Synopses & Reviews
KALEO CHING, M.A. Art, CAMT (Certified Acupressure Massage Therapist), CCHT (Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist), teaches Chi Kung and massage classes at the Acupressure Institute and has a private massage/hypnotherapy practice. http://www.kaleoching.com
ELISE DIRLAM CHING, RN, MA Transpersonal Psychology, M.A. English, CAMT, CCHT, is an award-winning poet and was an RN at the San Francisco County Jail for 25 years.
Elise and Kaleo Ching have cotaught classes in Chi Kung, guided journeying, journaling, art, and maskmaking for personal transformation for the past 21 years in the Bay Area and beyond. Their venues have included John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Program (21 years), Wisdom University, Naropa-Oakland/University of Creation Spirituality, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, San Francisco State University, the Acupressure Institute, the Chi Nei Tsang Institute, the Association for Transpersonal Psychology, Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Acalanes Adult Education, the Earth Medicine Alliance, the Veteran Writers Group, Honolulu Academy of the Arts, Lucasfilm, and many others. The author lives in Walnut Creek, California.
Synopsis
Drawing from the healing powers of qigong and the expressive arts, this book offers a path for personal transformation full of wisdom, compassion, and understanding Tapping the tremendous healing power of qigong and the expressive arts, this beautiful book invites the reader to contemplate the continuum of living, dying, and renewal within this life and beyond. The stories, qigong meditations, and journaling/art processes, including collage and mask-making, are invitations for you to engage them for your own healing, transformation, and wisdom.
Authors, artists, healers, and teachers of qigong and art, Elise and Kaleo Ching draw on their twenty-three years of experience working with others on their paths of personal transformation to present an approach to living and dying that is saturated with wisdom, compassion, and understanding. Through their work, the authors have witnessed many personal journeys of dying, transformation, rebirth--facing terminal illness or loss of a loved one; letting go of old lifestyles and embracing new; connecting with past lives and future dreams. The stories and processes in this book will inspire a wide range of people interested in using qigong practices and meditations, journaling, and art for self-cultivation, mindfulness, spiritual awareness, and healing: artists, clergy, spiritual seekers, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, social workers, chaplains, hospice workers, teachers, students and practitioners of transformative, shamanic, and healing arts.
Synopsis
KALEO CHING and ELISE DIRLAM CHING have cotaught classes in Qigong and art for personal transformation at John F. Kennedy University Arts and Consciousness Program for the past 23 years, in addition to teaching at Ubiquity University, Naropa-Oakland/University of Creation Spirituality, the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts, Lucasfilm, and many others. They are the authors of five books, including
Faces of Your Soul and
Chi and Creativity. The authors live
in Walnut Creek, California.
KALEO CHING, MA, Art, CAMT (Certified Acupressure Massage Therapist), CCHT (Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist), and CMQ (Certified Medical Qigong Practitioner), has a private bodywork practice and teaches Qigong and Hawaiian massage at the Acupressure Institute and McKinnon Body Therapy Center.
ELISE DIRLAM CHING, RN, MA Transpersonal Psychology, MA English, CAMT, CCHT, is an award-winning poet and was an RN at the San Francisco County Jail for 25 years.
About the Author
Tapping the tremendous healing power of the expressive arts, this beautiful book invites the reader to contemplate the continuum of death and rebirth within this life and beyond through personal explorations, guided meditation, journaling, and visual art, including collage-making and maskmaking. Authors Elise and Kaleo Ching draw on their 21 years of experience as teachers and healers working with others on their paths of self-inquiry and transformation to present an approach to living and dying that is saturated with wisdom, compassion, and understanding.
Through their work, the authors have witnessed many personal journeys of dying, transformation, rebirth--facing terminal illness or loss of a loved one, letting go of old lifestyles and embracing new, connecting with past lives and future dreams. These stories, both factual and poetic, provide the focus of this book. The art and journals selected for this book represent the wide range of people using journaling as a method of self-inquiry and healing: artists, ministers, therapists, social workers, chaplains, hospice workers, county jail inmates, public school teachers, and healing arts practitioners in a wide range of Eastern, Western, and alternative modalities.
Contents
Part One: Four Pilgrims and You. Introduction: Your Pilgrimage / Mitch: Death the Unexpected / Reflections on Mitch's Story / Journaling Reflections Questions: Mitch's Story / Conversation with Mitch / Journaling Reflections Questions: Your Changing Awareness / Maria: Dying with Awareness / Reflections on Maria's Story / Journaling Reflection Questions: Maria's Story / Conversation with Maria / Journaling: Your Eulogy / Journaling: Your Estate / Guided Journey: Imagining a Loved One's Dying / Journaling: Imagining Your own Dying / Journaling: Imagining Your Funeral / Chris: Dying, Transformation, and Rebirth in Life / Reflections on Chris' Story / Journaling Reflection Questions: Chris' Story / Conversation with Chris / Journaling Reflection Questions: Transformation and Your Life's Purpose / Guided Journey: Your Inner Sanctuary and Guide / Journaling and Art: Your Inner Sanctuary and Guide / Jessica: Courting Death / Reflections on Jessica's Story / Journaling Reflection Questions: Jessica's Story / Conversation with Jessica / Journaling Reflection Questions: Your Experience of Suicide / Journaling and Art: The Dance of Death and Life / Journaling Reflection Questions: Your Experience of Past Lives / Journaling and Art: Your Personal Chain of Being / Journaling and Art: Your Spiritual Autobiography
Part Two: Creativity and Your Pilgrimage. Why Create Art? / Kaleo: Aysel / Kaleo: Jean-Paul / Journaling: You and Creativity / Journaling: Creativity and Your Lineage / Death and Rebirth Cycles in Life / Elise: Teekkona / Journaling: Your Recent Experience of Loss / Journaling and Art: Your Death/Rebirth Map / Life/Death Guided Journey and Collage / Guided Journey and Collage 1: Your Life Review / Guided Journey and Collage 2: Looking over the Threshold / Sacred Awareness Guided Journey and Collage / Guided Journey and Collage: Your Mandala of Sacred Awareness / Your Personal Oracle Cards / Guided Journey and Collage: Your Personal Oracle / Journaling and Collage: What Is Dying and What Is Being Born in You Today? / Journaling and Art: Your Oracle Card Vessel / Your Changing Face / Guided Journey and Art: Your Changing Face / Selected Bibliography / Books / Films / The Authors / Illustrations / Bea: Song of the Heart / Elizabeth: Mask of My Father / Transition / Tomoko: Dialogue with Self / Rashidah: Spirit Mask