationships, whatever the focus, it's not the resolution that is difficult to come up with, it's the maintaining it. I find resolutions very interesting, because really, we can start them at anytime of the year, but for some reason, the New Year gives us a reason to begin again. The holidays are behind us and a brand new year awaits our energy and ideas.
I've chosen not to write resolutions anymore. I write the year's past accomplishments, and I begin a new journal. I can't say enough about the power and process of a creative journal, but I will try.
I began keeping a journal, which I called a diary, at a very young age. Mostly, I wrote what I did that day, and what I was going to do the next day. And maybe a few notes about my friends. But, I didn't go into my deep thoughts and feelings or ideas about my life. I saved that for later. My mother kept a daily journal, and I am sure she is the reason I've chosen to keep a journal today. I'm not sure where or when the first diary/journal was written, but I'm sure Anne Frank might have had something to do with the concept, or maybe not.
Why do I keep a journal? I keep a creative journal, because it is an outlet for me. It is a place to create, reflect, vent, make sense out of my life, explore, draw, and meditate. Lately, I've been drawing mandalas in my journal that reflect the mood I'm in that day. I draw images of problems I'm trying to figure out or relationships that baffle me. I write when I'm feeling good and when my mood drops. I write to get things off my chest and to process my feelings.
Back to the New Year's resolutions and how we can journal our way through our process. So, you've decided to stop eating sugar this year and on Valentine's Day all you see are dark chocolates every where you look. You remind yourself you're not eating sugar, but you also remind yourself dark chocolate has lots of antioxidants in them...But you've made this promise to yourself or, should I say, resolution. Then you think, one chocolate is not going to kill me. I have a feeling breaking the resolution promise begins with one sneaky chocolate and then another and before long we've given up the resolution. Maybe if we had written about that first temping dark morsel, we'd be able to make sense out of our need to give into it. maybe if we journal about the thoughts that were driving us to just have one, we could process what was actually happening when we decided to give in. Not that having that one chocolate is a bad thing, but the question becomes, now where do we go with the promise we made to ourselves? I'm suggesting that our journals can be used to process the trials and tribulations of resolution keeping. We can collage in our journal the resolution process. On one side what the resolution is and on the other side what gets in the way of following through with it.
It is not whether or not we keep our resolutions, but rather understanding why we made them and what gets in the way of maintaining them. Here, on the blank pages of our journal, we can reflect on whether it is truly a behavior change we want to make or just a passing idea. Whatever, our journal can provide us with an outlet to make sense of why we can or cannot keep our resolution promise and actually be a support system for us. I do suggestion keeping track of your successes as well as your challenges with maintaining your New Year's resolutions.
May you be the change you'd like to see.

Making your way through the holidays with creativity

They're back...arriving each year without failure at the same time. They leap upon us like a tiger leaping on its pray. And you know that before you even digest your Thanksgiving meal you're thrust into the holiday madness. With this madness comes spending, giving, receiving, colds, expectations, sugar, stress, invites, aloneness, pressure and the list goes on. It's difficult to not get caught up in the change of energy the holidays bring. Every year, I try to take a step back and just observe, but at some point, usually the day before Christmas, the guild sets in and I dash to the closest shopping center to pick a few gifts up. Each year, I write in my journal that this year is going to be different. I will give from my heart; I will give of my time; I will give only if I wish to. I'm even feeling this way as I write in my blog. The question always becomes to give or not to give? But this piece is not about whether to give or not to give, it is about taking care of yourself artfully during the holidays. It is about if you feel the holiday blues beginning to sneak in, how can you care for yourself during the dark periods that can emerge like a winter chill. As I like to say, when in doubt, create! For me that means, draw, knit, write, bake, work in my garden, make my holiday cards, journal, rearrange my home, expose myself to creativity around the city and finally, to read. I read and I discover ideas. For each of us our creativity is a personal process. It is something that sparks your soul. Something that is a reflection of you. It does not have to be about perfection unless maybe you are painting your home, and even then a little mistake here and then will not be noticed.

So what is it for you that is the voice of your soul? What is that makes you feel alive? Without worrying about being good at it, what is it you would like to try? Make a creativity wish list and don't worry if you've been naught or nice, just go for it. Ask the critics to leave the room and toss the "shoulds" out the window and allow yourself to play. A walk around Micheal's craft store is sure to spark some ideas. Buy a canvas and some paints and explore. Create a mandala. Walk around your neighborhood and take some photos. Take some magazines and cut out images and make a vision collage of what you wish for in 2010. Make an altered book. Check out a knitting store. If you are interested in support or more ideas, please write me at sealoverv@aol.com. Most of all, have fun and allow mistakes, if there are such a thing

Centering

I'm often asked, how do mandalas aid in healing? I reply that when we focus and allow our attention to be present, in this case on the circle or center, our minds become centered and relaxed. They are at rest from the constant chatter that our thoughts create. It is why, I begin the mandala workshops with a meditation to help bring the mind into a peaceful & rested state. For those who struggle with calming their minds, creating mandalas can be a tool to help center them and provide a space for calm to enter. Using already designed mandalas are one way to begin to learn how to relax the mind. This way, you do not have to think or worry about what you are going to draw when creating a mandala from scratch. There are many mandala coloring books that provide different mandala designs, which can be photocopied and colored. I recently took a training where I colored in a mandala design using Crayons. The use of Crayons I was told allows us to tap into the child in us helping to eliminate the "shoulds" and perfectionist adult within us.

Here are a few mandala color books to get you started:

Enjoy in peace.

Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book, Monique Mandali

Mystical Mandala Coloring Book by Alberta Hutchinson by Alberta Hutchinson

Coloring Mandalas 1 by Susanne F. Fincher

Creating Mandalas in Sickness & Health

Recently, I was under the weather with bronchitis and a flare-up of a foot issue. Not only did I turn to my antibiotics, vitamens, nasal sprays, tissues, and chicken soup, but I brought out my colored pencils and square paper. It was relaxing and calming to draw mandalas while not feeling much like doing anything else. I wanted to space to let my body speak. I let the pencils lead me and found for that moment in time, my illness was not in center stage. Creating my mandala provided a distraction from my sniffling, coughing and fatigue. I like to call it creative alternative health. Next time you're down and out with a cold, flu or other alment, bring out some paper and pencils and add drawing mandalas to your arsenal of remedies.

Mandala Painting Workshop

Saturday, September 5, 2009, I ventured down to Laguna Beach to take my first mandala acrylic painting workshop.

Paul Heussenststamm's studio is about a mile up the road from the coast, in a small brown building along route 133. Arriving an hour early, I drove down to the beach and looked out at the Pacific centering myself before the workshop began. At 10am, I walked into Paul's studio and was greeted with a hug and hello from Paul. There were already 3 other women there. I was told to pick a spot and pick a color to paint my canvas. I chose a pinkish violet color and began giving birth to my first acrylic mandala. This was a different process from mandalas I've created in the past, because we used a design already made. With the help of one of Paul's friends, we marked the center of the canvas and then placed transfer paper and the mandala design I chose onto the canvas. The next step of tracing the design onto the canvas seems to take the most time, especially if you choose a detailed and intricate design. As you trace, it is important to lift the paper to make sure the design is being transferred onto the canvas.

I started painting from the outside of the design and made my way to the center. The nice thing about acrylics is that you can paint over colors if you don't like them, or feel another color would work better, which I did more than once. The original pink seemed to become more pink as I went along and towards the end of completing my mandala I had had enough of pink staring back at me. Though Paul remarked that pink is the color of my soul speaking to me, I found I was not responding to pink and went ahead and painted over it with violet. An outcome I was very pleased with.

Paul's studio is adorned with his sacred art creations from a painting of the Chakra system to Buddha, the lotus and many more spiritual designs. I recommend the workshop to anyone who would like to learn more about mandalas and who enjoys painting. Paul does make his artistic suggestions known and will put a paintbrush to your work if he feels it will be helpful to your piece. That didn't bother me, because I was there to learn, but my art therapy training strongly frowns against touching others' work unless you ask first.

The cost of the workshop is $150 - $125 if you pay in advance and $10 for lunch. Check out www. mandalas.com for more information.

Internal Critics Move Aside

Many of us are haunted by our internal critic: the "shoulder," the judge, or whatever name you would like to give him or her. For those who try art therapy for the first time, who have experienced ongoing battles with these negative voices, a new process begins to take shape. Process versus product. It is difficult at first to move beyond the idea of an aesthetic and beautifully pleasing piece of art to staying in the moment with the process of creating. This is one of the key elements to using art therapy and how art therapy and an art lesson differ. Staying in the process becomes freeing and enjoyable when staying in the here and now is the goal. Clients many times tell me how much they enjoy not worrying about what their art will look like and just let what will happen happen. Here, we begin to see how our internal critic really works as its voice tries to be heard and as we develop a new voice that asks the critic to please step aside.
Learning to talk to your internal critic can be a daily practice that takes place in a journal or whenever you encounter the negative-thinking voice. Awareness that it is taking place is the first step. Acknowledging that it exists must happen before you can confront it. I tell clients to draw or write in a journal to practice working with the judgemental voice inside of them. When issues of perfection, or feelings of making a mistake arise, I ask clients to acknowledge the feeling, and try to stay with the process allowing their art to be what it wants to be. So, as you work in a journal, be aware of what is happening as you draw or write. Be aware of your reactions, and instead of doing what you've done in the past, try something new. Try gently asking the critic to please step outside, because, you know what you are doing and do not need his or her help. Continue to work with this process until you feel you can work freely and comfortably allowing the process to take place without judgement.