“The alchemy of performance changes something that was sad – it causes a chemical reaction in your bloodstream and it comes out joyful.” – Florence Welch of ‘Florence in the Machine’ This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. In my work, the ‘awareness’ of emotional and mental health is present all year round. We can’t…

What makes you feel most alive? What is most alive in your art process? What is most alive in your dance and movement at this moment? Follow the thread of your aliveness. Where do you find the most energy or vitality in your body? These are questions and prompts I often use in my individual…

This is my artist friend Henry Sultan. I have known Henry for a few decades, and now I’m in my 50’s and he is in his 80’s! We first met when I was the Art Curator at the California Institute of Integral Studies where I hosted an art show with Henry and his wife Jenny…

In my ‘split’ life as arts therapist/ coach/ teacher/ artist, I am a grand juggler and I thrive on being actively engaged in life and art. My work can be intense, and being a creative person and a business owner doesn’t come without sacrifice. I have to be diligent about my self-care to maintain my stamina. This was…

“A flow state…This is when you are so absorbed in what you are doing that you lose all sense of yourself, and time seems to fall away, and you are flowing into the experience itself. It is the deepest form of focus and attention that we know of…We know at some level, that when we…

The best forms of healing, therapy, and meditation are learning to trust. The trust is the genuine kind.” – Jack Kornfeld This newsletter is dedicated to Theresa Cangelosi who was my therapist for eight years. She guided me through the most difficult times of my life. I came to her after an estrangement from a spiritual mentor…

“I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap. – Ani DiFranco I am a community-oriented person. I was brought up with festive family dinners, playing cards with aunts and uncles, and memorable parties at special events. In my formative years we lived abroad because of my father’s work…

Last week I wrote about ‘languishing’ and how art can be a way through (find the blog post here). I am following up with a ‘life/art’ remedy to support you to connect to your aliveness through an Art Altar. I have found that even the simplest gathering of objects that have meaning increases the feeling of purpose and inner…

“It is an interesting metaphysical as well as astronomical truth, that it is only when you have good darkness that you can see the faint lights, whether it is faint stars, or the little points of light, the thousand points of light that bring us hope even in darkness.” – Brother Guy Consolmagno Honoring Winter…