Art for Healing

Hi Francis and welcome! Yes yes yes! It is so wonderful to use our art to cope, be mindful of our creative process and experience freedom from the worries that come with chronic illness.
Your art is beautiful! I love using nature as part of creating! I haven’t pressed flowers but have used them in gel printing.
I believe without my art I would have met you at the bottom of that cliff!!! But thankfully we are still here!
If you want You can check out my art on my web site and my youtube channel . I’d love to see more of yours if you have social media.
So glad to connect!
Maggie
Maggiehartart.com
Maggiehartart youtube

My name is Miguel Obregon and I have an esophageal stricture and I can only drink very small sips of water. What is the best treatment for what I have? What should I do?

Hi Miguel,
I’m not familiar with this condition but there is a Digestive System Support Group that discusses a lot of esophageal issues. This discussion you posted in is Art For Healing. If no one responds to your comment with help I would post it in the Digestive System Group. Just type in the search for that group and you will find it.
All the best!!
Maggie

@marucita Miguel, as Maggie suggested, here is the link for you to pose your question at:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/digestive-gastrointestinal-problems/
Within that support group is this older thread about esophogeal stricture: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/esophageal-problem/

May I welcome you to May Clinic Connect. I hope you will look at these two links, and find some help there.
Ginger

As much as I like looking at artwork, I love creating it and getting my brain into that creative mode. I'm sure there is some happy brain chemistry going on behind the scenes. There is just something visually intriguing and exciting about pushing paint around, and I usually feel so much better when I am painting or doing anything creative.

Does anyone else use creativity as a way to stay positive and improve mental health? I know we are all not painters, and there are many ways to express yourself. Where do you find the inspiration to create, and how does that change your life and well being? Please join the conversation and share.

Jennifer

Yes, I really believe there is "happy brain chemistry" going on when creating, whether painting, writing, quilting, photography, woodworking... My friend says she had to wait until she was 70 to realize her lifelong dream of being an artist full time. She always pursued artistic things while raising a family, farming and working in town, and later travelling full time with her husband for 7 years, workcamping along the way to afford life on the road. When he passed away suddenly here 10 years ago, after a brief time of seeking, she jumped into oil painting and watercolor, teaching others as she perfected her craft. Almost 2 years ago, she was able to add an art studio alongside her tiny home, and her skill has exploded.
She is now nicely supplementing her limited income with sales of her art, local decorators have discovered her work, and a local hospital is looking at creating murals from her paintings.
All of this while she deals with many health issues. She is one of the most joyful and positive people in my life. Under her eye, I am working hard to develop my watercolor techniques and composition skills and refine my eye for color.
When I pick up my brush, my pens, or my needle and thread I forget that I hurt, that I am short of breath, sometimes I even forget to eat...When I can't sleep at night, I think through ideas for my projects, or solve problems with works in process.
Sue

Art is Everywhere.

The newborn discovers it in the soft warm skin of the mother...and later as it opens its eyes into this magic we call life.

We feel art's presence with eyes, and ears for musical sounds; and smells and tastes (I have to admit KFC's colonel was a gift to humanity for his artsy cosine), and yes in the movements of the people and animals how they soar or swim or stalk. Do I not see it in the way my cat stretches its body or the way it puts its one paw over the other and cradles its face in them? It's a crushing sight for me to witness ... even as its body too is a senior's stage as is mine.

And of course so much of art is in the books of literature and science and the knowledge that then WE Make from these treasures. This is crucial for the art to heal us. We need to be able to connect with it at a level that is liberating and thus make us whole -- and healed in some little way. My healing is mostly from classical music, tho Bob Morley's songs that I heard yesterday has it's own forlorn beauty.

So folks Let's Feast on this abundant bountiful healing energy that surrounds us!