I have gone through a grief period over the past three years. Actually the grief started to grow five years ago, when my father was getting more and more ill. I cared for him and my mother visiting daily, helping a little, taking him for a walk. He crossed the threshold now already three years ago. Sense of time has completely changed for me. It is as though I live on the "inside" of time now. Mother and I grieved together for the past three years. Now she too passed on to the other side a few months ago.
Art therapy helps with grief. Sharing and expressing experiences, feelings, thoughts and questions through the art work can often be much more impacting than just words.
Using moist clay I sculpted my mother holding my father up as best as she could while he tried to get out of bed. It instilled in me great love and compassion for how they functioned together, making each day the best they could. The modelling of the clay brought me into a reality of their life, and at the same time a perspective of myself as an "outsider" with my own feelings about them and their situation of suffering and glory.
Painting with watercolor is also very helpful. I painted one day the blue stormy sea and sky. Blue can bring out a sense of longing.
My father loved it.
Now that they both are gone, I am so fortunate to provide art therapy with people in hospice. The sharing is intense, the poems ring out truth and understanding. A deep sense of belonging can come about by doing art therapy in a group, and one on one with the therapist.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Reiki healing
I love to give Reiki healing energy to people, animals and plants and even buildings.
You can send Reiki to anything, anyone. With Usui Reiki level II you will have received attunement to Reiki energy and symbols that enhance the power of the energy transmitted so to speak. The practitioner is only the vehicle, the channel through which the healing energy flows and makes its way to where it is requested or better yet, it finds its way to where it is needed. With level II you can send Reiki over a distance, even across the ocean to the other side of the world!
And believe me, it works. I have done it,and I have received it.
It is true, one person can be a more effective channel than another. I love it when people get up from the treatment table and say:" It's gone,( i.e. the discomfort, the stress, or even serious back pain) I am fine! Thank you".
I send Reiki to the studio before doing an art therapy session. It seems to help the work. At the very least, it fills the space with good energy and prepares my mind and soul to give all my best intentions and attention to the work.
Try a Reiki treatment, and perhaps even try a course level1, you will see what I mean, perhaps.
Best of luck
Rinske
You can send Reiki to anything, anyone. With Usui Reiki level II you will have received attunement to Reiki energy and symbols that enhance the power of the energy transmitted so to speak. The practitioner is only the vehicle, the channel through which the healing energy flows and makes its way to where it is requested or better yet, it finds its way to where it is needed. With level II you can send Reiki over a distance, even across the ocean to the other side of the world!
And believe me, it works. I have done it,and I have received it.
It is true, one person can be a more effective channel than another. I love it when people get up from the treatment table and say:" It's gone,( i.e. the discomfort, the stress, or even serious back pain) I am fine! Thank you".
I send Reiki to the studio before doing an art therapy session. It seems to help the work. At the very least, it fills the space with good energy and prepares my mind and soul to give all my best intentions and attention to the work.
Try a Reiki treatment, and perhaps even try a course level1, you will see what I mean, perhaps.
Best of luck
Rinske
Saturday, February 26, 2011
peach blossom
A timely exercise to paint the color peach blossom. This color is commonly known as pink. Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe called this color purpur, which is not the same as purple.
Peachblossom is the color of the future. We are now in the process of developing the capacities to recognize the color more in our surroundings, in nature, the sky and even people. For instance, we blush if we experience certain emotions or the color disappears from our complexion with other emotions.
Peachblossom is a color that appears as a light that is overcoming darkness. It is a color that represents the unknown. Stepping into the unknown with the desire to overcome darkness takes great courage. I find we see this happening right now with the people in the Middle East and African countries that desire freedom for humanity in their countries.
The painting exercise can be quite simple, or you can choose the more elaborate way whichever way you choose to do it.
You use watercolor paint and paper and a 1" bristle brush.
The easiest way to do it is to mix carmine red and white in a little jar and bring it on to the paper, allowing the layers to overlap. Gently bring in the brush strokes horizontally from the top left to the right in one large stroke. Fill the entire paper going down with the same gentle brush strokes.
The more laborious but also more profound experience of peach blossom as the culmination of colors is as follows: start with covering the entire sheet with carmine red, then cover the red with aquamarine blue, followed by painting over this violet with black, then bring in white and finish with the tiniest bit of yellow.
You have moved through all the primary colors and the black into the white and yellow which represents the light.
Good luck, and let me know if it worked for you.
Peace.
Peachblossom is the color of the future. We are now in the process of developing the capacities to recognize the color more in our surroundings, in nature, the sky and even people. For instance, we blush if we experience certain emotions or the color disappears from our complexion with other emotions.
Peachblossom is a color that appears as a light that is overcoming darkness. It is a color that represents the unknown. Stepping into the unknown with the desire to overcome darkness takes great courage. I find we see this happening right now with the people in the Middle East and African countries that desire freedom for humanity in their countries.
The painting exercise can be quite simple, or you can choose the more elaborate way whichever way you choose to do it.
You use watercolor paint and paper and a 1" bristle brush.
The easiest way to do it is to mix carmine red and white in a little jar and bring it on to the paper, allowing the layers to overlap. Gently bring in the brush strokes horizontally from the top left to the right in one large stroke. Fill the entire paper going down with the same gentle brush strokes.
The more laborious but also more profound experience of peach blossom as the culmination of colors is as follows: start with covering the entire sheet with carmine red, then cover the red with aquamarine blue, followed by painting over this violet with black, then bring in white and finish with the tiniest bit of yellow.
You have moved through all the primary colors and the black into the white and yellow which represents the light.
Good luck, and let me know if it worked for you.
Peace.
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