Category Archives: Mindfulness

Strategies to help manage stress, anxiety, depression and everyday life.

How would you improve your community?

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One way I would like to help improve my community is offering events. I recently came across “paint parties!” And have rediscovered my old passion for painting and playing with color.

shallow focus photo of paint brushes
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It reminded me that since becoming an independent therapist that I’ve had many requests for private art lessons- it was an added benefit to those that I was also a therapist, however those individuals didn’t want to pay for therapy and as I’m not a teacher those situations did not work out.

So!! Since finding these “paint parties”, over the last two months I connected with an organization and joined a membership which allows me the rights in sharing and selling their designs and have been actively involved in their training to teach me how to teach you! I can provide mobile paint parties, online paint parties, in person at my office parties, and sell art kits to send to you in your home!! These are not therapy groups, these are fun classes to enjoy the relaxation art can provide.

At each event I would have visual and written directions, a pre-traced canvas- wooden craft piece, plant pot or ceramic item pending the hosts choice, paint, brushes, aprons, and other miscellaneous items ready to go.

selective focus photography of paintbrush near paint pallet
Photo by Steve Johnson on Pexels.com

All registrants would need to do is preregister for the event and show up with a desire to have a fun time with friends or come solo and want to meet others! I would have small selection of simple beverages and snacks available for small donation for those who’d want a little extra.

Hosting groups of paint parties is a fun adventurous way of having a night out and coming home with something super awesome or cute- maybe even a gift for someone if not a gift for oneself.

While I can host general community paint nights, hosts (not me!) can choose to have a theme- ladies night, sleepover, birthday party, fundraiser, mother daughter night out, etc.

…. As painting isn’t for everyone…

I do currently host a “walk and talk fox cities meetup” group that is slowly getting started as the weather clears up. You can now find us on Facebook or meetup.com.

people hiking in a forest
Photo by PNW Production on Pexels.com

Look forward to meeting you one way or another! It’s nice to meet others with shared interests and have a variety to choose from, this is something I can offer my community.

Late night mindful moments

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What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

I saw this prompt pop up and figure I can’t sleep so why not respond?

abstract painting
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My middle name is Jean, after my mom. She named me Samantha after “bewitched Samantha Steven” hoping it would bring me a little magic in my life, and thought it was a beautiful name. my mom and I haven’t always been close or seen eye to eye, but we have our love of arts and crafts and animals, and I’ll always be happy to carry her name with me wherever I go. She inspires me to keep trying with my art and trying new things and for that I am grateful ❤️

Mindfulness book, and journals!

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Hello all!

I recently attended an ” Usborne books” party for a friend to help them earn free books for their little one.  I learned during their party that they have ALOT of mental health books geared to youth!!!!!  They have an entire mindfulness collection, and special journals to help kids get into journaling.  They have books related to feelings or social skill building, for super young and early childhood to help kids identify feelings and learn to express them.  For older teens they have plenty of series to help with self-esteem, confidence building, social skills and so much more.

I highly recommend checking out my consultant Ambers’ website:

I’m super excited for these books!

These are going to be amazing to use with my clients, I plan to mix and match pages from the mindfulness books to create worksheets / workbooks for minor clients (or some adults who they may be appropriate for as an add-in that’s more entertaining or creative) and depending on the clients concerns (some might need mood improvement and confidence building others have more worries and sadness). The journals will help kids and teens feel better about journaling, so many say, “but journaling’s boring….” and these are definitely not boring! Best part is these journals are all gender neutral, mature enough while young enough and “cool” for all!! I plan to hand out journals to kids who may not afford them otherwise and refer others to my consultant: Amber Fox.

Keep an eye out for a fundraising party near Christmas to help me get more journals for clients in need, or more mindful books for my office library as I borrow books to parents, and they don’t always find their way back to my shelf.  I have attached an image of the books and journals, as you can see from the outside alone, they look pretty awesome!  They are all filled with many cool directives to help with identifying feelings, expressing feelings appropriately and offer different directives that will help youth learn to be mindfully aware, and incorporate meditation in their lives to help battle anxiety or depressive symptoms.

 

Here is Amber’s website again to create your own wish list or set up a party to earn free books.  https://h11901.myubam.com/shop. ( I do not gain any free books, discounts or credit from your use of this link, it is purely for your own benefit. I will host a party later on where your contribution will help earn books for the office / client journals)

Mindfulness, Art Therapy Virtual Conference!

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I needed this today! Started out stressful but eventually smoothed out. Yes, art therapy can be done virtual! I attended this conference with other art therapists around the world, (not just professionals, a few followers as well). We had mindfulness, art making, breakout rooms with assigned buddies to individually process and then group process at the end. The conductor was kind enough to stay after for a small group of us to finish processing as we hit the end time before everyone was able to speak. (We had about 55 attendees).

a person drawing on brown paper
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Led by Dr. Isis, who also hosts weekly drop-in sessions if you would like to experience this yourself. She is the author of “mindful doodle book” which I love and suggest to everyone! Has approximately 75 doodle directives for self-care. Her website is www.miamiarttherapy.com, her book can be found on Pesi amazon or her website.

It was amazing to hear from her and go through our guided directive. It was four parts- those who know me know I love “part one and part two and sometimes part three” in our sessions (please don’t comment here for your confidentiality if you are reading this). I will show you my work and a few from the conference to show and yes this can be done virtual!  For confidentiality of the attendees, I have blacked out faces and names. My image and Dr. Isis’ are the only ones viewable, top left!  check facebook for more close up views of the process and let me know in the comments if you’d be interested in joining a mindful art therapy directive group.

Mindfulness, Meditation

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“Case of the mondays….”  I am feeling this today! I was looking at a new app over the weekend I found in one of my therapy forums, called “insight timer”.  As some of you might see already on my business page, I did a “Facebook live” recently with two guided mindfulness scripts.  “Leaves on a stream, and eye of the hurricane”.  I am not sure how to connect that live with this blog, but you can access it here.   In these scripts I read out loud and you, as the reader can close your eyes and imagine being in the “story”, for example, sitting by the stream, seeing thoughts float by as leaves, or the chaos of all the thoughts and feelings rushing around you, while you are safe in the middle of the eye of the storm. 

close up photography of leaves with droplets
Photo by sohail nachiti on Pexels.com

With Insight timer, it has probably about a million meditations, nature sounds, white noise, drumming sessions, and much, much more for free to experience on your own time.  I highly recommend looking into it, especially as it’s a free app.  Mindfulness and meditation can be as short as 30 seconds, or as long as you need it – some half hour. I recommend starting small, fitting it in while you are eating or preparing for bed, or waking in the morning.  For some it can be uncomfortable due to the busyness of our lives and suddenly sitting and listening, not “doing something”.  That sitting—–> is self-care, and it’s important to remember that. ” Take time to smell the flowers” or listen to a meditation, or nature sounds. Comment here what is helpful for you!