unstressing
Creating Brave Retreat at 1440 Multiversity
I am thrilled to be offering this Creating Brave Retreat at 1440 Multiversity, a stunning new center nestled in a magnificent forest of of redwoods just outside Santa Cruz, California. This campus is carefully crafted to nurture, educate and inspire! Bring 2017 to a Close by Gifting Yourself Time Step Outside Your Life Pause to…
Read MoreStarting a Mindful Creativity Practice
Developing a Mindful Creativity Practice assists us in navigating through the uncharted territories of life. When life presents us with unexpected twists and turns, many times we get knocked off our center. Having access to restorative resources keeps us afloat and helps us find our way home. Mindful creativity is one of those avenues, allowing us…
Read MoreHarvest Despacho Giveaway Contest
What is a harvest despacho? Despacho is an Andean amulet-making ceremony, in which the despacho-maker brings various elements into an object and then ritually sends it off. They are traditionally made by Andean shamans for a variety of (often transitional) occasions, from birth rituals to rituals honoring the dead. In a sense, a harvest despacho…
Read MoreDespacho Ceremony: Sacred Creations
A despacho ceremony is an ancient indigenous ritual of the Andean people of Peru. Despacho literally means to ship or dispatch something. Creating a despacho is an intentional, focused sacred ceremony in which an amulet-like bundle is filled with natural, biodegradable ingredients. These ingredients hold symbolic elements that represent the prayerful intentions of the despacho-maker.…
Read MoreCreating Brave’s Nature Mandala Giveaway Contest
What is a Nature Mandala? Mandala, the Sanskrit word for circle, is a universal symbol of balance, wholeness and unity. Healing Icons, and our upcoming eCourse hub Creating Brave, uses them to quiet the constant buzz of our busy lives and distill our focus to the present moment so that each moment is fully lived.…
Read MoreArt as Healing eCourse: Behind the Scenes
In January, it was a glimmer of an idea: Art as Healing: Beginning an eCourse. Creating an art as healing eCourse was an overwhelmingly daunting experience for me but with the help of some talented people, the process was actually invigorating. I want you to meet some of the ones who bolstered my confidence and encouraged this…
Read MoreCommunity Healing: The Monks Are Coming!
A Video Captures Our Story Our community needed healing. Three weeks before the Tibetan monks were to arrive from the Drepung Loseling Monastery, our city was devastated by a”100 year flood.” Extremely heavy rains caused our rivers to overflow, which caused many dams to break, which caused huge devastation throughout our community. Homes were destroyed. Our water…
Read MoreTibetan Inspired Community Art: Mandalas, Talismans and Prayer Flags
Tibetan Inspired Community Art For our 20th anniversary exhibition, Circles of Life: Making Art, Creating Communities of Hope, I wanted to pay tribute to the Tibetan Culture, as they had influenced the design of my creativity practices for at least 15 years. Curious why Tibet? Read our earlier post – Travel Inspiration: Stumbling Across the Tibetan Sacred…
Read MoreArt as Healing Communities of Hope – A 20th Anniversary Exhibit
A Tribute to Creating Hope To mark our 20th art as healing anniversary, I wanted to create something significant, something filled with celebratory hope. Lots of ideas floated around our board of directors meetings. It was a stressful time filled with the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth. First of all, we knew wanted…
Read MoreOur Creativity Manifesto: Rules to Live By
“Care of the soul is quite different in scope from modern notions of psychology and psychotherapy. It isn’t about curing, fixing, changing, adjusting or making healthy, and it isn’t about some idea of perfection or even improvement. It doesn’t look to the future for an ideal, trouble-free existence. Rather it remains patiently in the present,…
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