Mary Lou's COVID-19 Story

This blog is a letter I wrote the worldwide community of certified graduates of our training program, Creative Journal Expressive Arts. It features the journey of healing by Mary Lou Gonzalez, one of our certified instructors in Mission, Texas, on the border of Mexico. She is the first person in our community to be confronting COVID-19 and is using our CJEA tools, including work with her non-dominant hand, in her healing process.

Mary Lou’s COVID-19 Story

Dear CJEA Community:

I just spoke to Mary Lou Gonzalez, our CJEA practitioner from Mission, TX. Mary Lou is our first CJEA member to be diagnosed with COVID-19. She was first diagnosed with Bacterial Bronchitis and treated with antibiotics and then tested positive for COVID-19 as well. After a stay in the hospital on some oxygen, she is back home.

Mary Lou wants all of you to know that she is recovering by using CJEA tools every day. Her mother passed away at age 93 during all this and she was unable to go to the funeral because of her condition. So this has been a triple whammy. Two medical conditions and her mom's passing.

I was very inspired to hear how Mary Lou is using all the tools in her tool kit for recovering from all of this.

Here is what she has been doing: She journals (more about the specifics later) using both hands, does body parts movement work with Gabrielle Roth's 5rhthyms music, walks, prays, does a 15-minute meditation from Deepak Chopra, has dropped sugar and flour from her diet (as directed by her doctor), drinks chamomile tea to reduce stress and stay calm, eats soups and nourishing foods, stays off of social media and away from bad news in media generally. She also had to bring her Protective Parent out when other family members looked to her for nurturing and to take on responsibilities when her mother passed. She could not be there for them as she always has been in the past. She had to put herself first and her own recovery. This was a big step and we both agreed, was a great blessing for her. She is putting her Inner Child (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs) first. I've known Mary Lou for years. I have never heard such strength from her. I was there when she quit her old job (during an intensive in Texas) and shared how she asserted herself at that time with the boss. This assertion around COVID-19 was on a whole other level of strength and inner power. I could hear it in her voice when she talked about telling the COVID-19 to "GET OUT OF MY BODY."

For those of you who know Mary Lou, she has been a caregiver for years, in her personal life with family, and in her professional work in mental health as a pain management specialist. She is one of the most compassionate and giving women you will ever meet. And now she is giving all that love and care to herself. She told me the Deepak Chopra meditations really have helped her with that, as they focus on knowing we are enough, we are worthwhile and deserving of love and self-care. And of course, journaling with her Inner Child is helping with that.  

Journaling for COVID-19 Recovery 

Mary Lou kept reiterating to me, "I have to keep up all these practices every day, every day." She said that over and over. Here are some highlights of her journaling:

An Inner Wisdom voice, speaking through her non-dominant hand, has guided her about how God loves her and she is being loved and cared for. That she is enough. That she is recovering and healing. Through her non-dominant hand, her Inner Warrior has been telling the COVID-19 to get out of her body, in no uncertain terms. (This is like the Inner Brat telling the Critic off.)

There is nothing polite or "pleaser" about the Inner Warrior. She is standing up to COVID-19 and setting clear boundaries. That is what I consider a call to her physical immune system to do the same.

This Assertive Warrior voice in us is our psychological immune system kicking in and kicking invaders out. Asserting ourselves against toxins of every kind, including mental toxins of negative thoughts, is our best defense against illness. I've seen cancer patients, like Pat Clark, become victorious over their condition with this simple dialogue.

When I called Mary Lou this morning, I'd been feeling grief over the recent death of a good friend who used to be in our local collage groups, as well as the passing of Hal Stone, who trained me in Voice Dialogue work. Talking to Mary Lou really lifted my spirits. Her use of this work to clear COVID-19 out of her system (as well as fighting the Bacterial Bronchitis), is so inspiring for me. It teaches me, and all of us, how powerful these tools are. They are nothing short of life saving.

As is common with COVID-19 (from what I have read and heard), Mary Lou also had nightmares. Some COVID-19 patients talk about this, either as delirium (which can be caused by high fevers) or as very frightening nightmares. Again, Mary Lou brought her Warrior voice in to deal with these nightmares.

I want to thank Mary Lou for leading the way for all of us on how the combination of journaling, movement, prayer, meditation, and good nutrition in a daily practice can bring about healing from COVID-19. As we know, there is no medical cure for this condition. And there is no vaccine. The antibiotics were given for her other (Bronchitis) condition. And Mary Lou has been told to just stay home. So her kit of CJEA and complementary tools are her "medicine" at this time.

Please keep Mary Lou in your prayers and heart. She is our brave pioneer in CJEA for COVID-19.

Love to all. Be well and stay safe,
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

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.

-----

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

Dialogue With COVID-19

One of the most effective journal prompts I’ve developed is one involving a dialogue with a current challenge, problem, or crisis. The coronavirus sweeping the globe certainly constituted a crisis, not only for myself, but everyone in the world. I decided to have a dialogue with the virus in which my non-dominant hand spoke for COVID-19. As always, I received profound inner guidance from “the crisis.” Over the years I’ve learned that by confronting my biggest fears directly, using this dialogue form, I’ve come to understand the teaching I was receiving and be able to work with it productively, in my own life and in my work with others.

The following journal entry was done with both hands. My dominant hand asked the questions and my non-dominant hand answered for COVID-19.

Lucia Journal entry
Mar. 24, 2020

I want to talk to the coronavirus.

What are you?

I’M THE BIG C Coronavirus. 

How do you feel?

OUT OF CONTROL.
RAGING ALL OVER THE PLACE.
LIKE A RAGING FIRE. 

Raging. Like Anger? Like fire?

YES Raging

Why are you raging? Out of control?

Because I can. There are do defenses, no boundaries being put up to stop me. 

What can I do to help you? What do you need?

I am neutral. I go wherever I can. I don’t want to kill people. I just spread. It’s my nature. If people want to stop this contagious situation they need to set boundaries & limits. Also people need to learn to do nothing. To stay out of harm’s way. They don’t know how to protect themselves from raging out of control people, ideologies, policies, practices. They look the other way or think they are helpless & can’t stand up to these out of control elements in society that are fueled by violence & greed. It’s eating people alive, sucking the life right out of some people. 

This is bigger than “germs”. It is bigger than bacteria. It is out of control rage raging across the globe like wild fire. Like the fires that were set intentionally to destroy the lungs of mother earth: the Amazon forest. 

What does humanity need to do to save itself? Things are really dire.

People need to & will wake up to the giant imbalance. Look at what the raging out of control pan demic is begetting? Panic, Fear, anxiety, depression and all kinds of illness. Teach the writing & drawing cure for creating healthy & strong immune system. That’s what is needed. That’s what YOU can do. 

The forces that contributed to this calamity must be curtailed, limited, stopped from continuing. The force of numbers must be brought to bear. Individuals who feel powerless must come to realize the power of groups, strength in numbers, healing in community. 

People MUST rise above myopic camps who can’t see beyond their own trench in the ground, their own cave. I may be the world teacher if folks heed the call & learn the lesson. 

I’ve been saying this is all 3 catastrophes my parents survived, all happening at once. Ellis Island (my family - Grandma Lucia, Aunt Rose and Dad - in a cage in the prison wing in 1920), like the Mexico border today. The influenza pandemic of 1917-18, and the great depression of 1929 that lasts to the late 30s.

It’s all 3. The main differences are you have the internet so you can quarantine while staying connected....more medical care can be there IF everyone works together. Systems can be put in place. And you are right. This is a repeat of 3 classic, well-known tragedies in US history striking all at once. A triple whammy because – although no one is talking about the Mexican border, it’s going to figure into this crisis of virus. Some bad, bad karma has accumulated for the US from the inhumanity inflicted on people on the border. It all adds up to a red plague. Time to wake up, yo!

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

Spiritual Guidance through the Right Brain

Although most of my inner guidance comes through my non-dominant hand drawing and writing, I have found that this practice has made it possible for spiritual wisdom to come through my dominant hand as well. This usually happens spontaneously and it expresses through poetry and art. Both of these forms of expression rely heavily on right brain functions, so it makes sense. There’s no question in my mind that the right side of the brain has the advantage when it comes to finding inner wisdom and spiritual guidance. I’ve explained in other posts and in most of my books how the hand that didn’t learn to write is free to access the right side of the brain. I’ve also written about how developing access to the right brain through the non-dominant hand enables the dominant hand to tap into deep wells of inner wisdom, spiritual awareness and creativity.

After having drawn and written with my non-dominant hand for quite some time, one day I was drawing with my dominant hand in my journal. Without intending to, I drew a design that resembled a top view of the human brain. The connection between the two hemispheres was a continuous pair of figure eight loops with a sunburst at the center point.

Drawing and poem from The Creative Journal: The Art of Finding Yourself (Ohio University/Swallow Press, 2015

Then suddenly a poem poured out spontaneously. It felt like automatic writing, with no conscious intent or editing. The poem was written with my dominant (right) hand, but the words flowed with the same ease and simplicity typical of my left handwriting. This is the poem that that appeared on the page as if from nowhere:

Hold me, echoes the whisper from within
Hold me near you
Hold me close to your heart
as the apple of your eye

Through the distant chambers of time
our hearts beat
as the wings of doves
brush against the skies of eternity

We were never parted
for we are one through infinite
space and time

You have embraced me in shadow
unbeknownst to my daytime self,
always present behind me, above me, beneath

You are the ground of my existence
forever with and within me.

Here is how I described the experience in the last chapter of The Power of Your Other Hand.

Sublime peace filled me as I completed the last line. I heard the “whisper from within” coming from my Inner Self. I acknowledged a divine power within and felt its presence. It was still “embracing me in shadow,” yet I could say, “Yes, I know you are there.” I remembered the film about Jung, the images of his inner guide, Philemon. Now I understood what Jung must have felt when he first contacted his inner wisdom voice in the form of that white-haired sage. Although I didn’t see a form, I certainly felt its presence.

Later, I also came to understand how essential it is to develop a personal relationship with the divine Inner Self. I encounter many people seeking “quick fixes” from intermediaries channeling information from disembodied spirits. For me, the only message worth channeling is the truth of the Inner Self, the God that Dwells Within. To channel messages from disembodied entities with doubtful credential seems like the little leagues compared to the pure gold of the Inner Self.

The Power of Your Other Hand: Unlock creativity and inner wisdom through the right side of your Brain (Conari Press, 2019)

I still write my Inner Wisdom or Spiritual Guidance dialogues with both hands, asking questions with my dominant hand and receiving answers through my non-dominant hand. However, sometimes a poem will come through my dominant hand. It is usually spontaneous and unplanned, like the one above. Whichever hand writes it, I simply allow the poem to express Inner Guidance in any way it likes.

Sometimes I ask for guidance about specific issues in my life. A good example is the process of completing the writing of The Power of Your Other Hand. When I got to the last chapter, I asked my Inner Self to tell me what to say. Naturally, I turned to my other hand. Here is what it said. They are the last words in the book.

Just say that the deepest
well of inner knowing
and of peace is within
everyone. It can be
reached in stillness,
in quite, and in
solitude.
I am here in everyone
and everything and
the glory of being
human is that you
can know and
experience at-one-ment with
Me. For we are one.
When you are afraid,
lost, doubting – be
still, go inside and
find your True Self.
I will be there – where
I’ve always been –
waiting for you to
recognize the truth
of who you really
are.
I will speak through
everything that is so
human in you – your
feelings, your wishes,
your body, your
relationships.

(Dominant hand) How do I know I’m not just making you up out of my imagination? How do I know that you really exist?

You will know. If you
don’t recognize me at
first, eventually you
will. Sometimes when
you have lost your
way and are far away
from your true self,
you may doubt that I
exist. That is when you
have forgotten who you
really are. But if you
will speak with me,
as you are now, I will
respond. Later on
when you read our
conversation, you will
recognize my realness.
You will see
your own doubting
mind, and you will
feel my essence
and know it to be
yours. You will see
the difference between
your small, fearful,
anxious self and your
true, beautiful and
peaceful Self. And
since you have
written both voices,
you’ll realize
that they both came
from you. Then you
will see that the
Highest Truth and
Wisdom resides
within you. Everything
else is illusion. You
will see that you’ve
had it backwards
all these years.
You thought your
self was the little, scared,
confused “character”
that doubts and worries
and defends itself. That
is the figment of imagination.
That is the thing you made
up with your mind.
I am the Real You. I
am your True Self
reminding you to
wake up, come home
to the bliss of your
Inner Self. 

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