Mind Over Medicine {Creativity and Health}

Jun 192013
 

 

“I could help even more people by discovering the truth
about how to help people heal themselves.”

{yes}

I’ve been following Lissa Rankin’s blog off and on for awhile now. What really attracted me to her at first was how much I could resonate with both her experience and her perspective about life and healing.

Not to mention that she is both an artist and a doctor who reached a complete unraveling pivot point in her relationship with the healing profession, when she took a real close look at her own core values and wisdom.
She saw how the healthcare framework of our culture made no space for honoring those values, took her as far away from them as possible, and left her with no energy to nurture them in her personal life.

My fractured nurse’s heart has found her words to be inspiring, poignant and validating.
And the artist in me loves the way she creatively envisions a new model for healthcare and talks about it so boldly.

Last week I got her new book, Mind Over Medicine.
I’m not done with it yet, but it is rocking the world of my artist~healer’s heart.
She has put together a compilation of research from medical sources that validates the power of our mind to have physiological effect on our body, and the power of our body to heal itself when we nurture our core values and needs, and choose to live a wholehearted, holistic lifestyle.

This is not new stuff, per se – but she is taking an angle and approach that is getting through to the ‘right’ people, and that is accessible to the masses.

I’ve been telling this stuff to my nursing and herbalism students for years (and anyone else that will listen) – based on what I witnessed as a nurse and what I intuitively know and have experienced to be true. But Lissa’s done the gritty research (and cites it all). And it’s fascinating.

I want you to know just how creativity can effect your physiological health, in case you’ve wondered.

If you walk away with nothing else, know this: creative expression plays a fundamental role in alleviating stress, tension & anxiety, thus affecting all aspects of your life.

See, stress is a key player in the progression of all disease pathways, and chronic stress significantly hinders healing.
Our culture is in an epidemic of unnecessary chronic stress response, despite being privileged.
To reduce stress, make creativity a priority in your time, even if that means choosing a simpler lifestyle.
Isn’t your very life – your health and relationships, well-being and experience – worth it?

I believe it is.
I know it must be for you to thrive and shine like you were meant to.
That’s why I’m just so passionate about using creativity as a mode of healing to help women alleviate the unnecessary stress response in their lives, realign with their unique core values and build strong self-esteem and connections.

Though creativity is not the core focus of her book, this is what Lissa Rankin, MD, has to say about it, which can begin to give you a glimpse at the vast implications:

“It may seem peripheral to you to mention creativity as a factor in your health. Who ever heard of prescribing a hobby as preventative medicine or treatment for a disease? But scientific evidence shows that creative expression can elicit relaxation responses that counterbalance stress responses…
   Whatever you do, flexing your creative muscles is as important to overall health and happiness as is flexing your biceps. The link between creativity and health has been well established, so anything that allows you to be more creative in your life benefits the physiology of your body and mind. Creative expression releases endorphins and other feel-good neurotransmitters, reduces depression and anxiety, improves your immune function, relieves physical pain, and activates the parasympathetic nervous system, thereby lowering your heart rate, decreasing your blood pressure, slowing down your breathing, and lowering cortisol.
   Health benefits of creative expression include improved sleep, better overall health, fewer doctor visits, less use of medication, and fewer vision problems. Creativity decreases symptoms of distress and improves quality of life for women; it strengthens positive feelings, alleviates distress, and helps clarify existential and spiritual issues; it lowers the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, reduces anxiety, and improves mood, social functioning and self-esteem.
   When we unleash the creative process, we tap into subconscious processes that help us heal – and thrive. Expressing yourself creatively exercises the right side of your brain, and doing so not only affects the body – it affects your emotional state, leading to greater happiness…. it’s a well-documented phenomenon that happy people are more likely to be healthy.
   …that’s just how creativity affects the individual! Creativity also affects your work life, your relationships, your sexuality, your spirituality, and your mental health. As art therapist Marti Hand teaches, expressing yourself creatively also promotes social peace by enhancing compassion, tolerance, kindness, harmony, expansion, growth, collaboration, respect, and healing. Even seemingly unrelated benefits may arise as the result of expressing yourself creatively, such as improved fertility.
   While your creative life can be a potent source of physiological relaxation, it can also be a stressor if you’re feeling creatively thwarted. One of my patients had been writing a novel in her head for years, but because she was so busy at work, her novel went unwritten. Every day she felt stressed about the fact that she might die one day without ever writing her book. Creativity only heals if you make the time to prioritize it.”
(from Mind Over Medicine by Lissa Rankin, MD)

 

 19 June 2013  Inspiration 1 Response »

In Our Cells {vlog}

Jun 172013
 

This video is a candid take of me talking just a little bit about the amazing physiological connection between memory and intuitive art making.

Ohhhhh, I barely touched the surface of this!
But I had to share it because I just get so excited about the implications of this stuff.

And I’m not talking about the memory of information recall or past times in the conventional sense.

I’m talking about the memory in our cells… that can guide us to our truth.

The sensation of memory in creative practice and mindful living.

 17 June 2013  Creative Process, Presence 4 Responses »

In Our Dreams While Sleeping

Jun 142013
 

This is a page in a sketchbook I kept back in 2004.

I rarely fill a sketchbook completely, so sometimes (like the other day),
I pull them out to tear out some clean pages for a current art journal.
Right now I’m working on an altered journal.

I opened the old sketchbook to this page,
and found myself pausing in that sweet, beautiful sorrow of love & gratitude for the people in my life that…

were always meant to be there,
even if only for a time.

Of course, every person is – I do believe that.

But there are some who speak the same heart language as us.
It’s different.
It’s…

Ineffable.
{I don’t use that word lightly}

And, as Life is,
Time passes,
and people do, too – in many measurable, ordinary ways
that can unleash rivers of mixed-up emotion.

I like to remember to pause on those shorelines
and take a breath around me,
and a drink to see,
how it really feels
when the ego’s tangible tools of measurement are set aside
for the deeper truth,
the stuff of relations,
the clarity of dreams.

And I find every time
that how it really feels
is perpetually Still {and}
Wholly Connected.

 14 June 2013  Art Journal, SoulWork No Responses »

Just This Life {5} ~ painting murals in Asheville

Jun 132013
 

owl mural downtown asheville

I’ve always wanted to paint a public mural.
It’s one of those things on my bucket list/dream map.

I once got to paint a bar-room floor in a restaurant where I was a cocktail waitress,
but when the tables and chairs were put back in place and the lights dimmed for the ambiance,
and then people started walking all over it…
well, it sort of lost its sense of satisfaction for me at the time.

But a huge fresh wall just waiting for some color and inspiration…
out in the world where anyone could go by and just maybe be inspired in all the right ways…

what a journey to take that on!

Well, Steve recently got asked to paint a mural on the side of a building in downtown Asheville,
at a high traffic intersection.

This is what happens when your partner is an artist, too.

You end up living vicariously through and with one another…
which is nice, because you get to see what it’s really all about to carry some crazy ideas through,
nitty-gritty, sweat-dripping details and all.

Steve went downtown to put the base brown coat on the first day, and he came back and told me that there was a little wall off to the side that he prepped for me to paint something on!

I’ve painted bigger pieces in my studio, but still this had the thrill of being in public…
and painting with latex on a brick wall in the elements is a bit different than acrylics on canvas or paper, to say the least.

The day I went, I didn’t know what I was going to paint until I sat there for a bit.

I realized his dreaming lady figure needed a protector spirit to keep watch.

So that’s what she got.

I’ve got to say, I think I could dig the mural gig from time to time…

It’s living, interactive, conversation-starting art out in shared space.

I can’t adequately express how much I just ADORE that whole idea.

 

steve's mural almost finished downtown asheville

Downtown Asheville mural by Steve Karla on Lexington and Woodfin, almost finished here (she now has a few more tattoos!)

 

 13 June 2013  Just This Life, Painting 6 Responses »

New Moon Studio Rhythm

Jun 102013
 

I have to confess that the way my creative process works in the studio can look quite chaotic.

And it varies with the tides – or most likely the moon and hormones. :)

Sometimes, I get into a deep zone of intimacy with one piece.
Other times, I am working on multiple pieces at once, moving from one to the other quite quickly.

I suppose I first really learned that rhythm – jumping from one piece to another – when I was working in ceramics years ago.
You have to wait for clay to dry to different states between phases of creation, so it becomes quite natural to have multiple pieces going at once.
It becomes a dance about timing and attentiveness.

I always enjoyed that flow of attention because it had a natural way of tricking me out of my own headiness,
and right into my hands and heart and the natural layers of creating.

That’s how it was this past weekend – my energy and paint was flying all over the place, on several paintings and journal pages,
jumping from one to the next without much thought at all,
letting the connection between them evolve organically and my own processing happen in the river underneath the dance.

I have to say, I believe life is like this, too. So I consider this good practice.

Above is a glimpse at a few of the in-progress pieces I spent time with in the studio this weekend.

Each one taught me something just a little bit different about how I roll and flow and bend,
and what my natural inclinations and associations are.
It felt feminine, curvy, sensual, responsive, dynamic.

But even more than all that – letting myself move in this free-flow rhythm with my art,
without getting all hung up on finishing this, or making that look like something, or pushing my way through a piece -
well, it just feels good in my body.

Nourishing. Wise. Light.
And Fun!

There’s wisdom in the rhythm of play that is just as important as intentionally contemplative or technical work.
And I know, for me at least, there are times when nothing else will do to satiate my thirst…

but to loosen my hair, get my groove on with the moon and let the colors fly.

 10 June 2013  Creative Process 2 Responses »

June Prayer Art Invitation

Jun 052013
 

This month brings us toward the Summer Solstice here in the northern hemisphere.

The time when the light reaches its longest hour, and the cycle of the seasons begins its steady trip back toward the restful harbor of winter.

So for this month, let’s honor the natural rhythms we’re in with some celebration and contemplation of right where we are in the energy of the seasons.

Let’s make a special, integrated effort in our lives to get Grounded with the land where-ever we live, however that looks, by centering into our own personal practices of connection and stirring the pot of our intuitive, creative expressions.

In that spirit, this month’s Prayer Art prompt is:

Earth Energy!

I, for one, intend to do a little flower/plant pressing with some local greenery I want to learn more about, and some extra intuitive nature painting (on site) as part of my practice this month.

You could easily integrate this into other things you might be participating in this busy time of year, as well.
For instance, if you’re doing the ICAD this month (hosted by sweet Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow), maybe some of your cards will become Prayer Art cards.

Or, Pixie Campbell is hosting a free week of live online shamanic journeying the week of the Solstice.
If that’s something you’re interested in, you could participate and then create your Earth Energy Prayer Art following a guided journey (heck, I might give that a try myself).

If you’re in 21 Secrets with us – or another art journaling adventure, consider how you might incorporate this reflection and expression onto a spread you’re making.

The point is to find a way that this invitation fits into your life – a way of engaging the creative energy that feels really good to give attention and time to.

Whatever your intentions, I always love to hear them, or about how your practice might look for you. And, of course, my favorite is to see your beautiful Prayer Art creations – which you can feel free share on my facebook page, or over in the Sacred Art of Women group – or you can always just drop me an email at hali@halikarla.com !

The week of the Solstice I will begin my own collective Prayer Painting with any prayers that have been submitted to the Prayer Box.
If you have a prayer near-and-dear to your heart right now that you would like to give extra voice and energy to, you are invited to offer it, in as little or much detail as feels comfortable, RIGHT HERE.

 5 June 2013  Invitations 3 Responses »

Sedona Video {Retrospective Pt 2}

Jun 012013
 

 

I feel like everything I want to say about this right now is in the video, expressed from my heart.

Even the parts that feel raw, unedited… these are important, too.

Because that’s how we are… raw, in motion, in progress, changing, homemade, moments in motion – spirit and body craving, soaking, learning, healing, receiving impression, offering perception, always part of what is.

The time I spent in Sedona with these women,
with my open self and my own healing heart,
is impressed upon my soul.

It is a feeling I can connect to, again and again.

And that feeling is a gift I intend to try to offer others as I continue to walk my path.

Grateful barely touches the surface of this…

 

 

{This is also my response to the May Prayer Art Invitation.}

 

 

 1 June 2013  Prayer Painting, SoulWork 15 Responses »

Journal Peeks and Transitions

May 302013
 

 

When I’m painting in my studio, one of the things I always do is spread any extra color into my journals or onto blank canvases or paper.

This uses up the paint while also letting me begin the layers of color that I so love on a background and painting.
It also keeps me moving my brush and color in a fresh, fun way.
I can experiment on the extra pages and be really free with how I lay down marks,
tapping in again and again to that feeling of spontaneous expression,
and bringing that back into pieces that are further along.

The more I tap into it, the deeper that feeling moves into my cells…
and the more likely it becomes that I can access it in those trickier moments of creating and living.

And really, that’s what all of this is about… learning at the easel how to navigate this vessel of me in life.

The painting-in-progress at the top of the page began as one of those extra-paint canvas boards.
I laid down all sorts of color on it, from many days in the studio, before my trip to Sedona.

Yesterday, while Connie held an impromptu live FEARLESS Painting session, I pulled that board out and began to play.

I’m still in a state of transition & integration from the charge and connection I felt on this trip,
so it’s not too surprising that a little bit of Sedona showed up on the canvas, right next to a whole lot of my creative spirit.

The journal pages were all created in Arizona.

The last one was particularly special, because I lost complete sense of time when painting it,
and I desperately needed to remember how that felt.

When I sat down and began, there were like 30 people behind me, walking around this beautiful space on the rocks.
When I was finished – or rather, when whatever needed to move through me at the twist in that river was finished -
I snapped back into my context, turned around,
and everyone was gone, except two of my dear artist friends who stayed behind.

The sun was setting and we sat and soaked it up,
talking of miracle and truth, in the ways women do when their hearts are open and full.

Really, this feeling of transition inside of me began there…

in those moments when I was just being present, in myself,
living, seeing and sharing creatively,
surrendering to the nature of things around and within me,
right where I was at.

Perhaps, it’s not a transition at all,
but a deeper affirmation, recognized in my cells,
to experience myself, my people and this world more intimately…
slower, truer, fuller.

 

 

 30 May 2013  Art Journal, Painting, Presence, SoulWork 6 Responses »

Stop it and Just Do (for us Artists)

May 272013
 

 

 

The artist Sol LeWitt once answered a letter from his friend, artist Eva Hesse, with this wonderful advice:

“You seem the same as always, and being you, hate every minute of it. Don’t! Learn to say ‘Fuck You’ to the world once in awhile. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder, wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, gasping, confusing, itching, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, rumbling, rambling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, bitching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hairsplitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose-sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, ringer-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding grinding grinding away at yourself. Stop it and just DO.

From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and your ability, the work you are doing sounds very good. ‘Drawings-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger, bolder, real nonsence.’ That sounds wonderful – real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical more crazy more machines, more breasts, penises, cunts, whatever — make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your ‘weird humor.’

You belong in the most secret part of you.

Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw and paint your fear – and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as ‘to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistent approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end.’ You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO!

I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work. The worst you can think of and see what happens, but mainly relax and let everything go to hell. You are not responsible for the world — you are only responsible for your work, so do it. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be.

But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working, then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to DO.”

{from Lucy Lippard’s book on Eva Hesse}

~

I’ve held onto a copy of that letter for over 15 years, and every few years or so, I come across it.
It always strikes me as a profound glimpse into the common shadows of being an artist…
and how to shift from that shadow back into your own creative light.

Eva Hesse was an artist concerned primarily with her process and experience of art-making,
working with unconventional materials in ways that hadn’t yet been explored.
She created pieces that would not last, and that weren’t overtly concerned with pleasing aesthetic
- and she did so without apology.
She invited them to change – that was part of it.

She has always struck me as an artist that had to make art, for her own spirit.
Even if her process was not completely understood at the time,
and even though she doubted and fussed about whether there was a grander ‘purpose’ to it or not, like this letter implies
- like the rest of us who have felt the call of art-making despite the conventional notion of success or time well spent.

Eva’s career as an artist lasted just ten years before she died from a brain tumor at 34,
and in that time she shifted movements of thought about what art is or ought to be.
Just by listening to her own secret curiosity and acting upon it… to see what would happen, what it might evoke.

Like in this piece that she made in the last year of her life…

 

 

What strikes me most about Eva’s story, is the same wise reminder I learned from caring for hospice patients…
that we don’t get to know what kind of time we have to experience this life – and because of that, every minute counts.

If this speaks to you,
if you ache to make your art,
then stop making the art you think you should or following some technique fad
or living a life that everyone else seems to be talking about…
and just DO it…
make your secret, sacred art.

See what that looks like.
See what that feels like.

And if you want, copy this letter, and tuck it away somewhere, in a book or box -
then forget about it.
You’ll find it again, when you need to, and you’ll remember.

 

 

 27 May 2013  Inspiration 6 Responses »

Just This Life {4} ~ holistic nursing

May 232013
 

A sweet soul asked me today to tell her more about this “holistic nursing” thing.
I’m quite certain she doesn’t fully realize how meaningful receiving that simple question right now is for me.

I truly believe something bigger was acting through her.
I’m certain it was for my own journey, and I suspect for a piece of hers, too.
That’s how it works – these interactions of souls.

Part of the work I’m doing behind the scenes right now is forming the vessel to honor the innate connection between nursing/healing and the power of creative engagement with art…
my unique vessel of offering, that is.

Artist & Nurse are just titles, just words.
They happen to convey very specific ideas in people’s minds.

But what drew me to both is not how they look to the world or on paper,
but rather Who I Am and my natural gifts.
Those same qualities,
and the rich combination of experience I have been blessed with because of them,
are ready to birth rich offerings and perspective into the world…
and, really, it feels like a whole new (dare I say) paradigm forming within myself.

There’s a big difference between understanding something and actually feeling it, in your bones, in your cells.
Once you feel it there, in your own skin, you have your compass.

And this reclaiming of myself as a holistic nurse, on my terms,
who worships, lives, serves, plays and works in the arts,
choosing to live life true to her values and practices,
is a huge, crucial ingredient to my sustainable, creative business and life.

I’m finally feeling it.
I have my women’s circle, and our time in Sedona together, to thank for this shift.

It feels Whole… holistic, if you will… and the Universe just keeps showing me signs….
Finally, I can say with clarity, that my eyes and heart are aligned in a posture of wide open trust to receive and activate.

And I am humbled, I am honored, I am grateful, I am blessed.

~

Here’s my raw answer to the inquiring woman about this holistic nursing stuff (in case you’re wondering how I replied to her). It just poured out so easy and light:

In a nutshell, the heart of holistic nursing, I feel, is usually what drives people to go into nursing to begin with… to help the whole person heal in the face of tangible change (not just cure). You can find a lot of info about the more known practice of Holistic Nursing at the American Holistic Nurses Association website (AHNA – of which I have been a member). It includes a lot of nurses who incorporate into their conventional care other modalities of healing (energy work, massage, aromatherapy, healing touch, etc etc) For me, though, it has cracked open to include even more than the Association acknowledges outright… namely, the deep power of Art(-making) to heal.

I came to it first intuitively, then after realizing the landscape of conventional nursing practice does not afford time or space for the type of care I am passionate about (which is all about presence, time and empowering self-awareness, creativity toward life, and transformative, personal choice)… I left my job as an RN. I have no regrets, and won’t go back to a traditional position.

My education as a holistic nurse has been all about self-study and continuing education… I study herbalism, the divine feminine, creative expression, greatness work, aromatherapy, earth-centered practices, nutrition, and art as a spiritual practice… as a way of life. All of this feeds how I serve others on their own journeys to finding their own true, heart-centered ways of living. That is the heart of what Holistic Nursing & Creativity are for me… seeing the whole person, witnessing who they are and the unfolding of their becoming – the glory and the mess – with love, educating and role-modeling, acting as an advocate for their truth, providing safe space and comfort, as well as nudges toward growth and expansion, and empowering them with tools for awareness, communication, connection and healing.

~

23 april 2013
Just This Life {entry 4}
frequent spontaneous musings & prayers about my daily practice of Presence as Art in this one blessed life experience

 

 23 May 2013  Just This Life, SoulWork 2 Responses »

Art Journal Inspiration {21 Secrets Love}

May 202013
 

 

These gorgeous, colorful pages were created by some of the women in my class, Imagine You, in the 21 Secrets Workshop!

It just makes me grin, ear to ear, to see these bold, intuitive pages – so rich with individuality and life!
Aside from the pages themselves, it has been such a pleasure and honor to read about how the process in Imagine You felt for the artists,
and how it has opened up fresh ways to approach art journaling.

Because this intuitive creative process isn’t just an easy-weasy, do-what-you-please, anyone-can-do-it approach to artmaking – contrary to what many believe.

Granted, it can be so liberating and pure fun, at times…
not to mention eye-opening and healing…
but it takes work to stay with your pure intuition when your mind always wants to come in and have the final say.

The best part, though, is that no matter how hard it is when you start, you can’t really get it wrong…
because right where you start, and right where you end up, is exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Your job is to just show up and notice what goes on inside of you,
while honoring what wants to come out instinctually, organically, naturally.

That’s what I offer in Imagine You – some fresh approaches on how to stay open,
while shaking up the mind a bit,
so your intuition & imagination can lead into those original, creative places inside you that otherwise might have stayed buried.

That’s why I love seeing these pages, and feel proud that they each agreed to let me share them…
because we get to see the uniquely beautiful, creative energy of each artist shining from them!

 

JOIN us in 21 Secrets by clicking HERE!

 20 May 2013  Art Journal, Inspiration, Workshops & Classes 7 Responses »

Just This Life {3 :: Sedona Retrospective Pt 1}

May 172013
 

There is a rhythm to the Creative Process that echoes the rhythms of so many ways we move through life.

It’s not unlike the way we interact with others, the way we fall in love, the way we grieve, the way we collaborate, the way we perform ritual, or the way we heal.

If I told you my deepest truth in this… well, it would be that I believe the Creative Process is present in every aspect of how we experience life.

In fact, it doesn’t echo the rhythms of life as much as it IS the rhythm of life.

What makes all the difference in the world, is how open we are to developing a relationship with it and how aware we are of that process working through us.

This matters so much to the quality of how we relate to ourselves and the world around us.

So much.

I spent over two weeks in Arizona on a trip that I always knew would be pivotal for my relations and path.

This was not an expectation as much as an intuitive knowing… the kind that makes me wary to whisper of it beforehand for fear of diluting its potency.

The kind that makes me know there is a higher power…
a higher power of connection beyond all names,
in the dirt, the sunrays and stars, the rivers, the green ones & tall ones, in the air I breathe into my lungs and cells,
and breathe out in offering of proof that I witness… I witness… I see… I am of this creative life and process.

I planned this trip to Arizona intentionally, with a week to settle into the space before circling with women for deep soulwork in my teacher training.
I did this because I know something of my own unique relationship & rhythm with creative processing & showing up.

But the soulwork began when I arrived – in the settling in itself – in the time shared there with my partner.

For this, I am so grateful, because I now know I was not settling into a landscape for comfort – it wasn’t about this place in time.
I was settling into my skin, into the truths that I and the dirt hold.
I was remembering Me, as a deeper witness to myself…

and I needed this, oh-so-deeply, for the week that was to come after, and for the service I am now called forward to activate and offer.

More about that soon…

{These images are just a glimpse from the magic of that first week.}

 

 17 May 2013  Creative Process, Just This Life, SoulWork 2 Responses »

May Prayer Art Invitation

May 022013
 

 

As I’ve been walking and praying and making art
around Sedona and the Grand Canyon this week,
what keeps reverberating in my awareness, like a song,
is “…Holy, Wholly, Holy….”

Maybe because there are no ‘words’ exactly
to describe the feeling of sacredness permeating your senses and spirit.
It just IS.

And this “IS-ness” is the feeling that can carry us through…
even in the ordinary places, on the ordinary days, in perfectly ordinary ways…..

It is a wisdom, a connection that pulses in our bodies.
It is living, creative energy.

Visiting extraordinary places, or partaking in ceremonies and rituals…
it all serves the purpose of quickening that pulse,
and bringing us back to center.

The center of Sacred.
You know it when you feel it.

So, for May’s Prayer Art Invitation,
I invite you to close your eyes and sit in stillness,
wherever you are, and remember.

Remember how that feeling of connecting to something sacred feels inside of you.

Remember it and imagine that memory rushing through your veins,
with your blood, with your pulse…
Imagine it until you realize that it is not just a memory,
but an experience NOW, right where you sit.

When you begin to notice how that feeling is still very alive in you,
then create your prayer art from that feeling, that place inside, that moment of ritual…

Let this be your ceremony of creative connection this month.

 

~hali

 

 

 

 

 2 May 2013  Invitations 6 Responses »

Bear Medicine {New Painting}

Apr 292013
 

 

A couple of months ago, I asked to see more clearly the animal medicine I need to learn from as I step more fully into my Voice and sharing my truth.
You know, I asked the Universe.

And then I let it go.

First, I noticed the birds in a new way. No surprise here – the feathered messengers and I have a relationship that goes way back.
But I began to see more clearly the diversity of birds that showed up and slowed down in my path of perception.

I’ve been noticing all sorts of animals in a much deeper way… could be Spring in the air.

But one I didn’t exactly expect to fall into contemplative dance with was Bear.
It seemed to begin with some dreams and then fell into place in the paint marks above.

But then I remembered it actually began earlier in this past year.
Three times, in fact.
Up until those moments, I hadn’t seen a bear in our mountains in the 5 years we’ve lived here, even though black bears are all around.
I just seemed to always miss them.

The first one I saw, last Spring, was a young bear laying and playing around in the driveway of a mountain home. I parked my car and he looked at me, and then he went back to his antics, and I just watched and watched.

Then there was the mama bear and cubs that visited the women’s conference.
Early in the morning, women walked by the cubs up in trees on the path, as we were shuffled off to class quickly, so that space could be allowed for mama to show her face and gather up her babes.

The third bear was in the fall.
The closest one yet. She was huge. Maybe 50 feet away.
My dog, Bluejay, and I had gone for a morning walk on the parkway.
She heard us and then sauntered away into the trees as we watched, quiet and oh-so-still… and quite frankly in awe of her wild presence.

As I’ve begun to re-visit sacred teachings at the foundation of my spiritual path & heart this Spring,
I’ve come face to face, inside, with the messages bear has to offer.

There’s so much I could say about this, that I’ve been learning from this reflection and medicine.
But my voice is mostly still… awhile longer, perhaps….

I kind of feel like I’m a bit groggy, waking up from a deep hibernation,
eyes adjusting to the light, stretching into this skin, these cells, again,
and just about ready to move courageously into a new season.

And I’m soaking this up, these juicy, magical, mixed moments of feeling, fully,
this energy,
this river of what I’ve always been {meant to be}.

 

 

This painting is available for purchase HERE.

 29 April 2013  Prayer Painting, SoulWork 2 Responses »
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