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    On the Journey: The Art of Living with Breast Cancer
    On the Journey: The Art of Living with Breast Cancer
    On the Journey: The Art of Living with Breast Cancer
    Ebook162 pages1 hour

    On the Journey: The Art of Living with Breast Cancer

    By Cynthia Thomas

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    About this ebook

    On the Journey:The Art of Living with Breast Cancer is my personal experience of the diagnosis and first phase of treatment of breast cancer. A mammogram confirmed a mass; the biopsy confirmed it was cancer. I was diagnosed with stage 3, breast cancer February 22nd, 2013. That was the beginning.

    I started this series of mandalas to help me get through the Journey on which I was embarking. What has helped me the most has been using art to process my feelings, creating a new mandala each day to move healthy healing energy into my body and process out the negative energy. I knew from the beginning, art was and is essential for my healing. Creating the mandalas and doing the writings On the Journey has supported me emotionally through this difficult time. Doing art, on a nearly daily basis, has kept me focused on the Now.

    Sharing the Journey has helped me. I have learned I am not alone. On January 2, 2014, I was upgraded to stage 4, breast cancer. The Journey continues with the loving support from my community, a sisterhood of survivors and thrivers, friends and loved ones. Hundreds of people have sent me angels, their prayers, their love and support. We all need to know we belong, that we are part of this glorious species: human kind. Enjoy and explore your own journey as well.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBalboa Press
    Release dateApr 22, 2014
    ISBN9781452595283
    On the Journey: The Art of Living with Breast Cancer
    Author

    Cynthia Thomas

    Cynthia Thomas has been a nurse for twenty-eight years with seven of those years spent as a family nurse practitioner. She believes she is called to serve others, both with their physical and emotional needs. In addition, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family. Cynthia and her husband have two grown sons and live in Oklahoma.

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      Book preview

      On the Journey - Cynthia Thomas

      Copyright © 2014 Cynthia Thomas.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      Balboa Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      Balboa Press

      A Division of Hay House

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.balboapress.com

      1 (877) 407-4847

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4525-9527-6 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4525-9528-3 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014905998

      Balboa Press rev. date: 5/1/2014

      Cynthia’s Artwork Photographed By Jim Fagiolo

      Cover Design by Karin Anderson

      17055.png17082.png

      This book is Dedicated to all the women living with breast cancer.

      May we all win back our Health.

      Acknowledgements of Gratitude: I want to share a special thanks to my loving husband, John Dach, who has put up all these years with this crazy, demanding, determined and possessed artist. For all his understanding and patience that he has shown me, especially while I have been On the Journey, through the mastectomy, radiation and recurrence and all the while, supporting me doing my artwork; I thank him for all his encouragement of my artwork even when he did not understand why or what I was doing. To all my family and friends: Thank you for being my anchors and rocks, supporting me throughout the Journey, with Angels, Love and Prayers; and thank you to all the Facebook® followers, who encouraged me to put this book together.

      I want to give a special thanks to my dear friend Dana Driver, fellow artist and my traveling partner over the years, for all her loving support and encouragement.

      A Special thanks to Susan Shaw for helping me choose from over 122 pastels which pastels to put in the book. I thank my friends Linda Chapman ATR BC, Linda Collins Chapman, Susan Burrescia, Suzanne Johnson, Tahaia Johnson, Dru Mogler and many more, for all their support. Each of you has given me so much through listening, your prayers, Angels and support.

      I want to thank the Studio by the Creek artists for their loving encouragement and support: Dee Green, Diana Miller, Beth Taylor, Bettye TaBain, Irene Loghry, Barbara Van Vorst, Gayle Selby, Linda Parcell, Sandra Kasper and Deborah Hilt. I thank the artists at Gallery 9 who have been there for me as well. And to my valiant proofreaders: Kimberly Carroll, Judy Rhodes, Lynne Armstrong, Elise Daniels and John, for proof reading the pages so thoroughly.

      I am very grateful for the cover design by Karin Anderson.

      I could not have put the book together without all your help, encouragement and support.

      I thank you all, from my heart and Soul.

      17040.png

      The Process: Art has been my life. In 2006, I had a rough time. I was unable to create anything. The block was broken when I challenged myself to do a pastel drawing every day. The routine I developed was to write three pages every morning, inspired by The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I would do my prayers and gratitude list and then I present my Self to the white paper. My pastels are laid out like a rich rainbow in their carrying case. I reach for whichever color catches my attention. I then cover the entire sheet of paper with that color. It sets the tone for the morning’s work.

      I sought to understand what I was doing and why, and found that I was on a Chakra Journey. I studied the Chakra color energies to better understand them: 1st Chakra – Root – red, 2nd Chakra – Creativity/Sexuality- orange, 3rd Chakra – Solar plexus/Power – yellow, 4th Chakra- Heart/Love – green, 5th Chakra – Voice – bright blue, 6th Chakra – Third Eye/Insight – indigo blue, 7th Chakra – Crown/Thought – violet. Source/God/Higher Power is white. Often issues would come up and shine through the colors I picked that morning. I draw using lines, forms and colors. I rarely draw representational figures or scenes. I feel the energy and allow it to dictate the healing or the adjustments I need to make in my thinking.

      My conscious goal is to move the toxic negative energies out of my body, mind and spirit and put the healing energies onto the paper. By moving the negativity out, I open my heart to the positive. At the heart of nearly all my mandalas, I bring in the Light. I begin with the pure connection to Source through my soul, my heart of hearts, where we all have this core of pure innocence connected to Source. The core can be deeply buried in the scar tissue of abuse, neglect, abandonment, etc. but it is there in each and every one’s heart of hearts. Reaching the core enlightens us to our amazing power and the possibilities in Life.

      Creating a discipline is the best way to start a creative journey. To engage in art five elements are needed, not necessarily in this order: discipline, focus, patience, mastery and faith. These are what I strive to achieve.

      I do the Mandalas for my Self. It is the meditation I use to go deep in my soul to heal. The words are my way to share the Journey with others. Each person, on their own path, may find healing with the images and/or the words. It has been both an inner and an outer experience, putting words to what I was experiencing through the drawing. This is why I have shared the Journey with friends and now in this book, to the world.

      Mandala: the definition: symbol representing self: in Jungian psychology, a symbol representing the self and inner harmony. I use the circle for containment of my Self. I wish for each and everyone to achieve their path through whatever creative process works for them. This one works for me.

      First Day On the Journey: Protective Cloud. The picture is the first of my Tumor pictures. Strange, it is the same shape as the cloud in my right eye from the retinal stroke last year. A lump was revealed: Right breast. I had a biopsy. Results found cancer. I am scheduled for a mastectomy. I am sorry to shock you. I am in a good place and after all the tests, so far, I am in good shape. Funny how, in light of all this, my priorities are rapidly shifting. The next weeks are

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