What I Learned About Myself During Quarantine

In 1997, Dr. Marsha Nelson and I founded the Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification Training for professionals wanting to use my methods in education, medical and mental health work, corporate development, and more. We now have a community of 80 active professionals worldwide who are sharing the work in many languages. Our guest blogger is José Garcia, a gifted healer who is currently in training and is a candidate for certification. His training began in October of 2019 and one of our requirements is regular journaling using my books. Most of the journal prompts include drawing and/or writing with the non-dominant hand. As you will see, dealing with life in the time of COIVD-19 has intensified and deepened his experience of the work.

What I Learned About Myself During Quarantine

by José Garcia

I have known about Creative Journal Expressive Arts (CJEA) for a very long time, approximately 20 years plus. About a year ago last spring 2019, I mentioned to my friend, Marsha Nelson, that I was ready to take the Intensive Week of CJEA in October 2019. I felt it was the right time to commit.

As to my recollection of myself as a child, I have always been very intuitive. And I have been aware of self-help. It has been my motto most of my life. I have read and studied psychology books throughout my life. I have read all kinds of self-help books. And I have talked to people from all walks of life. By nature I am a people person.

I had an opportunity to go to a private college, but I never received a degree. I did have the life and work experience to qualify for the program. Doing CJEA gave me the idea to get this certification as an alternative to a degree in psychology. Little did I know what was to come early in the year 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic swept the world. It changed my way of life. The state of California required us to shelter at home with this pandemic. That changed everything for me. I had to reset my life for a big change in my schedule.

As I was doing my journaling, I asked how the coronavirus would affect me. I took this opportunity to evaluate myself. What did I want to accomplish while being in quarantine? I needed to take advantage of knowing myself better with the CJEA program and discover how to achieve my goals for the future.

I have learned so much through all the reading and assignments and exercises after all these months in quarantine. I have noticed my growth in self-discipline and also in my development of good studying habits. Education has always been important to me.

Without all the books from Lucia Capacchione, PhD, ATR, REAT, I would not have been able to accomplish my dreams and goals for my future life. Being familiar with Lucia's work, I came to realize that Lucia and Marsha have created something special with this CJEA program. All the studies and research Lucia has done have been very effective and one-of-a-kind methods. In my own words, journaling with both the dominant and non-dominant hands is a powerful tool for the art of healing.

This is what the coronavirus and the CJEA program have done for me: They have given me the pleasure and opportunity to get what I call my Degree in Education that I never received from college.

José Garcia

Jose12toez@gmail.com

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Lucia

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www.luciac.com
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Awareness through Conversations with a Collage

Jack Jimenez is a candidate for certification in Creative Journal Expressive Arts Method training for professionals. In this post as guest blogger, he shares some powerful journaling he did using collage and Whole-Brain Two-Handed Method dialogues. He gained deep insights into himself, his past, old patterns he has shed and the presence of his Inner Child today. This process of conversing with a collage is a wonderful way to recycle old magazines into vehicles for greater awareness and personal growth.

Awareness through Conversations with a Collage
by Jack Jimenez

I was recently working on an exercise from Lucia Capacchione's book The Art of Emotional Healing regarding expressing your feelings and specifically about Anger - Let It Rip. It's on page 89. I was to do a collage. I found it very interesting that so much in magazines is positive. It is clear that anything perceived as negative and with messy feelings like anger are not covered nearly as much. In addition it seems that male anger/aggression is more socially acceptable than that for females.


I have had a long and painful association with anger. In fact I think the term rage would be more appropriate. I came from a hostile and unsafe alcoholic household. Anger was a common and acceptable form of expression in the home. As I ventured out into the world I learned that I really had to keep it in check to safeguard my people pleasing and caretaking. I tried to contain it as much as possible and would be embarrassed when it exploded out of me.

My work through Creative Journal Expressive Arts surprised me and I came away with a different view of my relationship and how it served me growing up.

I did my collage about anger and then did a dialogue about it. It went as follows:

Dominant hand (DH): How do I feel now?

Non-dominant hand (NDH): Awareness again how much I was impacted by my family of origin issues. It is so driven by fear. I learned survival behavior. I am no longer that child and have so many tools that I don't need anger like I did for so long and how much it saved me when I needed it most!

Jack Jimenez
Life Coach, Grief Recovery Specialist, and Candidate for Certification in Creative Journal Expressive Arts
oldrthndrt@msn.com
Southern California

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Lucia

Let us know what you think of this post in the comments below. Follow us and be updated by email when new blog posts are published.
 
www.luciac.com
www.visioningcoach.org
Order The Power of Your Other Hand (Conari Press 2019) at Amazon.com