Art and Healing

Hey Friends,
On the heals of Memorial Day and watching the people in the cemeteries etc. it was a real eye opener again of what we are trying to accomplish here. We need to be dedicated to what we do and get the word out to others. We are all hurting and under stress one way or another.
Stress is the direct cause of over 40 major diseases as of today.
Below I have copied a few sentences from a special book of mine.:
Title: Art and Healing, author is Barbara Ganim. copyright 1998.. ISBN 0-609-80316-6. I don't know if it is still in print or not. But if you want to dig deep into this subject it is a great book and just one of several I have studied over the years and apply.
Read it and meditate upon what is said here by her, a medical professional.
Happy Trails until we meet again.....Ricky

"Through the ages, artists have known intuitively what others are just beginning to discover: creating a visual image on paper or canvas, with clay or through any art medium, can produce physical and emotional benefits for both the creator and the viewer. And now thanks to extensive research in the fields of split-brain functioning, visualization, and psychoneuroimmunology (study of the emotions on the immune system), we are finnally able to understand how this powerful healing tool can be used by anyone, even those without the slightest trace of artistic ability, to create profound changes in their lives and activate healing at the deepest levels. Psychotherapists, medical caregivers, and educators have rediscovered art as a way to heal the emotional wounds created by our internal feeling of fragmentation as well as by our sense of separation from others. Medical science has revealed that when we heal our emotional woulds, we also heal the wounds of the body.
As a result, art is being used successfully to reduce the physiological stress that causes immune system dysfunction by enabling patients to connect with negative, painful, or fearful emotions that are known to trigger that stress. Once these emotions have been accessed through guided visualization, the emotions can then be released by expressing them in imagistic form through drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage." These are just a few ways. "The mere act of releasing these emotions through art enables the immune system to return to a state of full functioning."

Journaling

How many of you have gotten your new journal books or gotten the old one out and dusted it off? This site is about the healing process that comes from journaling and doodling.
It's about you not me so start writing every thought that comes to your mind about the situation you are going through.
This site is about going thru cancer.....that can mean a whole host of different people:cancer survivors, caregivers, nurses, parents, spouses, children, pastors, neighbors and etc.. So get on board and start commenting on anyone of these blogs I have written. We need your comments to get this thing kick started. Please sign up to be a follower on the follower box and tell others. About the easiest way to get to this blog is to remember my web site and punch the correct button, Ricky's Blog. There are other buttons of my art and another where I am a correspondent for Sketching in Nature Blog.
Share with us what you may be writing about. These journals are not the same as a diary where you might confess to murder........... it's expressing your feelings and thoughts about the cancer situation and your part in it. The healing comes from the writing process.
Please remember some of you may never written before like this but please trust me and start.
I will try to get some more sketches up for those of you who want to embellish your pages with calligraphy, pictures or try your hand at doodling. Ask an art question if need be that's what this is all about.............Expressing ourselves and gaining healing and a community of like kind friends.