Visual Language ?

I hope all are well because after another night of glorious rain the air is clean this morning....birds are so loud ........and the grass so full of chlorphyll and water I think the green could almost rub off on me. Oh well that's not all bad. What I really want to do is take my shoes and socks off and walk out in the wet grass just to feel it like a kid again.......ok?
Let's talk Visual Language because medical field has found out that words are a secondary language for us.....you heard it correct.........a secondary language.
Our primary language is visual inner imagery. This is how we communicate inside of ourselves between body and mind.....WHOOF! That's a lot to take in until you meditate on it for a while and then it starts to make sense.
This is why doodling along with journaling gets the inner language into an expressive language (writing and art) that we can start to see what our Holistice self is saying on a daily basis. In other words we are starting to listen to our bodys in a way that can HEAL us!
That's all I'm going to say today because this is very important info to digest and it will take some time.
Praying for each of you and I'm off to journal some and doodle.....are YOU?
Happy trails until we meet again........God bless.

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."

CHOICE

The day is rainy and I've already received 3 inches of rain and lots of hail in just 4 hours. WOW! How gloomy can it get....my healing from cancer, stormy dark afternoon [dark as night], government is going nuts, social security and medicare is going broke, blah blah blah blah blah..........man I am really in the dumps!
Is the above you? STOP IT! You are your own worst enemy! When you are thinking this way your body is putting out enzymes and junk that poisons you and feeds that cancer. Since you have a CHOICE in how you think lets start renewing your mind....this is scriptural...Jesus talks about the renewing of your mind with the truth.
This blog is trying to share the truth with you....if you aren't employing it in your life I and others cannot help you. Journaling gives you an outlet to renew your mind and practice giving your body a BOOST at the same time by being creative. Sound familiar to you?
NOW, on with the same question in other blogs.........have you started writing down your feeling and suggesting a color [see other blogs] to go with it/them? Let's get you to your SUNNY condition faster each time you have a moment, like in the beginning of this blog.
Everyone stews in their own troubles.....this isn't new. BUT it's how long you stay in that condition that we are working on. DON"T dismiss what we are sharing with you. Now get in there and write one sentence or a paragraph. If you want, start by complaining about me and this blog of giving you a stern little push. Remember we love you and have some experience in this area.
A friend of mine has her link on this site. Her name is Chris Beck and is a cancer survivor herself and now dealing with a father who has prostate cancer. Go look at the beautiful art at her sight.
Hopefully Chris will share her story with you someday.
God bless for today. GOD LOVES YOU whether you like or not...John 3:16

Art Tip #3

Hey Friends,
It's another wonderful day.......had rain all night and some wonderful thunder. Thank YOU GOD for another day. Hope you all have started writing and maybe doodling.
In the future we will get into Visual Journaling. The medical field has some books out on this and I will share that info in time. But the tip for today is this.
Take a few minutes before writing and meditate on the day, your feelings, and things that are going on around you. Once this is established in your mind start to write about the most important one and then think of a color you would apply to that situation. Now ask yourself if this situation needs changing and if so, HOW?. Write that down. Having done that HOW do you see how you would feel with it fixed, write those feelings and thoughts. Now what color would it look like to you fixed? Keep this in your mind for any future thoughts toward that situation until it manifests itself changed.
This is what is called sometimes as a paradigm shift others call it visualizing the outcome you want to happen. Either way the release of healing process will start to take place in your mind, spirit and body.
Now get out their and journal and send me your comments.
I do have a separate blog of just my art and some others. That blog is to show art that you can copy style or ask questions specifically art related. Here it is... The Pointed Brush

Art TIp #2

Hey friends, Hope this finds everyone well. Did you do any journaling or doodling lately?
The medical field of art therapy has plenty of proof about journaling and imagery [doodling]. It's proven to be one of the most therapeutic we can do for ourselves.
Finding drawings on cave walls thousands of years old tell us people were using images long before words. It is proven today that images are still more expressive a language than words will ever be. Remember the saying "A picture is worth 1000 words". It's true.
So, what does this mean to you and me? We need to get off our rear ends and get to writing and doodling. Tell others about this or this website and get with the program.
Some say how do I doodle? Start scribbling....scribble the trash can..your coffee mug....a flower...chair..lamp.GO FOR IT!
Others talk about color....well think about it for a minute...umh..We get our colors from our feelings and this is why we doodle...to express your inner thoughts to the outer environment. For instance if I was going to say, 'I feel sunny today', what color do you think I would color my stick person? What about the other stick person you drew and you wrote, 'they are green with envy'. What color would that be??? RIGHT....green. You see out getting in touch with our images can express things so much better than the words sometimes. But the two work well together.
I got my chemo pump off this morning, you know the needle out of my chest. Well, what color do you think I feel right now? RIGHT ON! pretty sunny right now.
So I went out and picked a sprig of Azelea and did a quick ink pen drawing and colored it with watercolor....does it look like I feel? Sunny and all warm and happy inside from my experience this morning? You bet it shows that. This is what we want to do at any given time of our day or week is get it out there so we can HEAL on the inside and help someone else who may go through your experience.
GOD BLESS!

Art and Doodling

Here's a new little sketch of the Missouri River. It's approximately 6" X 8" at the most..
It doesn't take much for a quick sketch once you learn. This happens to be watercolor. Some people like using watercolor and others don't. Try colored pencils, crayolas, or just plain lead pencil. Whatever you find that works for you. There is no right or wrong and no picture is better that someone else...it's just different. Never compare yours to mine or others because our experience is different and just like our handwriting, no two are alike. Now get out there and get with it and leave a comment. God bless.

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.

Daisy of a House

What a day for a daydream.........Rained most of the day and still raining. But God is good so I worked on my journal. Did you work on yours? Have you gotten the material I told you to get? If not, maybe tomorrow.....but get with it soon.
I'm going to show a drawing with watercolor I worked on today. It's approximately 11 X 15". It is an old house outside of town that my wife's great, great grandfather built. Unfortunately the owners are letting it fall in but the character of the house is good for art.
There were daisies in the ditch so I incorporated them into the painting to spruce it up like a bouquet on your table top. Notice there are only the color yellow and the rest are grays and black in pen. It doesn't take much material to make a sketch/painting. It just depends on how far you want to take it.
Please remember to leave your comments and questions. This is a healing process when it comes to the creative process. Go for it. God bless........ Ricky

Beautiful DAY.......Tuesday

What a beautiful around here and I feel a lot better than I have in the past week. I think the diahrhea has let up and hopefully the soreness that comes with it. Its been raining the last couple of days but GOD is good to give us this mild Tuesday...39 degrees waking up and suppose to be 68 in the late afternoon.
Today I must do some of my art, got to make a living, and blog on some other sites. By the way I blog on "Sketching Nature".
You should sign up as a follower of the site or of my spot on there. This would notify you when things are blogged and how professional journaling is done. On that site the correspondents, like myself, are from around the world and it is strictly a nature site. You'll see some of the top artists, naturalist etc in the world on there and go also to there web sites to learn. I need to get to work now. How is your journal doing? God bless your day.

Tips on Journaling

God is so good to us. I woke up this morning and the diahrhea is gone after a week. When you have a stoma [colostomy] you just can't imagine how bad this one thing can affect you. Thank God some of you don't.
So what's the best way to start journaling or the HOW-TO? Get yourself a hardbound sketchbook at Barnes and Noble or one of those book stores. The reason I say sketchbook is the lack of lines it presents. This allows you the freedom to roam on the page if you want to doodle you won't be restricted. Size of this book really doesn't matter because everyone likes something different.
Next is to get an ink pen that won't smear with water. Most don't but double check it with a little spit on the finger. If you like color, grab yourself a small set of colored pencils. They are inexpensive and last a long time. Fun is what it is all about.
Now when you get the material the life change begins. This journal is for you.....unless you care to share. It's not something you use for writing a book but for sharing your world and thoughts through the eyes GOD has given you. Let those pent up feelings or thoughts come out. Example could be......... While sitting in the hospital waiting room describe the people around you or their conversations if it is hearable. Try doodling parts of the room or people. No one expects you to be Rembrandt or Walt Whitman, so go for it. Remember it is the process that is the healing for you and what comes out, if shared, can even heal us.
So today get your materials needed. Maybe take a marker and make it personal to you with your name. You can put stickers on it. I've even seen some that are decopaged and some that have had beautiful dress material glued to them. The sky is the limit........now go forth and have a blessed day. God bless.