I love and I am part of the Human Potential Movement, the Arts & Healing movement, the Arts & Consciousness Movement, and the Self Care Movement. 

The Harmonia Institute is a result and a reflection of my own lives journey into the creative processes of healing, alchemy, sacred practices, and transformation. I am walking the talk. To be honest, Art and my holistic rituals has literally saved my life! And as I journey onward they have really refined my spiritual evolution.

Also, for emotional healing, I always have used essential oils, but it was only about two years ago that I started integrating them into my Arts & Healing teachings and practices. To think back it really happened with my Artemis Sacred Journeys Retreats in Tinos and Delos, Greece. For my morning Harmonia YogART sessions, I incorporated and researched the essential oils, that would empower the Goddess Archetype and the Chakra system. It was miraculous how the essential oils brought one closer to their inner worlds, deeper into ones creativity, intuition, and their personal power. Then on a pilgrimage to Egypt last year, as we traveled to several temples ~I was entranced that the ancients used and knew the healing power of essential oils for our body and emotions. It was written on their temple walls, like recipes of alchemic transformation for all to know.

With great joy,  I have totally integrated essential oils into my Harmonia YogART practices and teachings! Also, I have integrated them into my big life events. I create special essential oil blends to amplify the process.

 One such big event is I am so honored to be part of us the  MANIFEST YOUR DREAMS SERIES SUMMIT with the amazing and miraculous host Marie Lugtu. I created, through research and intuition an essential oil blend of manifestation. As well as a Harmonia practice to use Art and intention to manifest ones dreams. It is made from Wild Orange essential to elicit joy and Clary sage oil to boost self-esteem, confidence, hope, and mental strength. I sent this essential oil and the Harmonia practice to Marie and she said it totally shifted her state. She was amazed about the power of Art and how it can be a tool for realizing your greatest dreams . She said it had a mystery element to it. As you know we are multi -dimensional beings with multi senses, when creating intentions and healing we need to use a diverse and holistic self care tools to channel our highest intentions. We are creators of our own reality! You can do the Harmonia Practice at link HERE.

I am so excited to be part of this series on Manifesting Your Dreams! Here is more about it.
Connect with Marie Lugtu, Spiritual Healer. She is hosting a free online video interview series called Manifest Your Dreams! How to connect to your deepest calling & start manifesting miracles in your life!  I am grateful to be one of the 21 hand-picked influencers interviewed for this transformative event. Expose yourself to the high frequency of living in the moment and unleashing your light with pure and honest conversations about manifesting miracles in your everyday life.  Each Influencers share how their ordinary lives became extraordinary when they applied their simple and practical tool and habits to continually and consistently create lasting results. I invite you to join me, I talk about how Art is a perfect tool to manifest your Dreams and Miracles, and gain access to this exciting online event. Join me as I am interviewed by Marie Lugtu at this link HERE !

The other huge event that I created an essential oil blend for was Tony Robbins weekend intensive Unleash Your Power. This oil was a super power for my transformative weekend, it really help me conquer my fears and limited beliefs. Also, the oil  amplified Tony's phenomenal teachings and it totally supported me in doing the Fire Walk with pure enchanted certainty!! Everyone around  me at the workshop was like can I use some of the oil and of course I said YES!  The oil I created I called it, "You Are A Force of Nature. Heal, Unlock, & Unleash Your." It contains Basil (which ensues mental clarity and strength), Lavender ( it allows a person to settle into their heart and speak with gentleness and kindness.) frankincense (prayer and meditation, helping a person drop out of their mind and Ego and move into presence with their spirit or center of consciousness.) and lastly vetiver (it stabilizes tranquility, brings a quiet assurance drawing you to the earth, offering support and strength as you reconcile the changes taking place. It also lends itself to thoughtful consideration, as you discard ways of relating that no longer serve you. ) i.e. changing one negative patterns in ones subconscious and emotional body.

Return to your Natural state of harmony and balance. With enchanted certainty, we all deserve to dream big, to heal, to reveal, to manifest, to serve, to contribute, and to unleash our inner power.  There by becoming a force of nature and making huge impact in this world.  Integrate these amazing essential oil blends into your transformative and intentional rituals!! Let the ancient wisdom of plant medicine connect you to your truest and highest self.

From DIVINE SOUL :Being Divine Love in Heart, Mind, Life, and Body By Peter Borys Jr

Heart Consciousness and the Electromagnetic Acoustical Body
Our experience in the dimensional universe is within an organized field of information as energy and frequency.  We are Divine infinite consciousness expressing life through consciousness vehicles on Earth.  All is consciousness that is organizing and oscillating along an infinite continuum.  From within our participation of the lower frequencies that comprise energy as physical matter, we can understand consciousness in this dimension through frequencies of light and sound.  These frequencies of consciousness are transduced from higher dimensions of subtle energy throughout an infinite continuum of the Divine.


Mind of Light and Body of Sound
The Light mind is our intuitive knowing mind that is beyond the thought process of the dualistic thinking mind.  The thinking mind is a perpetual censor of experience in that it operates from the memory of what is known from the past.  It utilizes the survival systems of the brain, and protects itself based on our conditioning of ideas, systems, and beliefs. In addition, it results in disharmony because its dualistic approach to knowledge causes perpetual doubt.  This searching mind, conditioned by systems of past input, is never in the flow of the presence of now. Therefore, it cannot be creative.
The Light mind is a pure knowing mind that organizes and transmits information from the soul in spirit.  It works in unity with the physical body for the Divine infinite consciousness to experience and express love and creativity on Earth.  The Light mind oscillates throughout the electromagnetic spectrum in a harmonic of multi-frequencies, and emanates from the heart consciousness of our multidimensional incarnate being.
The harmonic knowing of the Light mind uses the low alpha and theta electromagnetic frequencies of brain waves ranging between 8Hz and 4Hz.  At these frequencies, the heart is in coherence with the prefrontal cortex of the brain.  For the incarnate human being, the heart is awareness and organizer for experiencing our multidimensional being and living Divine infinite consciousness through the physical body.  We cannot begin to understand the Light mind without heart consciousness.  The heart is foundational to all levels of the brain, the electromagnetic body, the body as crystalline matrix, the body as biophotons, the acoustical body, the nervous system, and endocrine system, DNA, and all of the chemical, molecular, and cellular systems of the body.
The heart is our transducer of the infinite consciousness of the soul in spirit. The heart is our organizing center for experiencing Divine consciousness which emanates at higher frequencies than the physical body vehicle.  The all is one infinite, nonlocal, and dimensionless loving intelligence of perfect restful creative action.  The heart consciousness is our experience point for expressing the Divine in the body.

Heart Consciousness Emanates the Light and Sound of Divine Infinite Consciousness through the Body
The heart is the center of the body that is a communication system.  The body is the soul and spirit of infinite consciousness organizing and manifesting at particular frequencies to experience information in the dimensional universe.  The human body is a transmitter and receiver of consciousness, information, and energy.  In this article, we are putting forth the understanding that our body is a communication medium that is a unity of light and sound.
In order to understand our Divine consciousness on Earth as the embodiment of sound and light, we will first put our awareness on the whole body as a crystalline matrix.  The crystalline nature of cellular consciousness forms the medium for the resonance and intercommunication of our being as a universal transmitter and receiver of consciousness, information, and energy.  The in-depth complexity of our biological crystalline cellular system is beyond our current discussion. For further knowledge on the crystalline nature of the body, see the work of Mae Wan Ho on liquid crystallinity.  The purpose here is to focus awareness on our overall cellular consciousness as a combination of piezoelectric crystals and liquid crystals.  Our crystalline cells resonate, amplify, transmit, and receive electromagnetic and acoustical waves.
As we awaken and evolve to embody the fullness of Divine infinite consciousness in the physical, we open to the awareness of the body as an intelligent organized information field of consciousness and energy.  There are many aspects to the awareness and the understanding  of how this Divine wisdom of infinite complexity can be understood in a simple way that is our consciousness of love and creative intention.  We are using many sciences and ways of seeing and feeling how the body consciousness functions.  It is our intent that looking from several angles of the prism, we will integrate the information into a knowing and simplified awareness.
Heart consciousness is our opening to the intuitive knowing Light mind and the infinite continuum of Divine consciousness.  It is the awakening to our true nature and the evolving embodiment of Divine infinite consciousness within the physical body on Earth.  The intelligence of the heart is holographic and manifests within physical form through a torus field.  We will see throughout the article that the harmonic resonance of the heart is interconnected with the Earth, Sun, galaxy, universe, and dimensionless spiritual realms.  Now, we focus on the heart organization of the transceiving systems of the human body as vehicle for the soul and Divine consciousness.
The heart intelligence is electromagnetic, sonic, neural, and hormonal.  The heart uses all these means of communication and carrier waves to receive and transmit information to the brain.  The heart’s connectivity to the prefrontal cortex is the most vital relationship for our multidimensional Divine awareness.   The research of the Institute of HeartMath, and the work of Joseph Chilton Pearce in his book, “The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit” provide excellent information on heart-brain coherence.  The heart, in addition to its electromagnetic field, consists of a high percentage of neural cells and produces hormones.  They are all part of the heart’s system of transducing infinite non-physical light into electromagnetic fields which are converted into electrochemical signals through the nerves and hormones.
The heart relays the infinite Light from within.  Through its toroidal field, it emanates the strongest electromagnetic field of the body.  The light aspect of consciousness from the heart communicates as electromagnetic radiation through the body’s crystalline cellular matrix.  In its communication with the brain and entire body, it utilizes the nervous and endocrine systems.  Later, we will see how the sound aspect of consciousness from the heart also utilizes neural and hormonal pathways.
Robert O. Becker, in his books, “The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life,” and “Cross Currents: The Perils of Electromagnetic Pollution, The Promise of Electromedicine,” theorizes the existence of a direct current (DC) perineural nervous system (See also Robert Lawlor, “Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime,” pp. 377-381). The perineural system, which differs from the digital alternating current (AC) of the autonomic nervous system, is communicated through the perineural cells which surround all nerve cells.  The perineural cells are constructed like a crystalline lattice and transmit like semiconductors.  They may tie into the pineal gland and the body’s crystalline cellular matrix.  The DC perineural nervous system may be most resonant and coherent when it is being informed by a harmonic heart resonance.  We will see how this coherent resonance emanates from an 8Hz frequency, and interconnects heart consciousness, the electromagnetic brain waves of the low alpha/theta interface, the Earth’s Schumann resonance, and the sound of the Sun.  This harmonic may be part of the unity of light and sound.
When we shift our awareness to the harmonic low alpha brain wave frequency of 8Hz, we enable the brain and mind to be in coherence with the heart.  Itzhak Bentov in his work on consciousness and through his book, “Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness,” develops an understanding of sound in the heart-brain resonance (See also Richard Gerber’s “Vibrational Medicine: The #1 Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies,” pp. 401-413”).  In his view, in meditative awareness the electromagnetic frequencies of the heart synchronizes the heart’s beat with the pressure wave reflected back to the heart from the aortic bifurcation.  This synchronous timing creates a standing wave that oscillates the brain against the cranium.  This action results in a sound wave that moves through the neocortex.  The acoustical waves are translated into electrical energy that causes stimulation of the brain’s nerve tissue.  This action clears stresses of blocked energy in neural networks.  This is one aspect of how meditation (8Hz heart-brain resonance) evolves the nervous system to higher functioning.  This may result in an increased neural connection in the prefrontal cortex which enables the Light mind in unity with heart consciousness.  Then, with focused heart consciousness sends electromagnetic (light), sonic, and hormonal signals to the pineal gland which in turn produces hormones that enhance the receiving/transmitting of consciousness from multidimensions.
Sound is the feeling dimension of consciousness.  The audible range of human hearing is between 16Hz and 25,000Hz.  Sound below 16Hz is infrasound or extremely low frequency sound (ELFS), and sound above 25,000Hz is ultrasound.  The entire spectrum of sound frequency, both audible and inaudible is known by consciousness.  Audible frequencies may assist consciousness to remember, entrain, access, and generate frequencies of heart consciousness and the pure resonance of Divine awareness.  In fact, the direct sound of our nervous system can be heard as a high pitch when placing attention on the head.  John Beaulieu, in his book, “Human Tuning: Sound Healing with Tuning Forks,” describes how he heard the sound of his nervous system change to match the frequency of struck tuning forks, and that the cells release nitric oxide when the body is touched with an Otto 128Hz C tuning fork.
The 128Hz in C is harmonic in octaves from 8Hz (heart-brain coherence)—8Hz, 16Hz, 32Hz, 64Hz, 128Hz, 256Hz, and 512Hz.  An element in the work of Ananda Bosman relates music tuning at A=432Hz to the production of pineal gland hormones.  432Hz in A is harmonic to the heart-brain coherence of 8Hz in C.  The 8Hz frequency is most likely part of a complex overtone harmonic.  The single tone produces partials of the fundamental single tone.  Partials above the fundamental are called “overtones.”  These partials infinitely extend into the inaudible range in both the low and high frequency directions.
Jonathan Goldman, in “Healing Sounds:  The Power of Harmonics,” provides knowledge of vocal harmonics or overtone chanting, and examines the capacity of sound to affect consciousness.  The relationship of sound and consciousness is primarily through the infinite complexity of multi-frequency overtones and not specifically from a single tone.  The very close high frequency audible sounds of multiple Peruvian whistling vessels played at once may also relate to the complex overtone aspect of consciousness transduced and emanating as sound waves.
While the 8Hz heart-brain resonance is a guide and window or gateway into the understanding and wisdom, infinite consciousness cannot be reduced to a number or frequency as concept.  Intent as consciousness draws us into the system of the Light mind in heart consciousness and beyond to pure spirit.  The pure frequency resonance of Divine infinite consciousness is spirit, soul, and body in a multidimensional, multi-frequency harmonic.  It cannot be reduced to only one frequency measured through physical instruments in Hertz.

Knowing and Feeling as Light and Sound
Light as information in electromagnetic waves is the knowing mode of communicating consciousness in the body.  The mind in unity with the body receives and transmits knowing, wisdom, and being of the soul in spirit.  The mind mediates information from the soul and spirit, and transmits that information through the coordination of the heart in resonance with the brain by using electromagnetic frequencies.
Sound as information is the feeling mode of consciousness through the body.  Feeling is also another form of knowing.  In addition to the external physical sensation and sound of our body in time and space, we feel as sound from the interior of our body.  The inner sensation of feeling, which is described by Eugene Gendlin as the felt-sense, is sound frequency that can be audible, but is mainly in the inaudible range.  This feeling mode of consciousness as sound frequency can provide us a holistic sensation of knowing a situation, event, or experience.  Here, we can experience how knowing can be either light or sound.  Ultimately, light and sound unite as one in the knowing, wisdom, and being within our incarnate form.

Beyond Thinking and Emotion to the Pure Harmonic of Sound and Light
For humanity on Earth, consciousness through the body has been conditioned in a fear-based consciousness and culture of conflict, control, and separation for thousands of years. As a result of the inharmonic conditioning, the Divine infinite consciousness as soul does not experience its true multidimensional being in incarnate form on Earth.  In order to awaken to our true Divine consciousness embodied in physical form, we need a whole new operating system of mind and its frequencies through the body.
The transforming and evolving mind is to the Light mind and Divine feeling of the pure harmonic of sound and light.  The current thinking mind and its emotional system is the fear-based consciousness.  It comes into being through our early conditioning to the culture on Earth.  It arises because the soul as infinite Divine Being is not affirmed in its love and creativity.  In conforming to a defensive posture of survival, the thinking and emotional system is activated as a compensation.  All thinking and emotion is reactive. Therefore, it is out of tune.  It is not in the present moment of the harmonic flow of life which is always in the creative now.  The thinking and emotional system is a perpetual censoring device that is operating from past memory.  It manifests an entirely false identity that is not the true self of Divine infinite consciousness.
Thinking and emotion is an incoherent harmonic that signals that we are out of balance.  The thinking mind and the emotional system ensued from the conditioning of a fear-based survival consciousness that operates through the hindbrain or brain stem.  This level of consciousness, in conjunction with our experience in a trauma based human culture, conditions a false identity.  A whole range of non-affirming actions and traumatic experience conditions a false self of thinking, limiting beliefs, and negative emotional encodings.
At the core of the fear-based system is the fight, flight, and freeze responses.  The difficulty with the activation of these survival systems is that they condition consciousness by looping the mind and addicting the biochemical system to negative emotions.  As human consciousness transforms, evolves, and ascends to the embodiment of the Divine infinite consciousness in the physical, the human being will be able to respond to all situations without the need for the very dense frequency signaling system of thought and emotion.  The infinite nonlocal consciousness does not require such a narrow warning system in order for the human being to take action.
The entire thinking and emotional system is an inharmonic and incoherent friction that inhibits flow and the unity of synchronous pulsation.  This lower mind and brain system restricts consciousness to a very narrow band of a conditioned material identity.  It veils us from our true multidimensional self.  In the true human being, the heart center organizes the flow of information to and from the prefrontal cortex.  The prefrontal cortex develops a strong network with the hormonal systems of the limbic brain—thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary, etc.  The limbic brain then communicates a sonic feeling message to the entire cellular physical body.  This forms the heart-prefrontal-limbic-body circuit.  It is the basis of the knowing Light mind and Divine feeling body.
Within the first year life, the prefrontals create a large neural network for the communications network with heart and limbic system.  However, as it becomes apparent throughout the second year of life that current culture is non-affirming to heart consciousness, these neural connections are pruned (See Joseph Chilton Pearce, “The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit,” pp. 144-146).  Because of this negative infiltration into humanity, the survival system began to take prominence through the hindbrain/reptilian brain.  The hindbrain then forms strong neural networks with the limbic system to activate the fight, flight, freeze system and the whole reactionary thinking and emotional mind.  It is through this system that limiting beliefs and negative emotions condition the receptor sites of the body’s cellular structure to be conditioned to the fear-based consciousness and biochemistry (See also work of Dr. Joe Dispenza).
In our journey of transformation, we are awakening the heart and shifting the brain’s electromagnetic activity to the prefrontal cortex.  This re-establishes the prefrontal limbic and feeling body connection.  Through heart-centered meditative awareness we emanate an 8Hz heart and 8Hz to 4Hz low alpha/theta brainwave.  It is the development of this communications circuit that shifts human consciousness beyond the reptilian brain system of fight, flight, and freeze response and the reactive thinking and emotional system.  We also find that the shift from the hindbrain to the prefrontals reduces an overactive activity of the parietal lobes (See Arjuna Ardagh, “Awakening Into Oneness: The Power of Blessing in the Evolution of Consciousness,” pp. 60-61).  This part of the neocortex orients awareness in time and space, but when it is more active than necessary for the body’s functioning, it reinforces the separateness of the false self and egoic thinking mind.

The Relationship of Sound and the Electromagnetic Spectrum
The ways we express the soul with the heart, brain, and body as a vehicle of consciousness determines how the light, information, and energy of consciousness is manifesting as electromagnetic and sound waves within the dimensional experience of consciousness.  We have discussed how the electromagnetic spectrum (light) is a knowing mode of consciousness, and how sound frequency is the feeling mode of consciousness.  Both electromagnetic and sound frequencies are manifested from higher dimensional energy organizing at the physical frequencies of consciousness.  While we are yet to understand the precise relationship between light and sound, it is clear that they form an integral harmonic.  Ultimately, light and sound are one in consciousness.
In the physical realm, it can be debated whether sound frequencies create light, or whether light precedes sound.  For example, sound is known to affect the light producing properties of the pineal gland, as well as the capability of transforming light energy into sound.  This occurs through the heart to Light mind connection.
Sound may also be a carrier wave for the electromagnetic frequencies of intent.  Regardless of the exact means of interaction, there seems to be a bi-directional relationship where coherent light can affect harmonic sound in the body, and harmonic sound can affect the resonance of coherent electromagnetic frequencies.

Light and Sound are One in Divine Infinite Consciousness
In the being and emanation of Divine infinite consciousness, light and sound are one.  Knowing and feeling are in unity.  The two unique modes of physical light and sound waves as experience through an incarnate body are one singular knowing.  The oneness of intuitive insight and feeling is our true being of love and creativity.  As we continue to ascend in consciousness and embody the Divine consciousness in the physical, we are awakening and evolving to the experience of sound and light as one.
The true human being is infinite Divine consciousness, information, and energy that is the oneness of the pure light transduced into electromagnetic frequencies in unity with its feeling frequencies of sound.  Within incarnate form, this is experienced and expressed through heart consciousness.  Within the dimensionless spiritual realms where the non-physical Light is beyond the electromagnetic spectrum, light has its own intrinsic feeling without sound.  In the incarnate dimensional universe, there is the beauty and gift of sound as a particular quality of experiencing light as feeling.
As we express the freedom of consciousness within the interior of the heart, the harmonic energy moves toward the exterior in an infinite expansion.  The harmonic pulse of the inner-outer movement is the soul’s expansion through the physical body while in the physical matter dimension of the universe.  The awakening to a perfect synchronization of the expansion and contraction pulsation without restriction is part of the Divine infinite consciousness through a Divine body.
The cellular consciousness of this body will be fully crystalline in nature as it transmits and receives the Divine energy through the Light mind within the heart.  At these levels of oscillating light that is transduced from the non-physical light of higher frequencies of consciousness, the crystalline body will exhibit its full bioelectric, magnetic, and acoustical potential.  Thus, the pure harmony of the electromagnetic and sonic energy is the experience of the infinite love and creative expression of the Divine soul incarnate.

How Art Changes Consciousness
By Jacob Devaney

Art can heal us, inspire us, and alter our brain chemistry
With so much talk about the evidence of the positive effects of yoga and meditation, you might be surprised at what scientific research also says about how art effects the brain. Long before modern neuroscience, artists were creating works to inspire people and today complex brain imaging scans can show us just how art changes the physiology of our brains. Contemplation, observing, and taking in beauty all stimulate pleasure centers within the brain while increasing blood flow by up to 10% in the medial orbitofrontal cortex. This can lead to an elevated state of consciousness, wellbeing, and better emotional health.

The blood flow increased for a beautiful painting just as it increases when you look at somebody you love. It tells us art induces a feel good sensation direct to the brain.
– Professor Semir Zeki, chair in neuroaesthetics at University College London
Observing Art Mirror Neurons  are neurons that fire both when a person acts and when the person observes the same action performed by another. This brings us back to a very basic concept in human evolution which involves modeling. When you observe a profound piece of art you are potentially firing the same neurons as the artist did when they created it thus making new neural pathways and stimulating a state of inspiration. This sense of being drawn into a painting is called “embodied cognition”.

Art accesses some of the most advanced processes of human intuitive analysis and expressivity and a key form of aesthetic appreciation is through embodied cognition, the ability to project oneself as an agent in the depicted scene,
– Christopher Tyler, director of the Smith-Kettlewell Brain Imaging Center

This explains why we might feel like we are dreaming when we look at impressionists like Claude Monet, or having an ecstatic vision while looking at a painting by Alex Grey. The ability of art, combined with our own imagination, to transport us to other realms is astounding. Artists have the ability to show us new worlds but we shouldn’t put them on a pedestal because each of us is an artist.

Making art activates the whole brain and can foster integration of emotional, cognitive, and sensory processes.
– Joan French MA NCC LCPC

Creating Art
The act of creating art is also therapeutic which has been the impetus for the art therapy movement. Every one of us lived like artists as children and we have the ability to bring back this powerful form of expression and self-healing if we allow ourselves to. You don’t need to be an expert to enjoy smearing paint on a canvas and letting your pleasure centers light up like a child!

Art therapy, sometimes called expressive art or art psychology, encourages self-discovery and emotional growth. It is a two-part process, involving both the creation of art and the discovery of its meaning.
– Paula Ford-Martin

Modern Visionary Artists are applying the idea that art inspires community, is educational, and has the capacity to elicit spiritual revelations. Painting together in groups and painting live at musical events, these artists are allowing participants in on their creative process. Seeing and understanding that even the finest pieces of art have many moments when the artist isn’t satisfied or needs to paint over something is revealing for each of us on our spiritual journey.

Celebrating how Art changes ConsciousnessArtist Alex Grey has opened Cosm in New York which is being called a Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Within the Visionary Art Movement is the idea that creativity itself is a path to the divine. This includes creating art, gathering around/celebrating art and creating communities that foster creative expression in all of its forms. Creativity may be one of the greatest things about being human and art can be a great teacher for us on this evolutionary journey.

To awaken and catalyze the spiritual path of each person by providing access to the highest mystic truth through art and creative action.
– Cosm Core Value

We are surrounded by billboards and advertisements which utilize art to persuade us to purchase things that we usually don’t need. There is currently a large movement towards beautifying public places with murals that contain cultural and community relevance. Imagine how we might create a more peaceful, vibrant world by surrounding ourselves with beautiful art…

I’d like to see a world where scientists, politicians, and spiritual practitioners gathered around art to learn and share with each other towards creating a better world. Visual art can heal us, inspire us, and alter our brain chemistry leaving us filled with inspiration and love. We don’t need science to prove this to us but now that it has what are some ways that you will invoke art and creativity for your own spiritual journey?

For me, art is a way of telling your story, expressing your darkest demons, revealing your brightest light, and connecting with something larger than yourself.
– Lisa Rasmussen, MFA

By– Lisa Rasmussen, MFA
Co-Founding Director of Art is Moving and the Harmonia Institute

Here’s a staggering fact – according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America,  18.1% of United States citizens over the age of 18 suffer from an anxiety disorder.
That’s 40 million people.

I am one of those 40 million.As a hypersensitive young child, I suffered from severe shyness, anxiety, social phobia, and panic attacks. Creating art was my cure. It was a way for me to dive deep into my own inner world. It was a place where I felt safe and could swim in my imagination. Art saved my life. The art making process is a perfect laboratory to express oneself, heal trauma and toxic emotions, and to find a deeper meaning in life.

One of the core reasons I started Art is Moving with Lauren is to share the power of art with the world. We both know that taking an art break daily, if even for only 5 minutes, is a soothing ritual and a tool for positive transformation.

If you need scientific proof there are a zillion studies on the healing power of art. For example, this article Creativity and Recovery: The Mental Health Benefits of Art Therapy states that, Studies also show that creating art stimulates the release of dopamine. This chemical is released when we do something pleasurable, and it basically makes us feel happier. Increased levels of this feel-good neurotransmitter can be very helpful if you are battling anxiety or depression.

Basically, Art is a magical tool that provides a powerful emotional outlet.
It takes just a short amount of time to begin feeling the positive effects of taking an art break. After just 15 minutes of drawing I promise you will feel your mood improve. Check out the article here and the research behind it here. 

My life’s mission (and Art is Moving’s mission) is to empower people to create art. Through the art making process one can learn how to dissolve their own limiting beliefs and they can relieve unnecessary suffering.

It can be daunting and a bit scary, but start creating. Try to make something everyday.
Your inner child is yearning to come out and play. Art making is the ultimate self care ritual and it will help you remember who you truly are. Let’s all starting taking an art break to create a happier and healthier world.

Be Inspired Always,
Lisa

Now it’s your turn. Tell us how art saved your life.

Written for my Non-Profit Art Is Moving.
#takeanartbreak

LISA MARIE RASMUSSEN ~ Circa 2000
Lisa Marie Rasmussen was born in Wisconsin and finds her ancestral roots in Scandinavia, Luxembourg, and Ireland.

Lisa remains eternally grateful to her late mother, "Mickey," who cultivated her creativity and imagination, and who immersed her into the world of art. Her mother provided her with unyielding support, encouragement and inspiration. In addition, she taught her daughter to see that we are one with the natural world, a lesson that remains central to Lisa's work.

Lisa's creative process begins with the premise that we are connected to the universe. Through her art, she attempts to portray how the universe "speaks and dances in my eyes and in my soul." Her art is an expression of her core of being and her constant evolution. It taps into archetypal energies and engages the viewer into a surreal landscape of discovery.
Much of Lisa's art has been inspired by dreams. She finds that her dreams take upon new dimensions when she places them on canvas. Her paintings have enabled her to gained layers of "aha's" as well as elicit "aha's" within others.

Her art has also been inspired by transcendental experiences she has had during pilgrimages to sacred places around the globe. Such sites include the temples and mountains of Nepal, the catacombs of Peru, and the rainforest of Costa Rica.

Her vision is to continue to travel to sacred places and to help and guide those who wish to tap into their divine creative spirits. She hopes to inspire others to create and to become a light that helps persons realize our connection to each other, to all creatures and beings, to the universe and to the divine.

Lisa presently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where she lives with her true loves - Griffen, Maya and Paulo - her cats.

THE GREEN TARA
The Green Tara is a bodhisattva - an enlightened being who refuses to go to nirvana until she enlightens all souls. She is the divine Mother - the mother of all the buddhas. She embraced me on a pilgrimage to the Nepalese mountains.

My journey to those mountains was one of healing. I had come to spread my recently deceased mother's ashes into the sacred landscape. I came with a tour group of 14 people. We hiked through the mountains each day. On the day of the most difficult climb, I fell terribly ill. I thought I was going to die. But I got through it. The next day, I felt rejuvenated. I saw the sun rise, and I embraced the beauty of the morning. I felt like I had died the night before, and that I had been reborn. I knew in my heart that this was the right day to spread my mother's ashes.

After breakfast, we began hiking again. In the afternoon, as we were ascending to a monastery in the mountains, I saw a magnificent river carving its way through the landscape passionately. My eyes were drawn above it. Three hundred feet on a cliff, I saw an image of the Green Tara. I was awestruck by the shooting stars painted above her figure. For a few moments, I felt connected to the eternal. I felt my mother communicating with me, telling me that she would always be with me.

On the evening I heard the shocking news of my mother's death, I stared at the sky hoping for an answer... a reason. Blazing through the Chicago night, I saw a shooting star... 'Mom'? That same evening, my older brother also saw a shooting star in the night, as he tormented over my mother's death. We both were moved to write and express this at her wake.

When I saw the shooting stars above the Green Tara, I knew that I was meant to be there at that moment in time. I felt my mother's love, and the warmth of her embrace. For a few moments, I felt that I was one with the universe, and that I would never be alone.
The stars and the Green Tara embraced me. I was filled with peace and a sense of letting go. I knew this place was where my mother wanted her ashes to be united with the universe.
Afterwards, on a short sabbatical in the Ozarks at my family home, my passion for the Green Tara spewed from my paintbrush and my soul. She has been my guardian from the moment I saw her on the cliff. She embraces the world, and assists all who ask for her guidance. She demonstrates her magic when one is letting go... and bliss transcends.