There is a hospital in the US, Shands Healthcare in Florida, that has, over the last eighteen years, embraced Art and Creativity and used them to help the patients and staff.

There is a little girl, waiting for a heart transplant who has her room filled with art works she has created herself. Other patients are involved with theatre, dancing and a whole range of other artistic pursuits. Patients are benefitting, and so are the staff. Obviously healthier patients makes a nurse's or doctor's job easier, but some of the medical staff are getting involved in creative writing too.

Dancing can help to get overly high heart rates down, and can help patients with dementia and other mental illnesses, by aiding them to keep greater intellectual, emotional, and motor functions.

Art works in the form of paintings have been a part of modern hospitals, and can help give a soothing feeling to patients, visitors and medical staff. In hospital patients often feel out of control and getting involved in various artistic endeavours can give them back a feeling of being in control.

Ideas for a better life

Ideas for a Better Life
These ideas can lead to a wonderful life. If your life seems bad, and you act that way, there is no room for change, no road to make it better.
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/1610187/ideas_for_a_better_life.html

Ideas for a Better Life

Even if your life isn’t wonderful, act like it is.
Every now and then ask yourself, ‘How can I help people?’
Smile at strangers, especially babies. A smile from a baby is a precious gift.
Helping with no thought of reward is a reward itself.
Every now and then, go outside and just ‘be’ with the sky.
If you see someone looking lovely, tell them.
If someone offers you a compliment, just smile and say ‘Thank you’.
Try to look at things through the other person’s eyes.
Never complain unless you’re prepared to help make it better.
Assume everybody is at least as nice as you are.
Try to make your best behaviour your only behaviour.
Bad things are lessons in life, embrace them and learn.
If you have nothing to do, do nothing. It is a gift.
There are no problems, only challenges and chances to learn.

Stewing – Good for Fruit, Bad for People

Some people worry and stew over issues, and never focus on getting to the main cause of their problems. Stewing is great for fruit, but it is bad for people. If a person is stewing over an issue, they tend to go over and over it, never going toward a solution.

Another way of dealing with problems, a method that has been found to be effective in a huge range of situations, is to actually write your thoughts down. Journal writing has been going on for centuries.

Journal writing is not just keeping a diary. People from many different cultures have written in journals for many different reasons, including personal reflection, record keeping, scientific observation, cultural analysis, and travel documentation. These journals are an amazing record people’s lives from the past.

So if you begin keeping a journal, you can be creating a resource for the future, both for yourself and for those who come after you. A journal is different from a diary in a few vital ways. A journal can take up pages and pages, it is not limited to one page with the date and available space dictated. A journal is for whichever days you have the time to write, and you won’t have accusing blank pages if you can’t write anything for a while. Many attempts at keeping a diary are abandoned because of those empty pages that say you haven’t been doing what you should.

A journal though, is a place where you can write down thoughts as they occur to you, you can burrow deeply into your thoughts and you can travel far and wide with your thoughts. As you journey, you will make discoveries about yourself and others, and about your life. You might realise you are in the wrong relationship, you might re-discover the love you have for your partner.

It will be all written down for you, and for you alone, unless you want to share. It is important to put a date on your journal entry, so that in the future, when you go back and read what you have written, you can remember the circumstances you were facing when you made the entry. It can be empowering for you to go back and read, and realise you solved whatever the problem was with the knowledge you gained through your journal.

Many creative people have kept journals, including perhaps the most creative person ever Leonardo Da Vinci. He kept his journal as the place to try ideas out, to see them in two dimensions so that they could later become three dimensional. Where would the world be now if Leonardo hadn’t kept a journal? We would be a poorer place.

You may not have the mind power of Leonardo Da Vinci, but, with your journal, you can become a more thoughtful and more creative person. Your journal can be the first home for new poetry, you can try out new characters or story ideas in your journal. Some people plot out ideas for craft projects, which become an invaluable resource when starting new projects. You have a record of what did and didn’t work, so you don’t need to make the same mistakes again.

If you have personal problems you are worrying about, your journal can be where you try out ideas, rehearse conversations you might have. Your journal can be where you make a list of the worst thing that might happen, given the current situation. Sometimes, when your problem is written down in your journal, you might realise it isn’t as bad as you’d thought, and others have problems far worse than yours.

A journal doesn’t have to be ornate and fancy, but some people like the idea of having a very special book to be their journal, to emphasise the importance of the journal in their life. Some others keep it simple believing the words they write down are the most important thing. Both types of journal are correct – the journal is so personal to you, you cannot be wrong in the type of journal you want to write in. Lined pages, if you are not into drawing, make the writing and reading of your journal easier, but blank pages are ideal if you draw diagrams and word webs. Check out the stationery section of a store and find the journal you want.

Try to set aside a certain time for your journal writing, but don’t stress if you can’t write. And if you sit down with your journal there open in front of you, and then can’t think of anything to write, write that down. Then if you think you are wasting you time and you are stupid, write that to. Start a conversation with yourself, arguing whether you are or aren’t stupid. You might be surprised at where you end up going with that discussion. Just get in the habit of simply opening up your mind and writing down the words as they come. There is nothing lovelier than re-reading you words months or years later and realising the wonder and beauty of your words.

Keeping a journal is a promise you keep to yourself, that you think your own words are worthwhile and precious. That thought is a nurturing thought and your self-nurturing is vital in maintaining your idea of self-worth. You are special, your journal proves it, in your own words.

Give journal writing a place in your life. You deserve it.

Wondering What to Blog About

Some days are filled with ideas, some days are not. Today brought one of the not filled with ideas moments to me when I decided it was time to finally create a new post for this blog.
I'm feeling tired, a little concerned about on of our dog's health, and worn out after a lawn bowls game.

I also am contending with on and on barking from another of our dogs, and warfare happening on the TV screen about five metres from where I'm sitting (my son is home from school and killing the enemy, in his loving kind of way).

I didn't feel up to writing a lengthy piece on creativity, but I had to do something.

So I opened a blank page on my computer and started typing in phrases, just as they occurred to me, based on the theme of creativity and wellness. I did a couple of very scratchy Google searches first and got typing.

This is what I came up with, all within the space of about ten minutes.

• Arts and good health
• Creativity may ward against Alzheimer's disease
• Dancing your way to happiness
• Literature, thinking and health
• New ideas, new ways of living and thinking
• Creative crafts to help with arthritis
• Sick of the daily grind of “What’s for tea”? Get creative, you’ll enjoy the cooking more, and they might get a pleasant surprise
• So many writers are mad – does literature lead to insanity?
• Creativity can help with depression
• Creative people are fun people
• Ideas are never totally bad, bad ideas lead the way to good ideas
• Strengthen you child's chances in life, nurture them and nurture their creativity too

If I can do this, this quickly, imagine what you can do with more time and more research. Any one of my points could lead to something much, much bigger. And every person would come up with different results, because we are human beings, we are creative creatures!

Let you mind go free and ssee what you can come up with.