5 Ways to Create a Peace of Art!

A few projects/exercises you can try on your own:

1. Make an Illustration Inside a Heart:-

Use a heart as a pattern (enlarge and print the image with this post, if you like), and fill in the different parts of the heart with images and designs related to the emotions you are feeling right now.

2. Draw or Paint a Mountain and a Valley:-

Let the mountain represent times you were happy, and the valley those times when you were sad. Include specific images related to those events.

3. Make a Mandala:-

Mandala is a Sanskrit word that can be loosely translated to mean “circle.” Versions of mandalas are found in many religious traditions, including Hindu, Buddhist, and Native American. In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be used to help focus attention, as a spiritual teaching tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation.  One analogy would be to consider the making of a mandala to be the artistic equivalent of walking a labyrinth. We’ll definitely need to explore mandalas at greater length in a future post. In the meantime, here’s a link to some mandala patterns that may be helpful.

4. Make a Drawing or Painting Related to a Quote You Like:-

Using one of the quotes we posted earlier about Resilience and the Triumph of the Human Spirit or another quotation that you particularly like, take the words of wisdom from someone you admire and turn them into something visually inspiring.

5. Work Collaboratively:-

Everything is better when it is shared with a friend or loved one. Get together with a partner and collaborate on one of the above ideas or another project that will provide comfort.

Group Activities!

Here is a list of ideas that I have employed at various times in a mental health setting for groups of adults, children, and teens.

1.  Fill in the Story:-

Find and print pictures of scenes from plays, movies or tv shows in which there are several characters pictured together in the middle of the story (not posing for the camera and smiling).  Each participant chooses a picture and writes the following:

Names and ages for everyone in the picture.

Name of the main character

Main character' greatest wish, greatest fear, best quality and worst quality

Setting of the scene

Background to the scene: what has happened before the moment pictured?

Write the conclusion of the story and draw, color, or paint the final scene of the story.

2.  Ants and Tigers:-

Discussion: What are the qualities of ants? (i.e. small, teamwork, defined roles, coordination)  What are the qualities of tigers? (i.e. solitary, acts on its own impulse, big and powerful)  Are there times it is better to be like an ant? A tiger?  Are there times it is worse to be like an ant?  A tiger?  Divide your paper in half, and label one side "Ants" and one side "Tiger."   On the ant side, draw yourself as an ant in a situation in which you remember that you behaved like an ant.  On the tiger side, draw yourself as a tiger in a situation in which you remember that you behaved like a tiger.  (Few people feel confident in their ability to draw tigers.  Encourage participants to take risks, use their erasers, and be nonjudgmental of their work.)

3.  Four Elements Of You:-

Discussion: Passion gives us the will to live and gives shape to our lives. 

Fold your paper into four sections.  Label each section, The Earth of Me, The Air of Me, The Fire of Me, and The Water of Me.  Use image and color to express your passion in life as symbolized by the four elements. 

4.  Tank of Gas:-

Discussion: Even with great talents, someone with low self-esteem can't get very far.  It would be like having a nice car without any gas.  On the other hand, some people who have physical limitations have achieved great things due to their self-confidence.

Make two columns on a piece of paper.  On one column, list the areas of your life that you feel confident about, and on the other column, list the areas of life that you feel insecure about; i.e. academics, work, appearance, creativity, making friends, etc.  Count the number of items listed in each column and write the total at the bottom of each list.  Subtract the Insecure total from the Confident total: that is how much gas you have left in your tank.  On another piece of paper, make a visual affirmation of your ability to improve your confidence and self-acceptance in areas of your life that you are currently insecure about.

5.  God Grant Me the Serenity:-

Discuss the quote, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can't change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. 

Make two lists, "The things I can change" and "The things I can't change."  On each side, list the things you can and can't change in your life.  On another sheet of paper, draw how your life would look after you successfuly changed the things on your list, "The things I can change." 

6.  Gratitude and Wishes:-

Draw, paint, or color a tree, including its roots and branches, by creating intricate patterns that become more complex as they get farther from the tree's trunk.  Add words or glue pieces of paper shaped like rocks in the soil at the roots to represent things you are grateful for in your life.  Add words or glue pieces of paper shaped like leaves in the branches to represent things you wish for in life.  Discussion: Why is gratitude at our roots and our wishes in our branches?

7.  Holistic Health:-

Discussion: What is a healthy mind? A healthy heart? A healthy body?  A healthy spirit?

Divide your paper diagonally into four triangles.  Fill each triangle with color, words, and images that represent what a healthy mind, heart, body, and spirit is for you. 

8.  How Does This Serve Me?:-

Write down a common emotional difficulty you have in life, such as depression or anger.  Make a list of ways that feeling is serving you in your life.  For example "Depression serves to express my grief, protect me from failure, gets me attention, and makes people leave me alone."  "Anger allows me to feel powerful and in control."  Make another list of some alternative ways of getting those needs met.

Fold a large paper into three sections.  Using magazine images, make a collage for each section, entitled, "My feeling," "How it serves me," and "Alternatives."   

9.  Daily Schedule:-

Make a schedule of your daily routine.  Add into your schedule one activity to improve each of the following: mental health, emotional health, physical health, and spiritual health.  For example, "On my walk to school, I will try to think positive about my day." "I will spend a few moments in prayer or meditation before I go to sleep."  "I will do some yoga while I watch tv at night."  Decorate your schedule with markers, designs, and glitter so it looks attractive to you.  Take it home and tape it someplace you will see it daily.

10.  Spirit:-

Identify a spiritual power that you believe in, and write it in the middle of your paper using special lettering, i.e. God, Spirit, Nature, Love, etc.  Using color and image, depict six qualities of the spiritual power in a circle around the word, such as "All-knowing," "Healing," or "Unconditional Love."  Add a border and background color to tie the images together.

7 Tips for Mind-Body Balance!

One of the guiding principles of mind-body medicine is the interconnection of all things, including the mind, the body, and the environment in which we live. Each of us is an inseparable part of an infinite field of intelligence, and in this very moment, with every breath, we are exchanging millions of atoms with the universe.

From this holistic perspective, health isn’t merely the absence of disease or symptoms; it is a state of optimal well being, vitality, and wholeness.  We are healthy when we’re able to fully digest everything we take in, extracting what is nourishing and eliminating whatever doesn’t serve us. This includes our food, our relationships, our jobs, and all our life experiences. Illness, in contrast, develops when there is a disruption ― a blockage in the flow of energy and information in our body mind. Symptoms and sickness are the body’s signal that we need to restore balance, eliminate whatever is causing the blockages, and reestablish the healthy flow of intelligence.

The Mind-Body Connection:- 

Since the body and mind are inextricably connected, every time we have a thought, we set off a cascade of cellular reactions in our nervous system that influence all the molecules in our body. Our cells are constantly observing our thoughts and being changed by them.

Each day at the Chopra Center, we see guests who reinforce our view that our thoughts and choices and experiences influence our tendency to be healthy or become ill. A man in a toxic work environment has incapacitating headaches that don’t respond to multiple medications. A woman decides she will no longer accept her boyfriend’s demeaning behavior, and her debilitating panic attacks “mysteriously” subside.

Of course, this is not to say that all illnesses are “caused” by our thoughts. The relationship between the mind and body is complex, and sometimes things happen at a physical level for which we don’t have a plausible explanation. We have to acknowledge that we may have an inherent tendency for health or imbalance, and in some cases, genetic inheritance is the major factor underlying an illness. At the same time, we have amazing potential to heal and transform ourselves through our thoughts, perceptions, and choices. The body is a magnificent network of intelligence, capable of far more than current medical science can explain.

Cultivating Balance

Establishing a healthy dialogue between our thoughts and our molecules helps us shift from imbalance to balance. And when we’re in an optimal state of dynamic balance, we naturally tend to listen to our body with love and reverence and make choices that support balance, happiness, and well being. The following seven mind-body prescriptions will help you create this positive feedback loop:

1:-Take time each day to quiet your mind and meditate:-
Meditation is one of the most powerful tools for restoring balance to our mind and body. In meditation, you experience a state of restful awareness in which your body is resting deeply while your mind is awake though quiet. In the silence of awareness, the mind lets go of old patterns of thinking and feeling and learns to heal itself. Scientific research on meditation is accelerating with the growing awareness of meditation’s numerous benefits, including a decrease in hypertension, heart disease, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and addictive behaviors.

2:-Each day eat a healthy diet that includes the six Ayurvedic tastes and a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables:-

Next to breathing, eating is our most vital bodily function. To create a healthy body and mind, our food must be nourishing. Ideal nutrition comes from consuming a variety of foods that are appropriately prepared and eaten with awareness.
A simple way to make sure that you are getting a balanced diet is to include the six tastes (sweet, salty, sour, pungent, bitter, and astringent) in each meal. The typical American diet tends to be dominated by the sweet, sour, and salty tastes (the main flavors of a hamburger). We do need these tastes, but they can lower metabolism especially if eaten in excess.

The pungent, bitter, and astringent tastes, on the other hand, are anti-inflammatory and increase metabolism. These tastes are found in food such as radishes, ginger, mustard, peppers, spinach, mushrooms, tea, lentils lettuce

In addition to including the six tastes in each meal, focus on eating a variety of fresh and freshly prepared foods, while eliminating or at least limiting items that are canned, frozen, microwaved, or highly processed. These are “dead” foods that weaken health and accelerate aging.

3:-Move your body: Engage in daily exercise.

Regular exercise offers incredible benefits for your body and mind. Drs. William Evans and Irwin Rosenberg from Tufts University have documented the powerful effect of exercise on many of the bio markers of aging, including muscle mass, strength, aerobic capacity, bone density, and cholesterol.
Not only does exercise keep the body young, but it also keeps the mind vital and promotes emotional well being.
A complete fitness program includes exercises to develop flexibility, cardiovascular conditioning, and strength training.Strength training.Find an aerobic activity that you enjoy and will be able to three to four times each week for twenty to thirty minutes. After your body is warmed up, spend five to ten minutes stretching. Be sure to include strength training in your program to systematically exercise the major muscle groups of your body. The key is to start off slowly, find physical activities you like, and do them regularly. You will be surprised how quickly you increase your endurance and enthusiasm for moving and breathing.

4:-Take time for restful sleep:-

Restful sleep is essential key to having health and vital energy. When you're well-rested, you can approach stressful situations more calmly, yet sleep is so often neglected or under
emphasized. There is even a tendency for people to boast about how little sleep they can get by on. In reality, over time, inadequate sleep disrupts the body’s innate balance, weakens our immune system, contributes to weight gain and depression, and speeds up the aging process.
Human beings generally need between six and eight hours of restful sleep each night. Restful sleep means that you’re not using pharmaceuticals or alcohol to get to sleep but that you’re drifting off easily once you turn off the light and are sleeping soundly through the night. If you feel energetic and vibrant when you wake up, you had a night of restful sleep. If you feel tired and unenthusiastic, you haven’t had restful sleep.You can get the highest quality sleep by keeping your sleep cycles in tune with the rhythms of the universe, known as circadian rhythms. At the Chopra Center, we find that if people can commit to a consistent sleep ritual, they can usually retrain their mind to experience healthy sleep patterns.

5:-Release emotional toxins:-

Many of us harbor emotional toxicity in the form of unprocessed anger, hurt or disappointment. This unprocessed residue from the past contributes to toxicity in our body and needs to be eliminated. You can begin by asking yourself, “What am I holding onto from the past that is no longer serving me in the present?”
Once you have identified what you want to release, spend some time journaling about how your life will be different when you change. Then you can do a specific releasing ritual that declares to yourself and to the world that you are letting go of whatever it is you’ve been holding on to. If you need more help in this area, consider attending the Healing the Heart workshop at the Chopra Center. In a nurturing, supportive environment, you will be guided intensive, loving process to release emotional pain and then fill the newly created space in your heart with love and self-nurturing behaviors.

6:-Cultivate loving relationships.

Enjoy a good belly-laugh at least once a day.
From the scientific perspective, laughter is an elegant mind-body phenomenon that reduces the production of stress hormones and boosts the immune system. Researchers in Japan found that people with rheumatoid arthritis who watched “rakugo” or comic storytelling experienced a significant decrease in their pain and stress hormone levels as well as an increase in two immune-enhancing

Group Activities!

Here is a list of ideas that I have employed at various times in a mental health setting for groups of adults, children, and teens.

1.:- Lifeline:-
 (adapted from a standard Expressive Therapies activity I learned at Lesley University)

On a piece of paper, make two points on the opposite ends of the paper, one labeled "birth" and the other labeled "now."  Draw a line between the two points.  Identify at least three high points and three low points in your life and graph them according to your age (horizontally) and according to the feelings in the experience (vertically).  Low points will be below your lifeline and high points will be above your lifeline.  Connect the points with lines making a zig-zag line.  Share the events with the group and the group responds with cheers, applause, and praise on the high points and boos and words of encouragement at the low points.  If participant doesn't feel comfortable sharing details of their lives, they can simply say, "Age 6, high point." 

2:-  Inside - Outside Bags/ Boxes:-
 (standard Expressive Therapies activity used at Lesley University)

Decorate a bag or box with images and words on the outside to represent the qualities you show to the world.  Decorate the inside of the bag or box with images and words that represent the inner qualities that are hidden to most people. 

3.:- Feeling Code Collage:- 
 (learned from my art therapy supervisor, Susan La Mantia)

Take one sheet of paper and draw and color an image to represent various feelings, such as happy, sad, mad, scared, embarrassment, love, peace, crazy, bored, etc.  Label each image with the feeling.  Participants can also choose feelings to add to the list.   Encourage participants to use creativity; i.e. "happy" might first make you think of a smiley face, but it could also be like a purple and green spiral or a puppy.  On a second sheet of paper, use the feeling code to make another drawing in which the images can be made bigger, smaller, repeated, overlapped, or arranged in a unique relationship to other images.  Title the new drawing and discuss. 

4:- Cooling My Hot Spots:-

Using a pre-printed picture of a human silhouette, use color and image to represent feelings of anger or emotional pain on the place of the body associated with the feelings, i.e. black pit in the stomach, red squiggles on the fists wanting to punch, etc.  Draw a cooling image and phrase beside each of the hot spots, i.e. a waterfall with the words, "Let go," or music notes with the words, "Don't let other people get you down."

5:-  Three Animals:- 
  (adapted from a game I used to play with friends - I have no idea where we learned it from.)

On a sheet of paper, write the name of your favorite animal and three qualities you like about that animal; i.e. cheetah: sad, caring, and shy.  Next, write the name of your second favorite animals with three qualities, and finally, your third favorite and its three qualities.  Consider the possibility that the first animal represents how you want others to see you, the second animal represents how people actually see you, and the third animal represents who you really are.  (Reading them aloud with their meanings with the group can be quite humorous.)  Next, draw, color, or paint a mixed breed animal with the three animals you chose, such as a creature with a cheetah head, a mouse body, and a fish tail.  Add a habitat, food, family and friends for this animal.

6:-Relationship Needs:-

Select a magazine picture to represent you and glue it to the middle of a large piece of paper.  Select magazine pictures to represent the six most important people in your life and glue them in a circle around you.  Draw a line connecting each of the people to the picture of you.  On the top of each line, write a word or phrase about what you need from that person.  Under each line, write a word or phrase about what that person needs from you.

7:-  Wise Puppet:-

Using craft materials, create a puppet of a real or imagined character that represents wisdom, such as a grandfather or Yoda.  Each person enacts a skit with their puppet in which the participant asks the puppet for advice about something in life.  Participants should use a special voice for their puppet characters and keep the conversation with their puppet going as long as possible.

8:- Good and Bad Mandalas:-

Discussion: The world has happy and sad aspects, but sometimes negative events can lead to positive events.  Consider the possibility that the negative and positive events are in some kind of harmony and that there is a larger order of goodness.  Draw, color, or paint a mandala that includes both happy and sad things in life, intertwined with each other, in a balanced and colorful harmony; i.e. gravestones next to blossoming trees, broken hearts next to rainbows, thief next to a policeman, etc.

9:- Treasure Map:-

On a piece of paper, label one corner, "The beginning" and another corner, "Success."  Draw a windy path between the two points.  Using collage materials, create stations along the path with creative titles, such as "Crossing the desert of loneliness," "Forgiveness and letting go," "Climbing the mountain of determination," "Resting in the shade of a caring friend," etc.

10:- Affirmation Poster:-

Think of a sentence or expression that makes you feel better when you are depressed/ angry/ anxious.  Make a large poster of the saying using glitter, favorite colors, and/or images to put on your wall; i.e. "This will pass." or "You're worth whatever it takes." 

Art Therapy Techniques To Help You De-Stress

Art therapy is a form of therapy that encourages creativity and self-expression as vehicles to reduce stress, improve self-esteem, increase awareness and help remedy trauma. While many other forms of therapy depend on verbal language to express feelings and overcome personal obstacles, art therapy allows for other, more abstract forms of communication. This tactic makes room for elements of the subconscious that perhaps are not yet ready or able to be verbalized come to the surface.

You do not have to be an artist to enjoy the benefits of art therapy. In fact, most of the exercises rely not on the final product you create but on the therapeutic, meditative ritual of the creative process. If you're intrigued by the process of relaxation through artistic imagination, we've compiled a starter kit to get you on your way.

The following 10 suggestions are simple ways to explore your inner creative voice while turning off the negative influences that so often get in the way. They may not all work for you, but hopefully one or more of the following techniques will serve as the artistic equivalent of a long, hot bath.

1. Design a postcard you don't intend to send:-

Whether it's a love note to someone you're not ready to confess your feelings to, or an angry rant you know is better left unsaid, sometimes enumerating all the details helps deflate the issue at hand. While writing the text can be therapeutic in its own right, designing the postcard gives even more value to the object. It also allows you to activate different portions of your brain while relaxing in a manner similar to coloring in a coloring book. Once you toss that signed and sealed letter in the trash (or tuck it away in a drawer), you'll find its message has lost some of its power.

2. Cut and paste a painting to create a collage:-

Create a painting on a material like paper or cardboard. When you're finished, cut or tear it up. Then use the pieces as building blocks for a new artwork -- a collage. See how your original artwork transforms into something new and exciting, something unpredictable. This exercise illuminates the close proximity between creation and destruction, encouraging us to take risks to push ourselves creatively and in other aspects of life

3. Build an altar to a loved one:-

Take inspiration from folk art and create an altar honoring a unique relationship between you and another person, living or not. Decorate the shrine with photographs, letters and relics of memorable times spent together, as well as new art objects you've created in their honor. Anything can become artistic material, from gifts you've exchanged to a candy wrapper you know your subject would love. Building a totem to another person awakens memories and creates a physical manifestation of a relationship that can provide comfort in tough times.

4. Draw in total darkness:-

So much of the stress we experience when making art comes from the judgments and criticism that seem unavoidable every step of the way. Try creating artwork in total darkness to make art free from that inner art critic inside your head. (Think of it as a form of blind contour drawing.) You're suddenly freed up to create lines, shapes and patterns simply because you feel like you should. When you turn back on the lights, we suspect you'll be surprised by what you find.

5. Watercolor your bodily state:-

Lie down and close your eyes. Visualize your body as you breathe in and out. Try to imagine your breath as a particular color as it enters your body, another color as it exits. What do you see? Draw an outline of a body on a large sheet of paper, and inside, create a watercolor based on your bodily state. Think about what these colors mean to you, where they are densest, where they are most opaque. Think of this as the most relaxing self-portrait you'll ever create.

6. Create a Zentangle-inspired creation:-

Zentangle is a drawing method invented by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, designed to make drawing meditative and accessible to all. To learn the official method you must be taught by a Zentangle Teacher, but you can recreate the basic idea on your own. Use a piece of paper, cut into a 3.5" square piece, and draw a freehand border around the edge in light pencil. Then use your pencil to draw a curved line or squiggle within the border, called a "string."

Now switch to a pen and begin drawing a "tangle," a series of patterns and shapes around your "string" and voila! You got yourself a Zentangle. The process is designed to encourage deliberate, ritual creation and allow room for human error -- no erasing, that's against the rules. Traditional Zentangles are always black and white but we fully support experimenting with color. The entire process shouldn't take more than 15 minutes, and can be repeated whenever you feel the urge. Keep some 3.5" squares handy so you can always create when inspiration strikes.

7. Produce a permission slip

Think of the societal and self-imposed pressures you feel on a day-to-day basis, the personal traits you see as faults, the natural slips you see as errors. Choose one of these things and give yourself, in ornamental detail, permission to do just that. Turning one simple defeat into an accomplishment can minimize feelings of self-hatred, allowing you to achieve more of your important goals. Remember, it's an art project, so make it pretty.

8. 'Write' a found poem 

Don't consider yourself a poet? Let someone else do the hard part of coming up with the words by grabbing your material from old books, magazines, newspapers or even letters. Cut out words that jump out at or inspire you. Collage your found materials just as you would a visual collage. You can have a topic or story in mind at the beginning, or just get started and see where your word collaging takes you.

9. Craft a mark-making tool unique to you

Instead of spending the majority of your time on an actual painting, why not focus a little of that attention on crafting an alternative paintbrush all your own? You can make a mark-making tool out of nearly anything, whether it's a row of toothpicks (glued to a cardboard base) and dipped in paint, or a DIY paintbrush made from pom-poms and yarn. When you finally get around to actually making a piece with your new tool, you will have relinquished some of your artistic control to your distinct artistic medium, which, of course, is a work of art in itself.

10. Make a forgiveness box

If there is a certain person -- including yourself -- you don't want to harbor negative emotions toward any longer, try making him or her a forgiveness box. Decorate a small box with soothing images and words that can be either specific to an individual or catered to your desired inner state. You can write the person's name on a slip of paper and include it in the box if preferred, and the name can be removed and exchanged if needed. The act of making the box will bring up happy memories of whomever the box is for, as well as help you physically work toward a place of forgiveness.

Healing Mind Live in Group Activities!

Here is a list of ideas that I have employed at various times in a mental health setting for groups of adults, children, and teens.

1. Lighthouse:-

Visualization: You are lost at sea on a stormy night.  You see a glimmer of light leading you to land.  If you row hard, you can make it.  Someone waits for you with a warm meal, dry clothes, and a place to rest. 

Draw, color, or paint an image of a lighthouse as a source of guidance in your life.  Depict yourself somewhere in the image, either in a boat on the water, in the lighthouse, etc.  Add words to represent your sources of guidance in life, i.e. faith, family, hope. 

2.  Joyful Memory:-

Everyone shares the most joyful memory that comes to mind.  Each person directs the scene, casting group members in the various roles, including him or herself.  Participant watches the scene and comments on the feelings and memories that come up.

3.  Good and Evil:-
 (This one seems complex at first but once everyone gets it, it's a very fun and powerful activity.)

Clients take six strips of paper each.  Write three Negative Messages or beliefs on three of the paper strips; i.e. You're dumb, you're ugly, etc.  Write three Powerful, Positive Responses to the messages on the other three paper strips; i.e. I have confidence in my abilities.  I'm proud of the way I look. 

Form two rows of three standing opposite each other.  Let participants choose if they want to be in the "Good" row or the "Evil" row.  A participant gives one of his Negative Messages to each person in the "Evil" row.  He gives the corresponding Powerful, Positive Response paper to the person in the "Good" row that is facing the "Evil" side.  The participant stands between the first pair as they read the messages on the sheets and try to influence the participant using ad lib sentences.  The "Evil" person extends her arm out to block the participant from passing. 

e.g. Evil: "You're really dumb.  You are always so slow.  Why don't you ever understand anything?"  Good: "I'm proud of my abilities.  I may not be perfect, but I'm exactly who I need to be."  Participant listens to the two sides and finally chooses the "Good" side by repeating the Powerful Positive Response and pushing past the "Evil" person's arm block.  Participant repeats process with next pair until finished with all three pairs.  Repeat for each person. 

4. Friendship Mural:-

Big banner: "A true friend is someone who..."

Clients fill the mural with images and words that complete this sentence. 

5.  Resilience:-

Draw, color, or paint an image of a being in nature that survives in a harsh environment: a flower in a sidewalk; a fish at the bottom of the ocean; a creature in the desert. 

6.  Violence:-

Discuss quote from Elie Wiesel: "Violence is a form of communication for a person who fails to find words"  

 Participants complete the following sentences for a journal activity:

Violence happens because...

Someone who is violent toward others is trying to...

Someone who is violent toward himself is trying to...

Someone I have trouble communicating with is...

What I really need is....

What I wish people would understand about me is...

7.  Powerful Ally:-

Think of a person or character, real or imaginary, who is powerful, strong, or wise.  Remember a time you felt alone, scared, out of control, or helpless.  Imagine that the Powerful Person is there with you during the experience, either offering help or just being with you.  Participants enact the memories with the Powerful Person present in the scene.  Each participant casts the needed players in the scene and instruct the players how to enact the various characters' actions.  Client plays herself in the scene.  

8.  Inner Child:-

Draw yourself as a child on your paper.  Add images and words to give this child everything that it needs, including a supportive nurturing parent. 

9.  Purpose in Life;- 
   (adapted from an activity used in the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium)

Fold paper into three sections.  In the first section, list your gifts, strengths, talents, including abilities and personal qualities.  In the third section, list problems in the world that are concerning to you, such as child abuse, animal abuse, unemployment, etc.  In the middle section, use creativity to devise at least three ways to use your gifts in the first section to solve problems in the third section.  Draw and color an image of one of these ideas as if it has already happened and succeeded in solving the problem.   

10.  My Relationship with:-

Select a magazine image for yourself and another person with whom you have conflict or difficulty.  Glue each image on opposite sides of the paper.  Draw arrows from the other person to yourself and write words above each arrow to indicate the disagreeable actions of the other person.  Draw a protective wall between you and that person using bricks, laser shields, or any kind of imaginary protective device that believably prevents the disagreeable actions from harming you.  Now safe from harm, add images, words, and colors around the picture of the other person to depict your wish for their healing, growth, and peace.  Write your prayers or hopes that they will receive what they need to be happy.  Add images, words, and colors around the picture of yourself to describe what goals and values you will pursue once you are healed from the negative impacts of this relationship.

Balance Your Mind, Body & Soul!!

Here is a list of 15 simple things to consider incorporating into your healthy routine to help balance your mind, body, and spirit.

1. Exercise - Find an exercise you enjoy and start doing it regularly.

2. Be grateful - Stop to think about the things you have going for you  and  appreciate them.

3. Get plenty of sleep - Sleep is regenerative for your body. The more sleep you get the better you will perform the next day.

4. Breathe deeply - Whenever you think about it stop and take a deep breath. Over time this will become a healthy habit.

5. Install a shower filter - Chlorine is a poison. You don't want to inhale it or absorb it through your skin while showering.

6. Ground yourself - Literally. Plant your bare feet on the earth as often as possible.

7. Eat organic - Chemicals are killing pests on the crops. They are not good for you either.

8. Do more yoga - Great for the body and mind. Mind Body Green readers know the importance of this.

9. Smile more - It feels great :)

10. Spend more time with loved ones - In our busy lives we need to make time for the people who matter to us most.

11. Live your passion - Do more of what you love.

12. Meditate - Set some time aside each day to rest your mind.

13. Drink clean water - Get a filtration system for your drinking water. Fluoride is not good for your body.

14. Get outdoors more - Go for a hike and enjoy nature.

15. Eat plenty of greens - Dark leafy greens are rich in vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll. They help alkalize the body.

Slowly start incorporating these ideas into your daily routine and see how they positively impact your overall health.