In Search for My Manifesto

Dreamer

I begin the search for the words that best express my work in the world ”  I adapted this quote from Audre Lorde “I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t. “

“I create learning experiences for those women who fear creating,
for those who fear their creative voice because they were taught to respect
fear more than their creative selves.”

Shared in Medicine Doll online class May 2012

Healing Doll Energy

A woman I know had a dear friend who was struggling with ovarian cancer.  Her friend had purchased another one of my dolls and knew my work.  She asked if would  make her a doll. I asked what would this doll represent and she said “New Beginnings”.

Winter Solstice is the doll I made for her.

Winter Solstice is a time to acknowledge that there is love, hope, and healing in the world as long as you make the space and time for it.  It is the promise of the future.  There is magic to this sacred time…take time and believe.

MEANING OF THE SYMBOLS

HALO – communication with self
HOLLY – blessing for the new year
PINE TREE – prosperity, magic and growth Talisman of prosperity, anchors the blessing
SILVER SPIRALS – Moon energy – healing energy
SUN & MOON – passive and active forces of nature
She holds small sticks symbolizing connection with Mother Earth. She has symbols on her abdomen of the ovaries and uterus that reflect light inviting focus and prayer. Unfortunately she passed the day before the doll was ready for delivery. The doll is displayed at the hospice she was in when she died.

I recently visited this page on my website http://www.barbkobe.com and wondered what the healing energy of this doll might look like. I place the photo into Photoshop and this is what came of that.

Would it be amazing if this was indeed the energy that comes from making a healing doll?  Consider that this “healing doll” is an image of the solution.  And, even though the woman for whom the doll was created was healed….reached a state of new beginnings.

A healing doll can be a healing image of what one desires or is moving toward, and in the process, are letting go.
Here is a healing ritual that may be used to welcome healing energy into your body along with witnessing the doll.

Light a candle

Perform a small ritual in the presence of the doll and person for whom the doll is for.

Say a prayer such as,
Blessed be this creative image
By art made, by art changed

Thou art a symbol of my hope, wish and intention

I name the…………………… (name the doll) 

I ask that you symbolize my move toward _______
Bringing power into my body and mind.
Awaken my connection to my heart, my will and my spirit
In all the worlds.

Blessed be. 

Healing Isn’t Only for the Patient—Dolls and Healing

While I teach healing and transformative dollmaking for yourself, there are instances when you might be drawn to make a doll for someone you care for or love.  This article from the Internal Medicine Quarterly Newsletter at Harford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut (written by Karen Miller) does a fine job of discussing the subject of making dolls for other than yourself.

* After learning that a friend who lives several states away was diagnosed with breast cancer, Pam felt helpless and worried.

* Rob had an unsettling miscommunication with her sister, and felt terrible about the silence between them.

* When Cindy found out that her lifelong best friend had cancer, she did not know what to say to her, or how to talk about her illness, so she distanced herself.

* A group of women watched helplessly as a dear friend suffered through depression after enduring many losses in her life.

* Tina was heartsick when she discovered her artist friend had developed MS.

When something as “big” as cancer invades the life of a loved one, or when we find ourselves separated from people we love for any reason, the patient isn’t alone in needing healing. Suddenly the world has shifted, often in unfamiliar ways. Everyone who loves the person who is hurting can be thrown off balance. What should we do? Go for a visit? Take dinner? Send flowers? Make phone calls? Stay away?

It is common in our culture to turn to problem-solving when confronting another’s pain, but this approach can lead to unsatisfactory and uninspired solutions. “Figuring things out” doesn’t always work very well when facing something outside of our usual experience. However, if we can tap into creativity and intuition, amazing answers can appear to deep and searching questions.

Many people fear that they are not creative, and that “art” is a gift reserved for a select few. But what if creativity is natural to everyone, and that it shows up fairly easily when we have a strong desire to reach out to someone. What if a person’s feelings to give birth to creative skills? We are never more inspired to make something happen than when someone we love is hurting. The truth is that everyone can tap into a deep well of creativity and inspiration, and that is something that many people have discovered through the experience of dollmaking.

In each case, the women either made a doll herself, or inspired the making of a doll. The dollmaking materials came together to express the essential beauty of the person to receive the doll, and grew out of loving feelings and intentions. The dollmaking process began with focus on the beautiful qualities and happy memories and intimate connections with each person, and then led to meditative reflection on these marvelous attributes, followed by the doll emerging almost magically. Each doll found unique expression, and came into being as a reflection of someone’s glorious spirit.

The dollmaking isn’t about curing illness or lifting depression. It is about connecting loved ones in a way that illustrates how 1+1 can be immensely more than 2. First the friend finders her loving feelings, then expresses them creatively, then presents the expression to the other and touches something deep and eternal there.  The person who receives the doll suddenly knows how much she is loved in a way that a greeting card or plant or phone call can’t quite convey. She is deeply moved, the giver feels tremendous for being able to express her feelings so eloquently, and for a moment something healing happens.  Healing isn’t just for the patient. The friend has found a way to transform her sense of helplessness and compassion into something meaningful and profound.

·         Pam brought a circle of friends together to inspire a healing doll for their best friend across the country. Love poured out of them and into the doll through the dollmaker. The friend with breast cancer was overwhelmed and amazed – she had no idea how much she was loved and how deeply she had impacted so many people.

·         Robin made a doll for her sister and when she presented it, they cried and hugged, and realized how their love for each other transcended any disappointment.

·         With great courage, Cindy brought her handmade doll to the friend with breast cancer and they held each other and talked about their fears and overcame the great distance that had hurt them more than any illness.

·         The large circle of women who wanted to help their heartsick friend had a special doll created to represent their love and appreciation, and expressed their love in pages and pages of words to her. One month later, the dear friend died unexpectedly, and her friends felt grateful that they had been able to express their love for her before she died.

·         Tina made a doll for her friend with MS and went to all their mutual friends to have each person write a special message in a little book. The friend was overwhelmed and felt special and loved.

Is there someone in your life with a physical ailment? Emotional trauma? Spiritual crisis? It is possible to create a very special expression of your love in the form of a doll. Your feelings can inspire your internal artist. Write about your love for the person, pick up some bits and pieces of ribbon and bark/sticks and whatnot, pull it together playfully and watch as the doll comes to life.

The love is what heals. The doll simply expresses the love in a unique and powerful way.

SOURCE: Complements, Internal Medicine Quarterly News  Volume 2, Issue 2, June 2  Integrative Medicine Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut

Healing Theories for Healing Dolls

In my research on this subject dollmaking and healing.  I have embraced several theories that support this creative modality: art and expressive art therapy, stress reduction, psychoneuroimmunology, the gate theory of pain management and imagery or visualization, and narrative psychology.

ART THERAPY
The fundamental principal of the art therapies is that they provide opportunities to make concrete objects representing feelings and thoughts that are elusive, hidden and mysterious. The process of the artmaking, as well as the art, offers something to dialogue about and with – and this is less threatening than talking about difficulties directly. Artmaking can clear away emotional debris, allow you to embrace pain, wound, or illness and reclaim your wholeness.

EXPRESSIVE ARTS THERAPY
This emphasizes the artistic process as a means of emotional expression and release. It is similar to art therapy and may use dance, movement, narrative, and poetry to get a person to open up and heal. The artwork is not used as a diagnostic tool because it is believed that only the person who created the work knows the meaning inherent in it.

STRESS REDUCTION
Scientific studies tell us that art heals by changing a person’s physiology and attitude. The body’s physiology changes from one of stress to one of deep relaxation; from one of fear to one of creativity and inspiration. All the arts, including art, music, dance, and writing, put a person in a different brain wave pattern. They affect a person’s autonomic nervous system, their hormonal balance and their brain neurotransmitters.

PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY
Psychoneuroimmunology is the science of how thoughts and emotions influence health. The underlying theory of this science is that the body, mind and spirit are interconnected and that one cannot treat one without affecting another. It also suggests that the ultimate healing must come from within the individual; that we all have a mind and a soul that influences and creates who we are – even our illness. This also means that our minds have an equal capacity to make us well. Scientists of this theory study the impact of emotions on the central nervous and immune systems. They have proven that painful emotions that go unresolved and unexpressed for long periods of time have a direct and measurable effect on the immune system and the development of illness and disease. Candace Pert, PhD. author of Molecules of Emotion, challenged conventional science and those in the total wellness field, to reconsider how our bodies think, feel, and heal. She suggests that, “where emotions are instigated, is also where unexpressed emotions are stored. The catharsis of illness expresses the sudden, overwhelming release of information that has been trapped in our bodies.”

GATE CONTROL THEORY OF PAIN MANAGEMENT
Dollmaker and occupational therapist, Pamela Hastings talks about this theory in Transformative Dollmaking. www.pamelahastings.com. According to the gate control theory of pain, our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions may affect how much pain we feel. The fundamental basis for this theory is the belief that psychological as well as physical factors guide the brain’s interpretation of painful sensations and the subsequent response. Many athletes do not experience pain during the intense activity of the game. After the game, when they turn their attention to their injuries, the pain suddenly appears to come from nowhere. Many pain sufferers find that their pain is worst when they feel depressed and hopeless—feelings that may open the pain gate—and that it’s not so bothersome when they are focused on doing something that demands attention or is enjoyable.
Although the physical cause of pain may be identical, the perception of pain is dramatically different. Pam says, and I would agree, that blocking the pain with a “buzz”, like mental involvement in doll making, can block out worries and pain, leaving space for the body to relax and heal itself.

IMAGERY AND HEALING
This commonly is referred to as visualization; it is the work of the relationship between the body and the imagination. It is used as a tool in dream work, hypnosis, trance, biofeedback and meditation. You will see this discussed along with left and right brain theory. There are also universal images that we all share and associate with, although this is dependent upon the culture we were raised in. Joseph Campbell researched and wrote about this extensively.

NARRATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Narrative psychology asserts that the stories we tell about our lives contain all the clues for what we believe, what afflicts us and how to heal. The details of the story are more important than a diagnosis, and the storytelling allows the person to search for the answers within details of the story.

You can learn more about dollmaking and healing by visiting www.healingandtransformativedolls.com

Holding Sacred Space

It’s About the Light

Wish Me Into the Light

I often find myself searching into the darkness (the shadow) of myself for healing.  Many of my dolls have been created while I focused on fear, anger, grief.  Several years ago I coached a female teenage artist who was living with a brain tumor.  She was an amazing artist and I helped her to put together a show of her work at her alternative high school.  She lived with two parents struggling with addictions and she worked at a local fast food chain; bringing in money to support her “family”.  Several months after I met her I was told that she passed on from the tumor.  I made a doll to deal with my feelings.  After I made the doll I journaled with the image and wrote this message with my non-dominant hand (see this for explanation 
http://www.artisjoy.com/artheals.shtml
)…. “My life has been a carnival ride, now wish me into the light.”  I felt as if the young artist was speaking to me and directing me to to let her go into the light.   As you can see the doll’s costume is very earthy, in fact her structure is made of tree branches, as well as her fingers and toes.  The doll she holds and extends forward is faceless; her body a loose form of a body wrapped in purple and gold with a beaded headdress.  The creation of this doll and her image served me well in letting the young girl go in peace and love, and later on when my father passed away the same message showed up in my journal and brought me great comfort.

 In the past year I’ve been reinventing several dolls.  The image, metaphor, symbol of their meaning had done it’s work and I wanted to transform it into the next offering.  I took apart Wish Me Into the Light and placed all the body parts on my sewing table.  I looked through my fabric collection for colors that spoke to me and seemed to speak to each other.  I created a new face and put the doll together, changing the position of the arms.  I made her a hat, painted the face to work with the colors used in the design of her and put the hat on.  I liked her but something seemed missing. I looked through my box of miscellaneous items and found a perfect pin to put on the hat.  The pin seemed the crowning…she was complete.

Often, after completing a doll, I hang her on the wall, as this one, or stand on a table and spend time with her.  Looking at the design, colors, shapes I get my journal out and dialogue with her.  I noticed that she too wears a earthly gown suggesting a tree or a plant, only the colors suggest spring or summer…a growing season.  The pin on her hat looks like a light that a miner wears to go into the earth to find treasures.  I write, ” You are entering a growing season, and like any well nurtured plant you will grow toward the light.”  ”Why the brilliant shiny gem on the pin?” I ask.  ”To show you the way out of the darkness…..” she says. I pause, somewhat stunned by the beauty of the affirmation and then I notice both dolls were about light, both made by my physical hand, and yet I feel as if they were guided by a hand greater than my own.

Growing Toward the Light

Group Healing and Epiphany

Waiting to Embody Our Voices

Doll heads waiting for their bodies and an epiphany in my studio. January 6, 2012 seemed a good time to celebrate the Epiphany- the celebration of the revelation of the divine in human form and a good time to begin adding my voice to creative healing process community.

Twelve years ago I wrote a healing dollmaking curriculum called The Dollmaking Circle.  The curriculum transformed into a healing doll curriculum, class and online group called Medicine Dolls.  The present online group has been ongoing for over five years.  

There is power in creating in group. Each member of the group brings different life experiences and wisdom that, when shared, form a more powerful healing energy field. When one of us share an experience, insight, struggle, ….the birth of a new doll and her awakening…. it affects all of us.  I like what Robert Burney shares in his book Codependence: The Dance of Wounded Souls;

“A single soul’s healing advances the healing of all souls. The effects of group healing and awakening ripple out through human consciousness to affect all Souls.”

January 6- in the Christian tradition, Epiphany- the celebration of the revelation of the divine in human form. Epiphanies are awakenings, deep insights that come from that which is both what we are & yet larger than ourselves. They are the moments when we wake up to something that reveals the Sacred Wholeness, the essence, the meaning that has eluded us. A good day to be open to seeing what we have not seen before, to open to & give thanks for moments of awakening. Epiphanies are revealations, moments in our lives of which we can say: “After that, everything was changed,”- because our way of seeing was widened & deepened forever.
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