Louise Hay was a bestselling author and the founder of Hay House publishing. She wrote a book called ‘You can Heal your Life’. I often used used her book to work on specific issues I was having in my life. I would have a sore lower back and I would look in her book to see that equates to Fear of money or lack of financial support. And then I would work on that one issue journaling and meditating on it and doing my affirmations and it might go for a bit but it would pop back up or something else would take its place with a similar underlying blockage or story.

More recently I started to do this check in with myself and my students. Checking in to see where you are at and what you need to work on. This is more of a big picture as opposed to getting stuck in individual issues we may have.

Using Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life” we will determine 3-5 key themes in your health and what those symptoms are trying to tell you.

First step: Go through the...

Unless we have faced and dealt with the wounds we have accumulated in this lifetime or other lifetimes, our growth can be limited or even blocked. I personally believe that everyone is working through something, some of us more than others. The desire to be happier, healthier, and live a fuller life. 
 
Self-care is the mindset, activities, practices and habits we bring to bear against our stress, unhappiness, illness, depression and many more negative emotions.

Self-care is about giving ourselves relief when we feel overwhelmed, or once we get good at it, before we get to overwhelm. To care for yourself, you need to know your needs and seek them out. The first thing to remember about self-care is that it is not indulgent.

Everyone uses the analogy of putting on your oxygen mask before helping another on a plane, and yet we don’t often believe that self-care is equally important, it is your oxygen mask, it allows you to be able to do more for others and be more alive.
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Healing with Creativity can be done in many different ways and we will explore a lot of them through different classes and workshops. Here are some key points

Creativity enhances self-knowledge and self-expression.
When we’re creating, we are making decisions about what we like. What colors appeal to us? Which shapes we are drawn to? What textures do we enjoy? What words do we prefer? You may think you don’t have any opinions on these questions, but you do! To create is to make choices; to make choices necessitates paying attention to our inner selves as we assess which elements do and do not please us. 

Not only are we tuning in to ourselves when we create, but we also are expressing ourselves by making an external representation of our internal world.

Self-knowledge and self-expression are particularly important for people living with chronic illness.  Chronic illness changes our identity: The person we become living with an illness is different from the person...

What’s a little rain among artists?

Friday it sprinkled on and off all day, but no worries I had a tent. Many of the artists without a tent left as soon as the first rain started.
Saturday it was cloudy but no rain all day which was excellent, so I did not have to pack up a wet tent.

Sunday, usually the best sales day I was so sick I could not get out of bed, I missed the whole day. What I found out later was that it poured at the Art Walk (torrential downpour) all day. At home we only had one afternoon shower, quite heavy, but not as bad as across the river. So even though I was very sad, I was also glad because packing up soaking wet tent and gear and then spending 2 days drying everything out is not the funnest way to do things.

Soul Creative
We have wrapped up the first ever (beta course) Soul Creative and boy did I learn a lot… and it seems they did too.

8 intensive weeks of healing through creativity.

The ladies will tell you we worked hard, maybe too hard. I am looking at expanding the program as they all thought it was a lot in 8 weeks.

But, did I ever see transformation in these women. Everyone had different things they were working through, but they came together and supported each other and did the work.

I am looking at another program in the fall, dates are being confirmed.

I am also currently looking for space to hold a one day workshop Soul Creator, a step into the intensive online program Soul Creative.

I should have all dates confirmed in the next couple of weeks.

Art Walk
July 5-7, I will be at the Edmonton Art Walk. Look for me on 105 st (near Chapters). I will have the Installation piece “Power and oppression” with me, along with a lot of new art for sale.

It has been months of new...

Do you journal?

Is it something you do every day, once in a while, when you have an issue you need to work through?

Have you ever wondered why people including the likes of Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, and Sara Blakely would spend so much of their precious time writing things that will never be seen by another soul?

Because journaling is a process, not an end result. We journal to work through things, to remember things, to give validation to things for ourselves.

Researchers have found that regular journaling can be used to train our attention and strengthen neural pathways.

Reflective writing has also been shown to improve decision making and critical thinking.Journals have proven to be invaluable tools for examining past experiences, evaluating our own actions, and drawing insights for encountering future challenges.

According to Dr. James Pennebaker, an expert in the field of expressive writing, to get the best results from journaling, it was recommended that you:

• Forget about...

I have always been one to create for a reason, something to sell, something to gift, something to decorate with, something that was needed.

Recently as I have been reworking through my own course Soul Creative due to my own health issues, I have been creating for the purpose of creation. I didn’t even really start off creating to heal, I really only had something that I needed to get out of me.

The first piece I have created is part of my new series is called ‘Power & oppression’ it is my take on the last 50+ years of women, or the feminine. The treatment, the expectations, the juxtaposition of those expectations. Every aspect of this piece has been very thoughtfully created.

The colours I chose, the angles, the medium, the application, the placement, whether it is painted, attached, transferred or written. Every bit of this piece was intentional.

As I worked through this piece it brought up a lot of emotion, a lot of it was anger, and as I worked through my...