ART opens the Heart to Healing and Hope

Art has been therapy and meditation for me for as long as I can remember but only recently has the true gift of that process revealed itself in a tangible and progressive way as “Intuitive” art.

Corla McG
Corla McGillivray, WILL Team/Community, Guest Blogger

I now believe that we house our challenges, our questions and our answers all in one even though we feel clouded and confused by the vortex of activity that gyrates around us constantly.

Our educational system does not educate to reflect on our inner knowing or to trust our guidance systems and we are lead to believe that everything outside of ourselves holds greater wisdom. Every one of us gets shaken out of our stupor at some point, or perhaps at several points in our life depending on how slow we are to awaken and learn this fact.

The pivotal hinge point; when I found my ART as the most important tool that was able to guide my release and the means to work my way through issues as they arise, happened when I lost a son to a car accident in 1998.  In hindsight I am not sure how I moved through those endless days as the shock shook me to my core and caused me to question my every rational thought.  I turned to art to escape and draw inward in silent reflection and to shut off my pain for a moment.

Flash forward to today and I am aware that I still feel most connected to my spiritual essence when I use my art meditations to let my MUSE communicate with me like a prayer made visible.

I try to “dance in the present moment” as much as possible and to give gratitude for my gifts and experiences because I believe that this was my choice in this life.

Please note that I am careful not to suggest or make promises that this process will unfold for others in the same way but from research I have read there is substantial documentation to offer hope for art therapy as a tool by which people can thrive under adversity and situational stress.

My How:

For my own practice I purchased a small little art journal that was 3 x 5” and it tucks away in my purse with a fine point marker for when I need to “unplug”. I find opportunity to unplug by doodling or doing Zentangle© waiting in doctor’s appointments, sitting in coffee shops, riding on long road trips, sitting in airports… our fast paced lifestyle offers many such moments.  From this I discovered that I could take my background art and play into it with my fine point markers to meditate and find my soul’s responses.

Your How:

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sample image with meditative doodling

Recently I facilitated a shift in the process so that people who believe they are artistically challenged could participate and gain the same experience by using my preprinted background images as a playground to draw randomly and to exercise their creative juices. I call it a Reverse Colouring Book © and you can see one of the backgrounds and a sample of what one of my test participants saw in their meditation. You can learn more detail about it through my website.

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Reverse Colouring Book © available at blurb.com

If you want a preview of the Reverse Colouring Book © which has multiple images to work on for your own meditations, you can find it here.

 

Corla McGillivray, WILL Team/Community Member, Guest Blogger

Corla McGillivray’s art

 

 

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