Art for Healing

Achieving Mindfulness and calm through creative expression
Hi everyone. I’ve had bronchiectasis for over 30 years and have had 2 lobectomies. I am an artist and a licensed independent clinical social worker. Having worked in medical, psychiatric and private practice settings over my career I am now disabled due to my BE but I continue to want to help others.
I’ve created a series of youtube videos using art as a way to cultivate a state of mindfulness and reduce anxiety. If you are interested in a fun and relaxing creative experience focused on healing through art my channel
I am in no way trying to promote myself here…I am sincere in my own story and struggles with BE and just want to put my experience to use for those that might be uplifted.
Be Well,
Maggie Hart

Welcome @maggiehart. I moved your post about mindfulness and calm through art to this existing discussion:
- Art for Healing https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/art-for-healing/

You'll find that Mayo Clinic Connect members include many accomplished professional and amateur artists who use different forms of art and mediums, like @jenniferhunter @harriethodgson1 @frances007 @artgirl2 @parus @paulalina @ricm58 who also recognize and channel the healing value of art.

You're so right that the making of art - whether you're good at it or not - creates a state of mindfulness and reduces anxiety.

Achieving Mindfulness and calm through creative expression
Hi everyone. I’ve had bronchiectasis for over 30 years and have had 2 lobectomies. I am an artist and a licensed independent clinical social worker. Having worked in medical, psychiatric and private practice settings over my career I am now disabled due to my BE but I continue to want to help others.
I’ve created a series of youtube videos using art as a way to cultivate a state of mindfulness and reduce anxiety. If you are interested in a fun and relaxing creative experience focused on healing through art my channel
I am in no way trying to promote myself here…I am sincere in my own story and struggles with BE and just want to put my experience to use for those that might be uplifted.
Be Well,
Maggie Hart

@harriethodgson1 Wow! I'm so glad you opened this discussion as I've wanted to talk about how important art is for healing and I loved seeing all the art at Mayo. It's kind of like an art museum with some doctor's offices and labs attached and lots more art in the hospitals. I realized that within my own personal experience, I had a lot of resources to help me as a patient. I took my own advice and I used art and music as my therapy to help get past my fears and embrace the surgical treatment that I needed. I am an artist and I was loosing the ability to hold my arms up and control them, and I had worked so hard in my life to achieve that ability. I had long held fears about going through painful tests and surgery, and I was faced with a choice. If my fear made my choices for me, I would have become disabled in a lot of ways, and I would not be able to continue to paint at the level I expected of myself. I also have a biology degree and had worked in research before changing careers to fine art, so I understood medical research that I read, and I understood why I needed spine surgery. When I came to Mayo, I brought one of my own paintings with me to comfort me and give me a place to mentally escape if necessary. I hung it on the wall and looked at it during the nerve tests. I brought it with me when I met my neurosurgeon because I wanted him to understand why getting his help was so important to me. I had already been turned down by 5 surgeons before Mayo because my case was a bit unusual. I brought my camera and asked my surgeon if I could do sketches of him. I told him I needed to like him and this was my way to connect through my art. He liked my art and gladly posed for my camera. I sent him images of my drawings of him. Another painting accompanied me on my surgery day. It was of a trail I had hiked along a creek in Rocky Mountain National Park and I knew it intimately because I had been there and had painted it. Not only did I learn to defeat my biggest fear, but I came through with flying colors. During my recovery, what I wanted to do the most was to paint a portrait of my surgeon, and at one of my follow up appointments, he posed for my camera again and he had a lot of fun doing that. When I came back at my one year follow up, I had a watercolor portrait of him that I painted as a gift. I had to do some rehab to get back my stamina for the physicality of painting. During all of this, music helped me reduce stress and lower my blood pressure. I was measuring it before and after listening to music with deep breathing, and I could drop it significantly. Music also gave my mind a place to go when I was worried. The night before surgery, I was doing my best to loose myself in that painting and the music in my headphones, and in the morning when I met my surgical team I was calm and ready and doing just fine. Coming to Mayo exceeded my expectations and changed my life, and I brought my own creativity as my guide.

@maggiehart I wanted to say hello and welcome you. I found many ways that I could use my own artwork to get me through my fears of major surgery, and to overcome and understand where those fears came from and in doing all that, I deprogrammed my fears. My story is unique in that I was loosing the ability to control my arms and I didn't want to loose my artistic ability that I had worked so hard to achieve, and I needed a surgeon to address the spine problem that was causing it, yet I was very afraid of surgery. I learned how to cope in my self directed art therapy and was completely calm on my surgery day. I am still amazed that I figured out how to do this and that I had this capability within myself. I just needed to believe that I could.

I started talking about it at the beginning of this discussion with this post.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/221700/
Scroll to the next post and there are some pictures.

Jennifer,
This is such an incredible story about your strength and resilience and healing through the power of art. I cried reading your story.
Without my art I don’t know where I’d be. It helped me prepare for my second lobectomy last May. And then enhanced my recovery as I healed.
I’ll never have a normal life but as long as I have my watercolors I’ll cope with less anxiety and more peace.
So glad to connect with you!
Maggie

I have an update to share. When I painted this portrait for Dr. Fogelson, I recorded a video of the creation of this painting. Not everyone shares my passion for watching paint dry... or has that much time because this painting took a month to complete, so I created a multi-camera time lapse version that shows almost all of my process. It made sense to post it as a reply to my post with the images of the painting. It is 39 minutes and set to music. Here is the link. Enjoy!

With gratitude ~ Jennifer Hunter

@harriethodgson1 How exciting! Art therapy (my own) is what helps me. @gailb is taking an oil painting class and has not painted in years. There are places offering art instruction and learning tutorials online that are free. If nothing else they are fun to watch. One does not need a lot of supplies as a box of crayons is a start. Try YouTubing thus. Thank you for sharing about this.

@paulalina I feel the same way. Art is very healing. I am an artist and used my own art as part of my healing as I went through spine surgery at Mayo. We like the same things. I like to kayak and hike, but 3 years ago, I broke my ankle, so I am a bit limited in how much I can do before the ankle complains. I also love horses and own one that I ride. I have been working on paintings and entering shows and when that all clicks, it feels great. What kind of art do you do?