Mandalas for Restoring Balance

Last month’s explorations took us into the complicated realm of Balance. We throw that word out a lot these days: “I need more balance in my life.” “Strive to maintain a balanced life.” Ruminating over the meaning of balance, our class came up with word associations like equilibrium, stable, controlled, static, rigidity, precise — none of which made us feel very…

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Gratitude in Difficult Times

I recently found this passage about gratitude among Dana Jennings’s reflections in the New York Times on his cancer journey: When you have cancer, when you’re being cut open and radiated and who knows what else, it can take a great effort to be thankful for the gift of the one life that we have been blessed…

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Mandalas for Harvesting Gratitude

How can we remain grateful in turbulent times? How do we keep our hearts open when we are swallowed by fear and anger and chaos and doubt? During our July workshop, Mandalas for Harvesting Gratitude, we used our creative processes to dig into these difficult questions. Mark Nepo, one of my favorite thinkers and poets, provides one eloquent answer: How can we stay awake…

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Releasing Anxieties to Gather Inner Strength

As we continue this summer to explore the art of the mandala – creating within a circle – our practices begin to intertwine. Our first workshop addressed how to release anxiety through the process of intuitive mandala drawing, which we featured in our “Mandalas for Centering Strength” post. During the workshop, we discussed the importance of recognizing…

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Mandalas for Centering Strength

Our latest class gathered at Lexington Medical Center to explore the idea of art making as a form of healing. A few had been outside of cancer treatment for many years but still possessed a nagging fear of a recurrence. Others had just finished treatment. One was heading to Duke University on Friday for exploratory…

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Our Inner Lives

Opening my Gmail this morning, I landed on a message from my daughter containing a link to the article How Not to Be Alone by Jonathan Safran Foer, saying it reminded her of me. I was deeply touched by this gesture, and it reminded me of all the cancer survivors I have worked with and of our…

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Spring Oncology Art and Healing Workshop

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. This spring, stretch into your mind-body-soul connection and join us for our spring oncology art and healing workshop. Finding the Quiet in the Roar: Creating Sanctuary Thursdays, March 14, 21 & 28 and April 4, 11, 18 & 25 11:30am – 1:30pm Our physical world…

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