Coping Creatively with COVID-19

Our guest blogger is Betty Rosen, from southern California, a gifted artist, teacher and candidate for certification in Creative Journal Expressive Arts. Like all of us, her life has been impacted by COVID-19. In moments of crisis and stress, she has turned to drawing and writing with the non-dominant hand to receive guidance from her own inner wisdom.

Coping Creatively with COVID-19
by Betty Rosen

I’ve kept some kind of a journal since I was in my teens, writing on colored lined paper to match my moods, sitting in my yellow bean bag chair, headphones on, music blaring. I used leather bound books of the 70’s, often gifts from my Dad. Then I found larger black Art Journals where I pasted ticket stubs, and collaged images of beautiful places I’d hoped to visit, and scribbled out heartbreaks. Later IBM Selectric typewriters were also a fave, and then computers entered our lives. I would journal, eyes closed, tears streaming, getting it all out on paper.

In the early 1980’s I was in a Women’s Studies major at San Francisco State University (SFSU). They actually offered a Creative Journaling class. I’d known other women who had kept journals. Our books held not only secrets and frustrations, but also daily appointments & phone numbers, visions for our future, and designs for a more welcoming society. The creativity and beauty I glimpsed in those journals inspired me to curate a Journal Exhibit: “Sharing Intimacy.” Ten of us took the actual pages out of our journals and mounted them in an exhibition case in the cafeteria at SFSU.

Fast forward through two careers in the Entertainment Business and living in Nashville, Tennessee. I knew I felt another calling. Finding Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, my friend Matt Lindsey and I committed to work this method. Those “morning pages,” pouring out 3 pages of blah, blah, blah daily did the trick for a time. Other exercises in Cameron’s book helped me carve out the time to become an artist and change careers.

My third career has been that of a mosaic artist, art advocate, and teaching artist. Yet it wasn’t until I found Lucia and the non-dominant hand journaling that I can say now I am fully satisfied. I was exposed to her work at a professional development conference on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I heard about her Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification Training (CJEA) just when I was looking for something to augment my work. I wanted something that could enhance and legitimize what I knew intrinsically, experientially: that art-making heals us all.

The CJEA practice is so immediate, so instant, so accessible. My clients, my friends, my family, and I all richly benefit from these processes and experiences. It’s so simple. And I’ve learned from twenty years as a self-taught artist that simple, well, simple is hard. An art practice, for me, is like making a reduction in cooking: distilling ideas, shapes, images, down to lines and patterns.

In 2016 I moved in with my Mom (who is now 84 years old) in a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. I thought it would be a pause while I righted myself during an amicable divorce. It didn’t take long to realize that it was better for my Mom to have someone living with her at this stage in her life. She’d lived there alone since her divorce 26 years ago. It’s a beautiful courtyard building, in classic 1910’s southern California Spanish architectural style, with a terrace and 360 degree view of the city. A building that old has problems and we’ve been trying to solve a water leak for the past few years. More on that later.

I started my CJEA Program with Lucia and ten other candidates in October 2019 near San Luis Obispo, California on the central coast. We were scheduled to meet there again in October 2020 to take our last in-person intensive, graduate, and become certified. But COVID-19 had other plans for us and for our planet. We will now complete the program online in an extended version, graduating in May 2021.

When COVID-19 hit the USA, I took all the precautions recommended by medical experts. I had to repeatedly tell my Mom, who is now suffering from short-term memory loss, that life had changed. With roles reversed, I did what all of us have tried to do protecting ourselves and our most vulnerable loved ones. And then on April 12th, while I was at my art studio a block away, I was alerted that there were workers in the apartment. Unannounced. Without masks. I panicked.

I sequestered my Mom in the apartment and stayed in my studio for three days. That breach of security, of potential contamination, on top of an already stressful life being a caregiver for my Mom, juggling three part-time jobs from Long Beach to Skid Row, and studying to be certified in CJEA methods, sent me over the edge. Fortunately, because of Lucia’s work, I knew exactly what to do.

I turned to Lucia’s book, Drawing Your Stress Away, her draw-it-yourself coloring book, and scribbled it out. Those pages follow:



Sadness & Confusion & Resolve 

With my dominant hand, I wrote all the negative thoughts about why I shouldn’t or couldn’t take action. Often this is where my past pre-CJEA journaling would end. It’d be a safety valve. A vent. But then I’d invite the world to walk all over me or blame myself for events beyond my control.



RE: HOA/ WATER

I'm too high maintenance
Jews always sue
Jews want good deals
Jews want things for free
I should just trust men to handle things
Virus isn't deadly.
I'm overreacting
$ doesn't fix anything
I expect too much
It's too much effort
Nothing will come of it
I will piss people off.
Someone will get fired.
White privilege wants too much. 

This time, with the non-dominant hand writing in green, I wrote from my inner wisdom, the truth within me. The messages from my inner wisdom/non-dominant hand offered immediate relief. This gave me the courage and guidance to take the necessary next steps. The results amaze me each and every time I do this process, and when I witness others do it.



I want my home to be safe

• Mom protected
• Respect in business practices for safety
• honest communication
• time back
• less stress
• water not coming into apt.
• Kim respected (Kim is landlady)
  

I am professional.
I value my & others work
I am a smart capable woman
I am reacting appropriately to this deadly situation.
I am not responsible if someone is fired
I expect what's safe & fair
I'm educated and compassionate
What others think of me is none of my business
Money has value, it would make life easier.

Lucia has said, many times since COVID-19, that her whole life has prepared her for this moment. Now more than ever we all need to boost our immune systems, relieve stress, and nurture ourselves and each other. I'm grateful for access to technology that keeps us connected while we reinvent our lives and shelter in place. I’m exceptionally grateful for the richness of this CJEA work, and look forward to continuing using the method and offering it to others.

Betty Rosen
Practitioner Candidate, graduating CJEA May 2021
Betty is a mosaic artist, community builder, and arts advocate.
www.mosaicalchemy.com

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Lucia

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www.visioningcoach.org
Order The Power of Your Other Hand (Conari Press 2019) at Amazon.com

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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Order The Power of Your Other Hand (Conari Press 2019) at Amazon.com

The Path of the Firefly

Tatiana Naranjo, our guest blogger, is a candidate for certification in Creative Journal Expressive Arts. In keeping with our motto, "You can't take anyone where you have not been yourself," Tatiana keeps a Creative Journal. In her journal pages she works thorough day-to-day problems by drawing and writing using both hands. Here is her contribution to our blog.

The Path of the Firefly 

We are like the fireflies; our true beauty is our inner light. Fireflies in the fields resemble the stars in the sky. 

I have always been fascinated with these beings which seem so insignificant and unattractive in daylight. Only in the deepest, darkest of the night do they reveal their magic. As a child I enjoyed chasing fireflies. I was very inquisitive about these beings which were able to light up without being connected to an artificial source. Their hesitant flight attracted me, and I wanted to grab millions of them to light up my room.

Time passed and with it came many trips, learnings, new experiences, projects, and life landed me in the city. Shortly before graduating as a psychologist, I went to the Amazon. That trip brought one of the most memorable experiences I have had. It was a warm, dark night enveloped by a particularly clear sky in the Amacayacu National Park[1]. Suddenly, a cloud of fireflies resembled the star-populated sky. I had the feeling of floating in the middle of the galaxy. I saw nothing but the fireflies and the stars flickering around me in the heavenly vault.

In my own spiritual quest, the flashback of that magical night often replays. At times I try to give it an explanation, but it is a fleeting memory like the light of the firefly. When I was in times of trouble, when I asked God, the Universe, the Holy Spirit, or my spiritual guide, to give me a light, I then remember these little luminescent beings.

The path to reach this point has been long and productive. I arrived at the creative journals through a process of research, trial, and error. The first time I experienced the healing and therapeutic use of a journal was due to a chronic pain that I had for more than 7 years in my right foot. I refused to take anti-inflammatory painkillers, but every night my last steps were a torture that forced me to give up in tears.

After trying many therapies, exercises, shoe changes and various things, I had a consultation with an orthopedist who offered me two alternatives. The first was to do an Orthodox treatment with medicines or an alternative approach. I chose the second option. According to her calculations with my date of birth, she made a diagram of my body, in which she located each of the Mayan symbols, and told me the significance they had for me. She pointed out emotional difficulties that were related to the symbol. It corresponded with my right foot and its correlation with other points in my body that had also been affected. At the end of the consultation, her prescription was to buy a notebook and keep a diary. She gave me a few guidelines, suggesting that I go to the point in my life where the pain had commenced.

I did my assignment, bought a notebook, started my diary, and after a month, the pain that tormented me so much faded and never came back. I did not contact her again, but my interest in the journaling’s healing effect became an obsession. I read as many books I could find about artistic diaries and journaling; I enrolled in online courses and researched blogs. But I could not find a method, a guide or more information that would enable me to understand how journaling could be a healing element.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears." 
Zen Proverb

“Every casual encounter is an engagement made beforehand.” 
Jorge Luis Borges

After many years and many readings, one day a book came into my hands. The book was "The Creative Journal" by Lucia Capacchione PhD, ATR, REAT[2], which I devoured in one sitting. To each paragraph, I said to myself, “This is what I was looking for!” By coincidence, I read this book on a flight to Santa Fe, NM. I was going to a conference called “The Gathering of the Creatives.” When I arrived and registered at the conference, I received the program. To my surprise, I found out that Dr. Capacchione was scheduled to give one of the lectures! I felt this urge to attend her lecture, as if it were calling me.

That is how I met Lucia Capacchione and learned about her method. I was astonished that in her books and in her lectures, I found the answers I had long sought for. And so, I enrolled, without even questioning it, in the CJEA[3] training course.

Following the instructions of some of the Creative Journaling exercises and writing with my non-dominant hand, I did the following entries of my journal, in which I found the meaning of the firefly:

We all have the light inside 
and when we shine from within, 
we not only show our beauty, 
but we are also beacons for others 
who in the midst of darkness, 
also seek for a light. 

I have spent many days mulling over this proposal, and it was thanks to my Inner Guide that I identified my purpose. My desire is to bring sparks that will help to ignite the interior light of many more people.

The following are examples of my journaling process that show part of my dialog with my Inner Guide.

 

Hi I'm your Creative Self who lives within you and I come out all the time in life to help you see life and its circumstances in color.

I help you find solutions in all the difficulties in your life.

I help you with a high level of imagination and you can see what you hear and read.

I am the voice that speaks to you when you write, when you paint I am always awake and attentive for you.

My Creative Self is like a seed of light that comes out of my interior and transforms into colors that show the beauty of life and my interior. My Creative Self manifests in everything I do and in the solutions I find in life's challenges.

In the center of my being (my trunk) creativity is the white light that forms my core and is dispersed in different facets of my life, filling all of my being and my world with color and energy.

Tatiana Naranjo
Candidate for Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification
Tatiana@germovi.com

[1] A national park located along the Amazon River in the Amazonas Department in southern Colombia. 

[2] Lucia Capacchione PhD, ATR, REAT. Best-selling author of 23 books, including: Recovery of Your Inner Child, The Creative Journal and The Power of Your Other Hand. A Registered Art Therapist and pioneer in Expressive Arts Therapies, she conducts workshops and professional certification training in her innovative methods.

[3] A program for certification to teach and coach others using Dr. Capacchione's Creative Journal Expressive Arts Method.

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Lucia

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www.luciac.com
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Grief Work Using the Non-Dominant Hand

This week’s guest blogger, Elva Villarreal, is a practitioner of Creative Journal Expressive Arts and Visioning® Coaching. After teaching school for many years she became a workshop leader, coach and facilitator of cancer support groups for H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Emotionally), held at McAllen Public Library in McAllen, Texas. After her mother’s death, Elva wrote a book entitled I Am Here, illustrated by artist and CJEA colleague, Lisa Brown. Elva works with professional caregivers, therapists and counselors, and includes non-dominant hand journaling in her workshops.

Grief Work Using the Non-Dominant Hand

I often introduce workshops with movement to Gabrielle Roth’s 5 Rhythms recordings. I usually use selections in which Gabrielle narrates body parts for inspiring spontaneous movement. She also has music covering many moods and allowing for physical expression of feelings. There are no dance steps or instruction in how to move. All movement is improvised in response to the music. We follow this with Dancing on Paper, in which participants scribble out feelings to music with their non-dominant hand using whatever colors feel right to them.

Then I read my book and have the group journal about someone they miss. It could be a loss through death or other kind of separation. They use their non-dominant hand to draw the person. Using their dominant hand, they write the qualities of that person which they love and miss. Then on another sheet, through the non-dominant hand, the other person writes them a letter. Participants then partner up to read each other’s letter to one another.

When working with professional caregivers, I start my workshop with a presentation of concepts of healing through art and writing, and the technique of using the non-dominant hand. I often get left brain questions and discussions about clients such as: "What are the steps to get a client to access the right brain?” “What if a client doesn’t know which color he should choose or what he should draw, and he keeps asking questions for reassurance?” etc., etc. I am able to quiet them down when they do the exercises. That’s when I often see a flood of tears!

Caregivers often have personal losses as well as the deaths of patients or residents in care facilities with whom they have been working. They need the opportunity to process their grief. It is helpful to do this collectively in a group. They also express their grief about other things in their lives such as a recent cancer diagnosis of a loved one, early loss of a parent, “empty nest syndrome,” stress, and a need for peace and balance in life.

These workshops for therapists and counselors highlight the fact that professional caregivers also experience tough things in their personal lives. They too have a need for processing feelings and nurturing themselves. I am reminded of the series of workshops offered by Creative Journal Expressive Arts instructors Vicki Muir and Marsha Nelson for therapists in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I joined this CJEA team to present five days of workshops to different groups of therapists. I also had the privilege of leading a children’s workshop, with Vicki doing a drumming activity at a Children’s Grief Center, while Marsha worked with their parents. We were able to show professionals dealing with their own losses from the hurricane how to care for others while taking care of themselves.

Elva Villarreal
elvavi382@gmail.com

“Use of the non-dominant hand for drawing and writing opens up buried feelings and allows them to be released from the body onto paper. The wisdom and comfort that result provide a powerful support during the grieving process. Furthermore, a practice of journaling during a period of grief is extremely helpful. Grief knows no timetable, so journaling can be done anytime feelings of sadness or missing a loved one come up.” –Lucia Capacchione

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Lucia

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You Can’t Give from an Empty Cup

Non-dominant drawing and journaling is being used for training healthcare professionals with great results. This post illustrates the value of in-service support using these methods. Contributed by Dr. Marsha Nelson, she is also co-founder and supervisor of my Creative Journal Expressive Arts Certification Training Program.

You Can’t Give from an Empty Cup

I have been using the Creative Journal Expressive Arts (CJEA) methods for over 27 years for myself and others. During the past two years I have had the honor of introducing Dr. Lucia Capacchione’s methods to a group of dedicated caregivers at a memory care facility in California’s San Francisco Bay Area. These dedicated caregivers tend to their patient’s needs lovingly and with an extreme amount of patience. This is all well and good, but wait, who offers these caregivers any compassion? As Dr. Capacchione makes abundantly clear, “You can’t give from an empty cup.” The administration of this memory care facility has been VERY supportive of their staff members by inviting me to offer the CJEA tools with their compassionate care-giving staff members.

I have created a caregiver’s stress release program which uses the CJEA activities of clay, mask-making, collage, Dancing on Paper (using markers to scribble their stress out to music), journaling using both the dominant and non-dominant hands and movement activities. Currently, I offer the staff 1 to 1 ½ hours worth of self-care activities quarterly per year. I present Dr. Capacchione’s pioneering technique of using the non-dominant hand to draw and then journal with the drawing using both the dominant and non-dominant hands.

I create a topic for each visit to the memory care facility. I talk about the topic for at least 5 to 6 minutes. It could be the topic of grieving the loss of a patient or loved one. First step is to have them draw a picture of how they felt when they learned one of their patients had died. This is followed by a conversation with the drawing to see what it has to say to them. I guide them to write four basic questions with their dominant hand. The answers are written with the non-dominant hand, speaking as the drawing. For participants whose first language is other than English, I always invite them to write in their mother tongue. The human brain is hardwired to the sound of our mother’s or early caregiver’s voice, and our childhood emotion-laden memories are often encoded in our first language. For this reason the language we first heard is important when expressing emotions through journaling.

The four basic questions I share with the participants are as follows:

• Who or what are you?
• How do you feel?
• Why do you feel this way?
• What do you have to say to me?
• Optional - Is there anything else you would like for me to know?

The caregivers find the act of using their non-dominant hand to be relaxing and insightful as well as fun. I often hear comments such as, “This drawing is better than when I use my dominant hand!” or “I can’t believe this information I have received by using my non-dominant hand!” During my latest visit, the accountant in the office next door to the workshop room shared with me, “I see our employees going into your workshops looking stressed and when they leave they look happy and they are smiling.”

Coaching these employees in balancing their stress with self-nurturing will help them feel better by keeping them emotionally and physically healthy. Here are some responses to an evaluation form question about whether or not other employers had offered them self-nurturing tools:

"NO, never has a company cared about how I feel or has offered any self-care tools.”
“Typically we are only offered training in patient care.”

In addition, another staff member commented as follows: “What you are offering to me is helping me become more aware and understanding of myself as a caregiver.” Dr. Capacchione stresses, “Giving from an empty cup is like poisoning the chicken soup.” When are companies going to wake up to the fact that compassion comes with a price tag? The few hours that this company has donated to their employee’s mental health certainly will help with employee retention and less sick days due to being overly stressed. Undoubtedly this will also lead to higher quality care for the residents.

I look forward to my next visit to California and working with a great staff of caregivers who value our CJEA tools.

Marsha Nelson, PhD
CJEA & Visioning® Training Supervisor
956.802.9993 cell/text
marshanelsonphd@yahoo.com

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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