How to help unleash the therapeutic powers of creativity

Creativity has such an important role in society and I don’t think people realise how therapeutic it can actually be. When you are doing something creative, you are allowing your mind to switch off for that moment in time while you are focusing purely on the present, nothing else. Whether it is through, drawing, painting, dancing, singing, playing an instrument… whatever creative outlet you choose, that time that you decide to give yourself is so beneficial to your mind and soul.

I would like to share some tips below on how you too can benefit from the healing powers of creativity.

How you can help unleash the therapeutic powers of creativity

Choose something that you are passionate about

When you do something that you truly love it can fill you with so much happiness, you literally get lost with what you are creating. So find a topic that is close to your heart, mine is art, but the possibilities are endless with subjects to choose from. A good way of finding something you are passionate about is to ask yourself, what did you like doing as a child? What activities truly made you happy?

Take some time out now and again to create just for you

I do this a few times a year where everything gets pushed to the backburner for a day or two and I literally throw paint on a canvas. It is so important to take some time out just for you now and again, it really does help. We are all very busy in this day and age, but I cannot stress how important it is to allow yourself this time. It helps rid negativity and anxiety and balances your energy out on to a more level plane.

Keep things simple

To truly enjoy the therapeutic process of creativity, don’t over think things. You are not creating your next masterpiece… you are simply having fun. If it turns out awful, who cares, just enjoy the time you have given yourself to be creative. With the workshops I ran some children were not comfortable with drawing, so I had a load of colouring sheets on hand too of some designs. The colouring in seemed to be just as beneficial to the children as creating the designs.

Get people involved in group activities

By far the best and most therapeutic form for me personally, is when I actually go out and interact with people. Whether it is at a school reading, at a painting party or at workshops, all of them fill me with so much joy. Children are so easy to please, as long as you are willing to spend time with them, encourage them and listen, that is all they need to have a happy experience. By seeing other people happy, it makes you happy. I was on a complete high after two days of interacting with children and being creative with them.

You can create groups to suit your creative outlet, volunteer with organizations, run a club… so many options. Hanging out with like minded individuals will feed your soul.

Create from the heart

Listen to what your heart is telling you, if you are feeling sad and blue, or angry then express that in your chosen creative outlet. By releasing what is within, you will feel so much lighter and your heart less heavy. Likewise if you are on a high then channel that into your creation and you will most probably fall in love with what you have created. It’s amazing how different moods can effect the outcome, but the main thing to get the therapeutic benefits, is to go with what’s in the heart, don’t think just do.

Being creative has always been a massive part of my life and always will be. Some people are naturally gifted in this area but everyone, and I mean everyone can draw. Just because your level of drawing skills goes as far as stick men, it does not mean that there is no creativity in you. It does make me sad when people say things like, “I can’t draw” or “I am rubbish at art”. You do not need to be an artist to benefit from the therapeutic powers of creativity.

Creativity allows us to embrace our inner child, a quality I believe we should all embrace with open arms. To see life through the eyes of a child is truly the best way to make the most of your life. It is no wonder that so many creatives are big kids at heart. Life can be difficult at times and it is so easy to get sucked into the seriousness of being a grown up, but taking up a creative pass time allows you to find that playful side to you.

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”-Pablo Picasso

All forms of creativity is incredibly therapeutic and it helped me through a bad time in my life. I still rely on it to this day along with meditation to get me through dark spells. When things get too much as they tend to do at times, I literally throw paint on a canvas; this is usually when my darker pieces get painted. It works every time though, I literally feel a weight lifted, and I am able to approach things with a fresh head after.

This year I want to explore the therapeutic side of creativity more, by using everything that I have learned over the years to help others. My first step is to work with children and to see how art benefits them. I ran my first children’s workshops last weekend on creating mandala designs for my new business venture Artypeace. The great thing about these designs are that they are so easy to do yet look quite complicated. It also turns out that a mandala is the symbol used in hinduhism and budhism to assist during meditation... my angels did a great job sending that little nugget into my head, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect subject for my workshops.  

I had the most amazing weekend hanging out with kids of all ages. There were so many different personalities, you had the very confident children, the cheeky ones, the shy and the quiet ones. Some kids would come in and just want to sit with me, have a natter and colour in, others just wanted to zone out with their creations. I cannot tell you how rewarding it was to see all these different personalities and age groups get stuck in and really enjoy what they were doing. Some children were with me for hours and the whole experience is one I will never forget.

I heard a lot of “I can’t draw” and the look on their faces after I guided them with creating their own mandala was priceless. I can’t wait to do more events to help children appreciate creativity more. The dream eventually is to study art therapy to help people on a  deeper level, but that will require much studying and time so I am really not sure how that will pan out. For now I am just having fun with it all and learning from each experience. The main thing that did stand out was how beneficial creating something is for children, I already knew how it has helped me as a grown up.

Every one of us can find at least one creative outlet, the tricky part is making the time to utilise it. I guarantee though, if you do let your inner child out to have a play once in a while, you will grow to love that side of you.

Do you use your creative hobby as a form of healing? If so what works for you? Please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments below.

Much love to you all.

Namaste

-X-

How I Beat The Blues Through Meditation and Energy Healing

We all go through the dreaded D word at some point in our lives and it really isn't a pleasant experience. Everyone has their own battles to fight and depression affects us all in some form or another. I am hoping this post will bring comfort to those currently going through it and to reassure you that these phases are only temporary and the blues can be beaten. This is what is working for me…

I am usually a very upbeat and positive person, but I have struggled in the past with depression. I suffered a bad spell in my late teens that lasted about a year or so and then last year I seemed to be attacked by it again.

What causes it? A whole manner of things, but for me personally the root cause seems to be from a huge insecurity complex that I have battled with for years. Last year we had some big changes, a very complicated house move, a family health scare. I took on way too much work in the terms of illustration work on top of all the other things I have to juggle, and there were lots of other incidents that contributed to my mental state. I completely lost myself and started turning into a different person. I was very depressed, I suffered panic attacks, I was over stressed and generally a right miserable git. I was consumed by so many negative qualities, self loathing, bitterness, anger, jelousy, the feeling that everyone didn’t like me and I was not worth anything. These are all traits I am strongly against so as you can imagine the whole thing was rather disturbing. I retreated from the world and from people, I was even contemplating anti depressants… something I am dead against using but that is how low I felt. 

Depression is a horrible thing to go through and I know many of us have felt like this at some point in our lives. I have had the odd spell now and again but nothing to this extent. It is not something that you can easily snap out of and you just feel like you are wandering about under a permanent dark cloud. I was desperate to get the old me back and was looking into all sorts of ways to try and get rid of all the negativity that seemed to be around me. I started to read blogs about depression and ways to combat it, without resorting to drugs. It was through Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts where I was eventually guided towards meditation, specifically energy healing. Well what can I say…my mind has been blown! I literally feel reborn, I only wanted to  find my old self again but it has gone beyond this, not only have I found me again, I have found the “true” me. I have learned to change my mindset which has put me at peace with everything and I now have a clear vision of what path I am heading towards. It’s all very exciting and I am embracing this self discovery and spiritual journey with open arms. 

What is energy healing?

Well put very simply… we are all made up of energy and when your energy is unbalanced it can have a huge affect on your emotions and mental well being. By changing your mindset you can get rid of all these blocks and shift the energy so that you are more balanced. Energy Healing is a broad term for any therapy that stimulates the energy flow in or around the human body to restore balance on all levels, thereby enabling the physical body to heal itself. Basically clearing blocks and interferences from the biofield. By balancing this energy you will eradicate all negative feelings, you will start to feel good about yourself, people will want to be around you and good things start happening without you even trying. 

How can you shift this energy?

The key… meditation. I have been meditating every day now for the past two months using the methods of Jerry Sargeant aka The Facilitator Click here for website His energy healing is quoted as being the most powerful form of energy healing currently out there, even healers using other methods have said that this “star magic” is more powerful than any other form of practice that they have tried. Jerry has kindly agreed to do an interview for me next month so I shall get him to explain in more detail about this form of healing in the next blog post.

So  I started by signing up to Jerrys newsletter where I was sent an 11 day audio clip for a half hr meditation that you had to do either standing or sitting for 11 days. I probably didn’t choose the best time to do this as it was literally over the festive period but I didn’t use that as an excuse not to do them. This first step was crucial to do as it teaches you to love yourself. Now I must admit I initially found the concept of loving yourself a tad odd, it sounded so narcissistic, but it really does work! As you can imagine, when you are not feeling very good about yourself to learn to love yourself was a struggle and I found these sessions extremely powerful and very emotional. After a few days I started to notice things really changing, my worries melted away, I became much happier, all negative thoughts disappeared. However  I also had a few side effects that are natural with the process of acceptance. Mine were extreme lethargy, loss of appetite, the feeling that I wasn’t in my body, suddenly being very aware of your surroundings and seeing things differently, tingling in my hands and head, feeling very emotional but not in a sad way. If you have just started out with energy healing and experience anything like this, please know that you aren’t going mad, it is completely natural. That phase only lasted  a week, I have now fully accepted what has happened / is happening and feel on top of the world. I probably found it more hard going due to the bad place I was in to begin with, you might well not have any of these experiences. 

Anyway I did that and then moved to a 21 day transform your life session, we will see how that pans out. There are loads of videos you can choose from on Jerry’s you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/JerrySargeantML/videos , not just meditation clips but also videos on how to live the best life you can. They are very motivational and empowering, I just love his approach to life. Thanks to these sessions I now know what I need to do with my life, it is like I have found the missing piece to my puzzle. It will take time to put things in place but a whole new world has opened up for me that I want to explore. I will continue down this “healing” path and I have taken a huge leap out of my comfort zone and will be going to one of Jerry’s worskshops next weekend to understand it all more. I have also had my first reiki session and will be looking into learning this for use on friends and family. Art therapy is another thing I am being guided towards. Art will always be a big part of my life and I have always wanted to do something more with it. I believe this is the way forward for me and am currently putting my plans into action… exciting stuff.

The past month has been such an eye opener and I have been reading non stop about energy healing, mindfulness and spiritual awakenings. It has been a huge moment of self discovery for me and I can’t wait to see how this all evolves. I am hoping by blogging about my experience it might spur others that are going through a bad time to reach out and try this for themselves, just to get them back on a happy plane. I know there is a lot of skepticism out there surrounding this way of life and many people won’t touch this concept with a bargepole but it works! Absolutely anyone can do this, you just need to let go and try it, what harm can it do? Half an hr every day of lying there and listening to someone is a small sacrifice for how you will feel after. I was very skeptical and really wasn’t expecting anything, all I wanted was to be happy again. Well it has gone way beyond that, it’s amazing. I haven’t felt the feelings from last year since I started this and my heart is bursting with love, such a lovely feeling.  

The biggest change I have seen apart from the happy business is that people are entering my life and things are happening that all seem to be key to where I am guided to go. It is all so spooky but great things are happening behind the scenes. It is amazing how differently people react to you after you have changed your mind set. By learning to love myself and to let go of absolutely every little worry and negative thought good things are starting to happen. I have had situations at work that should have really ticked me off, the usual monthly hormonal joys, a couple of full moons and I still I haven’t felt low… that really is quite something. Last year I would have a bad spell at least once a week and at one point it seemed to go on forever. 

On top of meditation I am also following the reiki principles. I take  a moment day and night to say these to myself, thinking about each one and making sure my mind is at peace before I move to the next one. It really does help you start the day on a good footing. 

For today I will: 

Not be angry 

Will not worry 

Will be grateful

Will be diligent in my work

Will be kind to others 

Off course things still niggle me, I am not a super hero now ha ha, but I can tell when my thoughts are spiraling and I am able to nip them in the bud so that I remain balanced. The other day I could feel old emotions start coming up and I went to have  a lie down for 15 minutes and repeated the reiki principles in my mind while focusing on all the energy in my body….it sorted me right out.

I hope these posts will help some people out there. I am throwing caution to the wind with speaking so openly about this. I am aware that some will question all of this but if my writing can help just one person through a bad time then it is worth it. 

Have you had a spiritual awakening or had experiences with energy healing? How did it change your life? I would love to hear more. Also have you battled with depression? If so what methods helped you beat the blues?

Much love to you all 

Namaste 

Animania Meets Critterish Allsorts - We Learn About Animals and the Healing Power of Pet Therapy

Me and Stoosh

As mentioned in my previous post Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts I decided earlier this year to sponsor Critterish Allsorts through my new book Animania. Well last month we actually went to visit Dale and his critters to learn more about the animals and the organization. We had the best day ever and learned so much. It will be a day that none of us will forget in a hurry.

We were introduced to every one of the critters and had a cuddle with a few too. What amazed me was how all of them were more than happy being handled by complete strangers. It just shows how much time and commitment Dale puts into looking after and caring for his animals.

I wanted to explain in more detail what this organization is about, so here is an interview with the man himself.

Interview with Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts

How long have you been running Critterish Allsorts?

Critterish Allsorts was founded in August 2010 so a little over 5 years

What made you decide to get into pet therapy?

I got the opportunity to work inside a secure psychiatric hospital with people with severe mental health problems (like paranoid schizophrenia, psychosis, severe depression etc) with brain injuries and severe forms of aspergers and autism. I saw the difference my visits made to these people and had psychologists and speech therapists asking how it managed to get the responses it did. The fact I was helping people, well I was facilitating my animals to help people, made me feel very proud and fulfilled. It’s such a great feeling. I decided there and then this was the direction I wanted to follow with Critterish Allsorts rather than the traditional animal man route - this was a really special thing to do. So I set about researching everything I possibly could about pet therapy and realised that nobody else was using the animals I was using in this way, people were just using dogs cats rabbits and horses. That was in 2011, I am now recognised worldwide as a pioneer in the field

How do you become a qualified pet therapy practitioner?

At the time there were no college courses I could attend, no degrees to do, I was the only person doing it in this way with this range of species. I found an online course with the British School of Yoga. It was based around dogs and horses but the course materials and content were excellent. It taught me a lot - the history, techniques, counselling methods etc more importantly it taught me why and how it worked and allowed me to understand exactly what I am doing with my animals. At the same time, I taught the college a lot about using different types of animals in different ways - they were blown away by my assignments and case studies, using skunks and reptiles and insects. I won their student of the year award!! There is now a degree course at a university in Yorkshire, but that too is a distance learning course. A lot of universities teach about my work when students courses touch in animal assisted therapy, and every year I get approached by anywhere up to 30 students who want to do dissertations on my work or come and make academic studies of its effects. That’s a great feeling. I believe I am still the only "animal man"/animal encounter company who is qualified as an animal assisted therapy practitioner. Many companies offer pet therapy, but many give a type of animal assisted activity, they do not practice the therapy side, which has real identifiable and measurable goals. I do both working one to one with patients and mental health professionals, to give measured results to the patients. If it was not a successful treatment there is no way that we would have the contracts that we do with the huge public and private corporations that we do

How many animals make up the Critterish Allsorts team?

Somewhere between 50 and 60 unless the stick insects have babies in which case it can increase by more than a hundred!!

Can you tell us a bit about the healing powers of pet therapy?

There are so many. Animals don’t judge for starters, they expect nothing, they ask no questions. Animals just exude love and thats all that many people need. For psychiatric patients it offers a focus that takes their minds off everything else thats going on, to be able to just sit with their thoughts and feel loved and wanted by another being. The most profound thing I have had a patient tell me came from a paranoid schizophrenic who told me that when he was with my animals all of the voices in his head disappeared and he was free of noise. That made me cry, to think you have done something like that for somebody who has been plagued by voices for decades just blew me away. He was able to have rational lucid conversations with his doctors for the first time. For others its the only session they will attend because it offers them respite from the pressures. Patients who identify with snakes (each person identifies with a different animal as their therapy animal) get 4 dimensions and snakes do wonders for self esteem...imagine feeling really down about yourself and then doing something nobody else is prepared to do. Suddenly you feel like a hero and so good about yourself. I am currently developing a new revolutionary form of animal assisted therapy that will go into territory as yet uncharted but more on that when its developed (thats an exclusive)

What is the most rewarding part about your job?

Seeing what it does for people. When we are educating it’s how it affects the kids. The looks on their faces when they meet and interact with the animals and the interest they take. With the therapy work, its’ just watching in awe at how amazing my animals are, they seem to know what they are there for and act differently in both settings. They make me so proud, and the results that they achieve are phenomenal. Such a satisfying aspect of it. I also love that I am one of the only people in the world doing what I do the way that I do it, it makes me very proud of what I have accomplished. I’ve always said from day 1 that if I won the lotto or for some other reason became a millionaire, I  would continue to do the work but I would do it for free

What future plans do you have for Critterish Allsorts? 

Who knows what the future holds? I have never had a business plan, I just let the universe guide me (try explaining that to a bank manager) but its worked so far. I come into contact with people by chance and they change the direction of my life. I am a completely different person now than I was in 2010...better, more grounded, I have a better understanding of how all sentient beings work, I work personally on a higher plain than I did then (if that makes sense - I don’t mean I’m above anyone but that I understand more about life about what makes me tick and everything else...in the last 5 years I’ve discovered myself), I have also grown with my animals (I am connected spiritually with each and every one of them and we have a true relationship, they are not just my pets, they are my friends, they are my heroes, they are my equals, they are my colleagues, they are me we are one, they speak and I hear – that’s one of the most important and special things that we have and it’s what makes it work so well).....this possibly sounds like a really pretentious answer – it’s not meant to nor is it my intention but its honest. I have no plans for the future I take everything a day at a time, recent events have taught me that lifes too short to plan anything, you just have to live for the now because truthfully tomorrow is of no consequence until tomorrow. Makes living life so easy. I’ve also discovered a spiritual side in the past 6 months that I never realised I had and I am very much in touch with that, and I know from 4 years of believing the universe will see me right, that whenever I am in need the universe will provide (I could cite so many examples of when it has) so long as I lead my life in the right way and think in the right way too (if any of that makes sense)

You are also the author of the life changing book Organic Guniea Pig. Have you ever thought about writing books based on your animals?

Haha...many times Corrina, but I never thought I could write. Then I met Gerry Roberts when I attended one of his talks, completely random decision. Went on my own, took it all in, and got really excited about it. Went away and wrote that book in 3 months !! I am now working on my 2nd book "You Can" which will hopefully inspire people to follow their dreams as I have for the last 5 years - this one is taking me longer to write unfortunately, due to current demands on my time, but its all good it will be written. I also have another 6 which I have titles for. Now that I know how, nothing will stop me !! I love writing.

In terms of writing about my animals....there may be a book about my work at some point.  I did consider writing some kids books about the animals adventures and that would be really kewl, but I had no idea how to do it or how I would illustrate them - Success Skunks has allowed me to become connected with a few children’s authors and illustrators, but I think I'll leave the children’s books to the experts (hint hint!)

I wont write any kids books now, when I had the opportunity the time wasn’t right for me. If someone else wanted to write them, emphasising the great work they do, then that would make me very happy because they deserve the recognition and kids are always so interested in the idea of animal assisted therapy esp in the States. I visited a high school in Virginia last year to take part in a class and debate on the subject with a group of final year students. I became the mentor of the student who organised it all and she graduated with top marks

 ********************************************************

Thank you so much Dale for such a fascinating and insightful interview. I am sure a lot of people will be enlightened and touched by it, I certainly was. I am also a great believer in the power of positive thinking and trying to live your life to it’s full potential despite what life may throw at you. I wonder if anybody else out there can relate to this spiritual side too. Do you ever feel that sometimes your life is mapped out? I do at times, you try and go down one path and then things happen forcing you down another. I see any failure or disappointment (and trust me, I have had a few !) on my part as a stepping stone to something better. I may not be where I want to be right now but I am quite content living in the now, even if it does get hard going at times. There is a lot to smile about and meeting Dale and his critters was an experience that my little brood will never forget.

I can’t explain why I was drawn to help Critterish Allsorts, I had never met Dale before, I hadn't even spoken to him before yet something touched my heart and I wanted to help. People didn’t get why I was doing it and it certainly raised a few eyebrows. I can’t explain it myself, it was never part of my plan… it just felt right and things just slotted into place naturally. Over the last few months I have got to know Dale well and we are very similar with our beliefs and outlook on life. He is one of the nicest and kindest people I know, it’s another example of how some people come into your life for a reason. 

I have no idea where things are going, Like Dale I am leaving it all up to the universe, yes I will work really hard but not a clue where it will take me. I am just looking forward to what other fun opportunities come up. For now I am really looking forward to Animania and Critterish Allsorts first joint school visit in October at my children’s school. I am sure there will be other collaborations between the two of us in the near future. I would love to think one day we can work on an animal book together, watch this space.

Have you had any experiences with pet therapy or using the power of positive thinking? If so I would love to hear them so please do leave a comment below.

You can contact Critterish Allsorts via:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Animania sponsors Critterish Allsorts

I have been itching to announce this and now I can, woohoo! Over the last month I have been liaising with Dale Preece Kelly, founder of Critterish Allsorts about this exciting little partnership.

I have always wanted to give a little back with my work and now that I am self publishing Animania it seemed like the ideal opportunity to do just that. 

I was introduced to Critterish Allsorts last year through Paul Cody (co Founder of Success Skunks). I was fascinated with the concept behind pet therapy , so I watched a tv documentary based on one of Dale’s visits to a nursing home to give me a better understanding of what he does. I was so touched to see the joy that his visit and the animals bought to these people, their faces literally lit up as soon as they held the animals, it was so lovely to watch. I have since been following his work and seen him go all around the country visiting the elderly and people with mental health issues not to mention the numerous school visits to educate children on the importance of animals. I think what he does and what his organizations stands for needs to be shared with as many people as possible so I wanted to help. I have decided to donate half of all e-book sales to Critterish Allsorts to help Dale continue to grow the business and reach as many people as possible.

To learn more about the organization and the powerful healing properties of pet therapy then contact via:

Website Facebook Twitter

This is a video clip of the episode I watched...

I am planning to visit Dale this August, with my son Dylan at his soon to be Critterish Cottage, I will share our experience with you all. We are both very excited to be able to meet these 65 plus critters that he lives with and I thought this would be a perfect bonding experience for me and Dyls. He is going to high school in September so my baby boy is entering that next chapter of his life and turning into a little man, bring on those mood swings!

I am so pleased to be a part of this and I hope I am able to help, as they say every penny helps, so let’s hope Animania can pull a few in for them. 

Please show some support by following Dale’s work and you can now also purchase the e-book of Animania for $2.99 or £ 1.99 at:

Buy E-Book at Amazon UK 

Buy E-book at Amazon US

Dale is also co founder along with Paul Cody of Success Skunks. Stoosh and Skittles the skunks are the mascots for this group and they interview people who Plant Passion in Kids for the Arts, Music, Writing, Science, Business, Sports & Life! I was honored to have been interviewed myself last year. You can read the interview here:

Interview with Success Skunks

Another great group who’s aim is to educate and inspire children. You can follow success skunks at: Website Facebook Twitter