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Intuitive Art For Higher Connections
- Elaine Clayton
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In today’s episode of Healing from Within, your host Sheryl Glick author of The Living Spirit: Answers for Healing and Infinite Love welcomes Elaine Clayton author of Making Marks. Elaine is a certified Reiki Master Intuitive Reader and creator of Illuminara Intuitive Journal . Elaine is the author and illustrator of several books for children and illustrator of books by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley and Wicked author Gregory Maguire.
Elaine and Sheryl, both Intuitive Reiki Masters dealing with the world of multi-dimensional healing theories and practices will show you a new way to view the marks made absentmindedly in the margins of a notebook or sketching with your finger in the sand and share a way to know that freeform drawings are windows into our intuitive selves. Inside every simple mark lies visual imagery with the power to open us up to solutions and answers, heal the past and increase our sense of empathy.
Sheryl Says “After being told that I was a healer at The international Spiritualist Convention in Toronto one of the energy healers in my group worked on my knee which was greatly hurting me. Having never experienced a hands on healing I was surprised and confused by the immediate relief I felt. Not quite understanding how it worked still I found myself a week later enrolled In a class for Reiki training at the Association for Research and Enlightenment. During my first Reiki class and attunement process as Reiki is the only hands on healing modality that requires an attunement process or a deep meditation provided by a Reiki Master Teacher who channels energy from Universal Source at an increased level raising the ability of the student to then channel these healing energies and knowing little about this ancient healing art of Universal Energy I did experience an immense feeling of gratitude and trust. Knowing it was a blessing and gift to have discovered the inner essence of our life force or soul which this energy works with in order to improve our spiritual and physical life journey it was an important adjunct to my awakening process.”
Elaine would like to redefine doodling as “little streamers” because stream of consciousness drawing or “stream drawing” expresses the unconscious onto paper the way dreams bring up images and emotion for us on a mental screen and seeks to take away the negative connotation given to doodling done by children in the past who may have been seen as neglecting their real studies To get into this flow and important process of streaming we have to allow ourselves to relax into intuitive processing. How we feel when we let ourselves go into that zone—where we’re making a mark that is one continuous line—is more important than what arrives on paper. Stream drawing lets the artist allow feelings and thoughts to open up while the relaxed hand is making marks. Letting go of the outcome and of our need to rationally comprehend input and what’s happening is what being intuitive is about.
There are 4 steps used in intuitive stream drawings. Gaze and Trust Your Words is the beginning then…
1. Gaze Now gaze at this drawing from your angry memory. Notice did your hand press harder during the joyful or angry drawing..did you draw slower or faster?
2. Trust your Words Look at the drawing and write down whatever words or thoughts come to you
3. Draw with Emotion, ex. Something that makes you angry. Anger lets you know what you do not want in life. It helps you identify what situations or circumstances are not good for you. Anger can motivate you to make change—a positive effect Allow the emotion to surface and then draw.
4. Discover and Connect.
Drawn lines and marks carry a body of content that we each understand in our own way so there is both Content and Context. Drawn lines and marks carry a body of content that we each understand in our own way depending on our perception We use our five senses to give context or meaning to everything we encounter. Art forms such as lines and shapes represent elements from our experiences in the world either symbolically or literally. To develop a visual intuitive language we have to know our own meanings and how they can help us have a better life… Projection plays a role in our Perceptions. Projection is a response we send outward to all things in our environment..as we perceive we project our own ideas…I may project something is good or bad but that doesn’t make it necessarily so, yet, it may be true to me.
Shakespeare wrote “Things are neither good nor bad… but thinking it so makes it so. “
Drawing can help us reclaim the intuition that we all naturally possess. Intuition and instinct are very closely connected… we act instinctively when we pick up signals from the environment and this is a compelling inner force that presents itself before thinking or processing.. feelings occurs…Instinct is connected with inner knowledge because we use our physical body to gather information express ourselves and make choices to protect ourselves every day. Intuition much like pure physical instinct alerts us to information before we register it logically. Intuitive thinking speaks to us through our body mind senses and spirit Instinct is more from the physical need to protect the body. Being intuitive and trusting the process keeps us in a progressive positive flow noticing not everything needs a push or force….we do not have to make things happen. Synchronicity or messages in the form of intuition help us stay in touch with this inner energetic presence. Synchronicity abounds when we open to our intuitive ability to gather process and find meaning in our experiences. We are enriched by the sense that everything and everyone is actually connected through this living energetic force.
Drawing empowers us in many ways. In learning the way memory and perception work to give us a full range of emotions it becomes clear that stream drawing can help call up the emotions connected to a memory and discover that drawing is an act of expression and is a harmonious natural way to process emotions and develop your visual-intuitive language through line shape texture and form….gazing at all four memory stream drawings adds another dimension. Memory drawings show you how to get creative, using memories as a source of strength and healing potential. It is empowering to rethink a memory and perceive it in a way devoid of the original hurtful emotions and pain and that is the essence of freedom or being healed from a past trauma or event.
Sheryl says in The Living Spirit she has a passage that suggests regardless of what other people expect of you or challenge you with you might remember the two simple words uttered thousands of years ago which continue to provide us with guidance: “Know thyself” Numerous sages such as Pythagoras and Socrates proclaimed that self-awareness is the most valuable of all human qualities because it informs all our life choices and decisions in education, careers and relationships. It is the defining force of a life well lived. Of course thinking past the illusion of perfection and the demands or expectations of others allows us to explore our own nature and deepest desires and is the way of the fearless heart or soul journey…so saying yes and trying any experience without expectation of outcome is the way to explore and develop whatever talent we wish to focus on at any given moment.” Drawing is also a means for self-investigation and to allow inner memories to emerge so they may be understood changed or released as is appropriate for the well-being of the individual.
“Marking Marks” will show you what you forgot you knew and recapture the spirit or excitement at making marks purely from a natural impulse…. Through stream drawing you will draw with an open mind and heart towards empathic, intuitive sensing. Your mind and heart are your essence—your home –and they possess more dimensions than you know
Elaine says that drawing is very important now in this day and age. Drawing puts a powerful empathic tool back where it belongs in your hands. Drawing is an intuitive rewarding and essential part of self-discovery. Drawing is a link between our most internal indwelling state of being and the world around us. Drawing is the act of responding to the world and asking the world to acknowledge us (and our unique take on the world) Drawing is proof of individual determination, our unique ability to make a difference in the world..Making marks activates our human desire to create, drawing on our emotions and experiences. As we become part of a larger group with culturally conditioned specific expectations we lose our innocence and are no longer unconscious mark makers as children are.
Elaine has shared and reminded us to rediscover the process of a simple childhood process most of us enjoyed and benefited from as we picked up a pencil or crayon or piece of chalk and let the inner mood of our soul essence and emotions express itself from within without the restrictions of our social mores and childhood patterns. Expressing ourselves this way leads us to freely know the personal power of our intuitive instinctive nature as spiritual beings having a physical life…as in words or music or dance the movement of our drawings help us understand our daily experiences and past memories always helping us to open our minds and hearts and to receive new ways to explore this wonderful life. Any form of creation is the language of the soul and allows for our reconnection to Universal Source which ultimately brings healing on a multi-dimensional level and paves the way forward to a more authentic purposeful way of living a healthy and prosperous life experience.
Elaine writes… “In my practice as an artist and as an intuitive reader it is my mission to help heal the person while sharing the realization that within each of us is the power to heal and be enlightened: healing is an enlightened process. …ever since I began doing gesture drawing workshops at schools, in libraries and at museums 20 years ago I realized how this artful exercise can increase mindfulness and empathy in learners. As an artist, intuitive reader and former teacher, it is an exercise that is most rewarding that I do with a group and helps to develop emotional intelligence which enriches a person’s experience in life: it is part of developing well as an individual especially in terms of living an intuitive life. We don’t learn well when we’re afraid or uncomfortable and so much constructive cooperation is dashed when school children are taught to switch off their personal feelings and their capacity to empathize with others. Competition and fear do not always bring out the best in us so we need to reinforce love and respect in order to co-exist Love feeling genuine appreciation and affection for another person and respect to value another person and hold her in high regard are present when we take time to get in touch with our emotions and understand others also have feelings and deserve acknowledgment…. Competition can be healthy but it can also create a win or lose dynamic…Too much completion causes us to compare ourselves to others which means to look outside ourselves to determine who we are. Being intuitive is about going inward to discover who we are and to see how we are connected to others who are like us…..realizing we are not so different from others we do not have to struggle against one another.”
Elaine and Sheryl would ask you to bring out that joy in making your mark whether on paper or in the way you interact and participate with others in the joy of life drawing on that intuitive truthful power of your inner being.
