Tag Archives: gratitude

The Healing Power of Creativity

In the hustle and bustle of our modern lives, it’s very easy to overlook the power of creativity as a potent tool for helping to address mental health issues. Yet, creativity, possesses a transformative ability to soothe the mind, heal emotional wounds, and start the journey towards a more balanced and fulfilling life.

There is a profound connection between creativity and mental wellness. Practices like mindfulness, art therapy, and gratitude are all useful tools in this journey of self-discovery and healing.

 

The Creative Mind: A Sanctuary Amidst the Storm

art therapy and spirituality

Creativity is a core aspect of the human experience. It is the expression of our innermost thoughts, emotions, and experiences in unique and meaningful ways. When faced with mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, or stress, tapping into our creative potential can provide a sanctuary amidst the storm.

Engaging in creative activities allows us to channel our energy into something constructive, providing a much-needed respite from negative thought patterns and overwhelming emotions.

 

Mindfulness: Cultivating Present-Moment Awareness

 

Central to the practice of creativity as a tool for mental wellness is mindfulness – the practice of cultivating present-moment awareness without judgment. When immersed in the creative process,  either by painting, drawing or writing, we anchor ourselves in the here and now, letting go of worries about the past or future. This mindful engagement with our creative side not only fosters a sense of calm and tranquility but also enhances our ability to cope with stress and uncertainty.

 

Art Therapy: Healing Through Self-Expression

vision boardArt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that utilizes creative techniques to promote emotional healing and self-expression. It is gaining more recognition for its effectiveness in treating various mental health issues. Through guided exercises, individuals are encouraged to explore their thoughts and feelings in a safe and supportive environment. This process often uncovers hidden insights and emotions. Whether it’s painting, drawing, sculpting, or collage-making, the act of creating art can be profoundly cathartic, offering a means of processing complex emotions and experiences that may be difficult to express verbally.

 

Gratitude: Nurturing a Positive Mindset

In addition to creativity and mindfulness, practicing gratitude is another powerful tool for improving mental wellness. Having a mindset of gratitude involves consciously acknowledging and appreciating the big and small things that enrich our lives.

Keeping a gratitude journal, reflecting on moments of joy and beauty, or expressing gratitude to others, this simple yet profound practice has been shown to enhance overall well-being and resilience. By shifting our focus from what we lack to what we have, gratitude enables us to cultivate a more positive outlook on life, even amidst challenges.

 

Embrace Your Creative Journey

In conclusion, the importance of creativity in overcoming mental health issues cannot be overstated. Whether through mindfulness, art therapy, gratitude practices, or other creative pursuits, harnessing our innate creative potential can provide solace, insight, and empowerment on our journey towards mental wellness. So, let us embrace our creativity, nurture our minds and spirits, and unlock the healing power that lies within each of us.

Remember, in the canvas of life, you hold the brush – paint your masterpiece with courage, compassion, and creativity.

Discovery Sessions

It is with reluctance that I have to announce that I will no longer be offering the free 30 minute Discovery Session as I am spending more time in delivering workshops. However I am still available for personal growth sessions using a fusion of emotional intelligence coaching, hypnotherapy and Reiki.

If you are still unclear about what therapy or programs you would find best suited to you, we can still have a quick chat – around 10 minutes or so.

You are welcome to join the communities at Balance4Life Programs or the  Gratitude Group.

Subscribing to the Quarterly newsletter will give you information about a new and exciting program that will be coming up in Spring.

Gratitude Group

A few weeks back, I started up a Gratitude Group on Facebook and you are welcome to join and contribute to it. The more the merrier as the saying goes.

It is growing organically and it is interesting reading what others are grateful for in their lives.

Research shows that having a daily gratitude practice helps to strengthen our immune systems and reduce heart related issues. A quick Google search will give you lots of articles to read – some more scholarly than others. I liked this one – The Neuroscience of Gratitude as it was an easy read plus the opportunity to sign up for a few exercises to help navigate through grief.

Having a Gratitude Journal helps you to record on a daily basis the little things that you are grateful for. You may have joined the previous 30 Days of Gratitude challenge way back in 2019 and developed your own gratitude practice.

I often write about gratitude and you may wonder why. I’ll let you into a little secret…. having this daily practice not only has benefits for you, but it’s free and the rewards are great! If you are having difficulty in getting started, join the Gratitude Group – that’s free as well. I look forward to seeing you there!

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Why is Gratitude important?

GratitudeGratitude is where you acknowledge the positive things that are in your life and that you appreciate on a regular basis. Why is gratitude important? By acknowledging the things we are grateful for, we are not focusing on anything that we may perceive as lacking in our lives.

Gratitude focuses the mind on the “now” and is a form of mindfulness, especially when we write down on or journal on a daily basis.

As we focus on the positive, endorphins are released and we feel better. A positive mindset is important to wellbeing and especially in today’s pandemic, helpful in maintaining wellness and a more balanced emotional state.

30 days of gratitudeHaving a daily practice that helps you to focus on things that you are grateful for will help you to form a new and more helpful mindset.

In the past I have run a couple of 30 Days of Gratitude, both here and on Facebook. It may be a little difficult to find the posts now as the last 30 day challenge was in 2020.  A little time consuming, but another way to jog the mind to think about what you are grateful for is to write a single sentence in you diary each day about what you were grateful that day. You can go out and buy an expensive journal with the prompts already printed or make your own.

 

Intention

Six Weeks of Intention

Some weeks ago I wrote a post on goal setting to fit into the six weeks of intention, but given the intensity of the past few weeks and the shut down of life as we have known it, I will save it for later.

The last six weeks have flown by and on my regular trips to the retreat I’ve had one or more of the books by James Redfield with me. These have been on my bookshelf for some time and the last time I read them was many years ago. The first in the series is The Celestine Prophecy, then The Tenth Insight follows on from that. This time I am taking my time to read the books and am finding that I have a new understanding. Various passages in The Tenth Insight stand out as particularly relevant to this time,  even though the book was printed in 1997.

Apart from the intention to read more and to study the Oracle/Tarot cards as part of my own spiritual nurturing, I have moved to online and phone consultations. Over the next few weeks you will notice changes on the website that reflect this.

It was with great amusement that after a long and vigorous shuffle of my Healing With The Angels pack that the first card that popped out was Intention, followed by Study and then Divine Timing.

6 weeks of intention

Intention: Your intentions create your experiences. By drawing this card the angels ask you to take an inventory of your expectations. What do you expect to happen today, tomorrow or the future?

Study: You are engaged in learning and study right now. Your angels guide you to take the time to read, listen and grow. This card validates that this is an important time for you to learn new ideas or skills.

Divine Timing: Pay attention to doors that are opening and shutting for you right now. Walk through the doors that open, and learn from the doors that shut. Look for other doors that do open and walk through them with faith and gratitude.

Mastery

I do so love teaching Reiki. It doesn’t matter what level it is, each training has its own special insights, both for the student and for me. My current student is learning how to be a teacher and I feel I have learnt as much from him on this journey as I may  have shared with him. Like me, he never set out to be a teacher and was a skeptic at first about distance healing, until he got feedback from clients he was working with.

Teaching is not for everyone and often it takes another person to see the talents and inner qualities that we don’t acknowledge in ourselves. For me is was waiting until the children were older and for this student, it was a chance comment by his long time friends that brought him to realize that he has so much more to offer by becoming a Reiki Teacher.

Revisiting each Reiki level brings new insights and each training brings about wonderful changes for all involved. It is as if a little bit more information is being revealed each time. Reiki helps both teacher and students to slow down and relax. The preparation for lessons and sessions is a special time. Meditation and setting the intent to work with Masters present and passed and Guides is a time to create peace both within the room, for students and myself.

Reiki energy is always gentle and will go to where it is most needed. I find that once you get yourself or ego “out of the way”, the energy flows with ease. A participant in a Reiki share commented that as she had only done Level 1 and the other participants were all Master Level or Teachers, that she was worried that her energy wasn’t as much. It took some convincing to let her know that the Reiki energy is the same for all of us regardless of what level we have studied to and that it is not our personal energy, but universal energy that we facilitate for the client. A healing session with someone who has taken Level 1 can be profound as the energy doesn’t discriminate.

Dreams or Visions?

“All we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”  Edgar Allen Poe

A sojourn at the retreat a short time ago had me revisiting a vision book that I began at the start of the quest to find the property that I saw in a dream.  I was showing it to some long time friends.  Not surprisingly, if you subscribe to the effectiveness of manifesting through vision books, I realised that many of the things that I had written or drawn down had come to fruition.

Creating a vision board, or as in my case – a vision book – is not difficult. All it requires is some time and a few simple steps.

I like to work on my vision books at two specific times. Yes, I have a couple – one is specifically for the retreat and the other is more personal but includes the retreat.

The New Moon and the Full Moon are my favoured times, but any time that you are comfortable with will suffice.  Some pages are for the month and some are for several months and may resemble a business planning document. I use a variety of goal setting techniques in formulating what goes onto the page. My favourite at the moment is the GROW model.

Goals

Realistic/Reachable

Obstacles/Opportunities and

Way Forward

 

Most importantly I put the date on the page. I may divide the page up into various topics or headings and these may be small sketches or pictures or words cut out from a magazine that has taken my fancy. I then set aside some time to meditate before starting. I set the intent that what comes out on the page is just right. During the course of the session, it becomes apparent that there is a synergy between many of the things that appear on the page.  Arrows, links, pictures and words appear.

For instance in January I had as one of my things on the page was health. I applied the GROW model to this and added in the “R” section a date that I wanted to achieve my goal. Having spent the last few months of 2016 with pneumonia and finding that I was recovering slowly from it, this was a priority, not only from the business point of view, but a vision of improving my health and longevity by focussing on it. I asked myself “What is my Why?” and reflected on what came out of that meditation. Two months later, I revisited the page and realized that I was “on track” for most of what I had written.  The areas that I still need to achieve are transferred to the next page and I find that by setting down my thoughts and goals, that I become more accountable to myself.

The pages are a mixture of goal setting and dreaming…… for  with the retreat there needs to be a certain amount of dreaming and it is in the dreams that I feel that anything can be possible.

Some of the actions that I am taking as a result of these will only ever be a dream for me, but may be a future generation’s reality.  On these pages I dream of planting trees. In fact on the last visit I planted 3 more. These were grown from seeds of a gum tree that were no bigger than a pin head, yet the parent tree was a magnificent 40 metre high specimen with a trunk that had a girth too big to encircle with my arms.

Other trees that I have planted are Oak trees, grown from gathered acorns and nurtured to young seedlings. Yet I will never see these trees in their full majesty – they will remain for me, just a vision of what might become, just as willing gardeners planted the stately oaks in the main streets of the nearby country towns.

I may draw other things on the page… it becomes a de facto “To Do” list. Again I find another page that has more to do with trees…. on February’s page was a section on finding a spot for the Casuarina or She Oaks saplings that I have also grown from seed…. They have yet to be planted as I’m searching for the right spot for them and reading about their physical needs as well as the metaphysical significance of them, just as I did when I was searching for the right spot to construct the first labyrinth.

Pages in my vision book may include a word picture of an ideal client and I am always pleasantly surprised when the phone rings and he or she introduces themselves and makes an appointment!

The reward for keeping these vision books is in going back over them and putting a big tick next to those great big audacious dreams that have been achieved – perhaps they should have a gold star!

It is interesting that some of the things put down that weren’t achieved were in fact “pipe dreams” … dreams that if they had been fulfilled would have taken me further away from where I am now and in retrospect, I’m pleased that they haven’t come into fruition.

It is also interesting to read back over vision  books from years gone by and see that there is a common thread running through all of them…. and to be grateful for the things that have manifested.

Abundance

Depending on your outlook, the rhythm of the seasons brings great abundance….

Each season is a cause for celebration and when observing the cycles of the seasons, there is much to be grateful for.

As Melbourne swelters through a summer heat wave, I’ve observed an abundance of short temper. In one instance the power had to be turned off to a residential area to sort out a fault that meant that industrial sized air conditioners couldn’t be run. The heat was a little uncomfortable, but bearable and the power went off just as the sun went down and came back on about two hours later. Candles were found, both ordinary and citronella (to deter the abundant mosquitoes), and a pleasant evening outside conversing by candlelight ensued. Other households did the same and mixed with the sound of chirping cicadas was the low hum of neighbours chatting. The only discord was a neighbour several houses down ranting at the workmen about how old people needed to be kept cool, which brought a wry smile to those grey haired neighbours who were standing close by to her, many of whom had grown up in smaller houses with no airconditioning.

Taking time to enjoy the evening stillness, putting aside disharmony and participating fully in life’s adventures is but one path to abundance. When you are still, both internally and externally, you allow the abundance of the universe to flow toward you.  Notice your heartbeat and see if you can calibrate it with the rhythm of life.

Patience

A couple of roos loose in the top paddock“Be patient, all things move as the timing requires. Quiet your mind, take time to be with yourself with no expectations or push. Do not be anxious for results, but enjoy the gentle journey. In your busy world, do not be rushed or allow the impatience of others to push you into hasty actions.

All things come to those who wait….patiently!”  Treasures from Tikashi

Back in the city, I miss the quiet time of the retreat and find myself getting impatient with not having developed it as quickly so as to have guests to stay in comfort and share the experience. The contrast between country and city couldn’t be greater.

Spending time in reflection, quite a lot has already been achieved and lessons learned. There has been the clearing of the flammable weed that covered much of the property and a maintenance schedule to prevent it from taking over again is being developed.

My first Labyrinthpriority was to build a labyrinth to set the energy for the property and that has been done. Again it needs maintenance on a regular basis as the weather and wildlife tend to blur the outline. The addition of gypsum last September has made digging the clay so much easier! Next project on the list for the labyrinth area is to set up some termite proof seating and shelter.

After the trial of garlic (enjoyed by the wildlife), I spent a few months germinating sage seeds and potting them up to plant.  A couple of sage plants had been put in last Easter and were left untouched for the rest of the year, so I thought that this would be a suitable plant to grow. Sage ready to plantA mixture of pot sizes and some stunted seedlings made the trip up to the retreat for an Easter planting. I decided to put them into the centre arms and entrance to create a fragrant addition. Planting out some 20 pots took a little longer than expected, and being able to use the water from the fire trailer to water them in saved carrying 20 litre buckets across the paddock! Rain was forecast and I was confident that they would happily adapt to their new home. Research was done on other rabbit/hare proof herbs and I looked forward to checking up on them at the next visit.

Orbs on approach to labyrinth On the next visit, most of the plants were pruned to the roots….only the tiniest, most straggly seedlings that I thought wouldn’t survive remained. Coming back to that word….

Patience……

I planted out a rosemary cutting with strong roots that I put in the plant carrying box at the last minute. It will be interesting to see if the kangaroos and hares find rosemary palatable as well….

The Easter holiday was a hive of activity.  Building, mowing, digging, planting trees and sage, not to mention watching the Lunar Eclipse on the Saturday evening. Orbs at the eclipseThe skies were clear, just a little chilly, but bearable if rugged up well. The banana lounges were employed usefully and we were able to recline without getting a crick in the neck that one gets from star-gazing whilst sitting in a chair.  Various photos of the eclipse were taken, but a better quality camera or lenses are required for future photos of the moon, stars and planets, but good enough to record the orbs that appeared!

The aging tractor doesn’t fit into the large shed, so an extension or “tractor port” was planned aOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAnd the wood delivered just before the Easter holidays. Tall enough to accommodate the tractor, long enough to fit the slasher it will have a skillion roof to add more rainwater to the dwindling levels of water in the big concrete water tank.

Friends arrived to help out with the building and were duly fed lunch for their efforts. Another friend stayed on to help with the mowing.  The same friend helped out with digging holes in the hard clay soil to plant out some oak tree saplings that I have grown from seed.  They were settled into the soil with well aged compost from the toilets and securely staked and tree guards put around them. Time was taken out to visit the Easter Parade in Rushworth and there was lots to see, but it was good to get back to the relative quiet of the retreat.

A walk around the boundary was a great opportunity to find some small treasures. A tiny nest that had blown out of a tree. Looking more closely, the enterprising birds (they could have been Pardalotes, Blue Wrens or Robins) had visited the main area and used threads from the Tibetan prayer flags that are placed around the communal fireplace.

Tiny Town labyrinthDuring the last visit, I spent some time re-visiting my labyrinth books and came across an unusual design, based upon a shepherd’s crook. As I gazed out of the shed whilst sheltering from a brief shower, I realized this would fit in an area that I had previously considered for putting in a raised garden bed. I marked it out with a tree stake and yes, it just fitted!red and green energy in new labyrinth Out came the shovel and the outline was dug into the ground and then the leaves raked to clear a pathway. This will be a low maintenance labyrinth, with just a quick rake to be able to walk it. Photos were duly taken and some interesting artifacts appeared on the bottom of the second photo. It was a series of 3 photos taken in quick succession and the second one shows a green circle at the bottom and the third, no artifacts……

Back to the city…. and a friend asks when there will be more accommodation…… back to the start of the post….. patience!

It’s evolving.

Slowly, like the oak trees that have gone in. They may not be of use in what’s left of my lifetime, but I planted them with the future in mind.

 

 

Enchantment

On a  recent visit to the retreat, I was enchanted with the spectre of a double rainbow over the labyrinth.  It was at the end of a hot and humid day and just as the sun was getting ready to slip over the horizon, the clouds parted and there was a most amazing light dancing on the tree tops. A shower in the distance provided the catalyst for a most amazing rainbow.

Did I manage to capture the image? Sadly no…. one of the rare occasions when I had neither camera or smartphone with me.

Earlier in the day, I had shrugged off the lethargy and done a New Moon meditation and vision book page. The next step was to take the vision book into the labyrinth and meditate further on what had come to me.

As I came out of the labyrinth, I was reminded of the benefit of journalling the experiences, many abridged versions appear here in this blog. I remembered a comment from a reader some time ago who suggested that I include video. With that in mind, I walked slowly back to the centre recording the journey, which I would share, except that it seems that the iphone video is not compatible with this platform. The act of mindfulness in walking slowly and holding the camera steadily made for a different experience. The focus was not on myself, but how could I best film the pathway so that viewers would not feel dizzy or sick and that they could really get a “feel” for the rustic nature of this labyrinth.

It cannot be compared to the  pictures of the labyrinths in North America and Europe that are either beautifully paved or have lush green turf….  This is country Victoria coming into summer.. the weeds and the grass have turned to straw brown, the soil is drying and cracking and the patches of gravel are rust red and need to be stepped on carefully.  The mounded soil of the rings allows some long grass and other small hardy plants to grow, but there is no sign of life in the outer ring where the garlic was planted, except for 2 sage plants and a lavender plant that has just flowered. As each step is taken, there is a crunching sound… the dried up plants…. the opposite to the Northern Hemisphere which had record snowfalls on that same weekend.

So whilst the intent has been to share the New Moon experience with you, I can only do so with words and not pictures…. perhaps some enchanted things are not to share……

Postscript….. If you would like to do a virtual walk of the labyrinth, click HERE