Expressive Arts

I am intrigued with what I call the creative connection: The enhancing interplay among movement, art, writing, and sound. Moving with awareness, for example, opens us to profound feelings which can then be expressed in color, line, or form. When we write immediately after the movement and art, a free flow emerges in the process, sometimes resulting in poetry. The creative connection process that I have developed stimulates such self-exploration. It is like the unfolding petals of a lotus blossom on a summer day. In the warm, accepting environment, the petals open to reveal the flower's inner essence. As our feelings are tapped, they become a resource for further self-understanding and creativity. We gently allow ourselves to awaken to new possibilities. With each opening we may deepen our experience. When we reach our inner core, we find our connection to all beings. We create to connect to our inner source and to reach out to the world and the universe. Natalie Rogers, The Creative Connection.

Journal writing

Creative Writing is an effective tool in helping us to know ourselves, especially our inner selves. A journal is a book in which a person freely expresses what ever comes to mind or heart or spirit- without sorting out, arranging, or worrying about the choice of words or grammatical correctness. It is a tool that is personal. It reflects joys, struggles, questions, pains and hopes as they are experienced . A journal is most helpful in reflecting what is important; it is an honest record of one’s human journey.   

Healing

Pat Moran founded Deliver the Dream, http://www.deliverthedream.org, to provide families from throughout the Southeast with an escape from the emotional and physical stress of coping with serious illness or crisis. Retreat weekends, which were started in the fall of 2002, are free to participants and incorporate traditional recreational activities like hiking, swimming, fishing, rock wall climbing, with therapeutic workshops, peer-to-peer discussion groups and expressive arts and music activities.