My Healing Journey

The 30th of July, marks the day I shaved my head and my healing journey.  It has been 2 years of intentional healing and working with my self.  You can read more about my Journey with autoimmune desease here.  

That day I was scare but relief, I was letting go control. I kept the piece of hair they cut.  I arrived home, I looked at the mirror, and I learned to love myself a little stronger.  I will share some images of the process.  This images are raw, and a little triggering (trichophobia warning).  But still I want to share them. Because I’m so proud of all the hard work I have been doing. My body attacks me, and I learned to listen to it, care for it, nourish it. As with my hair, I let go of anything else that no longer serves me, including fears.

I’m here, I’m alive, I will continue this healing Journey. I believe in the power we have inside of us to self heal, to find help (medical and physiological), to manifest…We are powerful beings. I still have flare ups, and alopecia, I still have days that I can’t stand up from the bed, but also, there are many days where I create art, I go in nature to my Forest Therapy, I do my intentional rituals, I take my Plant Medicine, I dance, I laugh, I dream, I live!!!

This piece of art is called “Remendada”, is the Spanish word for “patched up”.  I felt broken, many many times, mind and body…and finally, in my 40’s, Im patching up myself, one thread at a time.  The piece was made by transferring a self portrait in a eco printed fabric I did 2 years ago, a long braid of hair they cut that day, is also present…. This is an tribute to my Journey of 2 years, healing my body, my mind and my soul.

I am enough!

I’m thankful to my husband, my daughter, my son. I’m thankful to my family, blood related and not blood related, like my beautiful friends. I’m thankful for my mentors and teachers and strangers that I have met in this path. All of them are very important in this healing Journey.

If you are in a similar Journey, it doesn’t necessary needs to be illness related, but in the Journey of patching yourself up, I want to say: You are Not Alone.  Please contact me, I can be your Journey Allied.

Resources:

For more information on autoimmune:

https://autoimmune.org

The Healing power of art:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/rethinking-mental-health/202104/how-art-heals-5-ways-art-makes-everything-better

https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/629

Photography as a Healing tool:

Self-Portraits as Therapy: The Healing Potential of Photographing Yourself | PetaPixel

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/self-portrait-as-form-of-therapy-121313

Ecotherapy:

https://www.webmd.com/balance/features/nature-therapy-ecotherapy

Forest Therapy:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-forest-therapy-enhance-health-and-well-being-2020052919948

Ritual as Healing tool:

https://clearmindtreatment.com/using-ritual-to-heal-in-your-recovery/

Soltice

Yesterday was Solstice. Traditionally, summer and winter solstices helped mark the changing of the seasons—along with their counterparts, the spring and autumnal equinoxes.

I wanted to make my Solstice ritual, I had it all planned out. Art journaling was included in that plan. But the day before Solstice, I was laying in my bed, unable to move because of an autoimmune flareup. All day in my bed, feeling bad for all the things I couldn’t make or do.

I took a deep breath, I just surrendered to my body, it was talking to me and I listened. I saw myself with compassion and love, and I just rested. Yesterday, I was able to move, and even stand up. My first thought was “I need to go to the patio and lay on the grass, and let the sun kiss me”. So I did. After that, I asked my daughter for new pictures of me. My hair is growing after months of battling hair loss. We went to the back of my house, and there, with the sun giving me his blessings in the Solstice, I felt like I was healing more and more.

Solstice was powerful for me. And it was just as simple as feeling well enough to standup from my bed. I can make art journal any other time, I can do my rituals any other time, I can write whenever I want to..I’m doing it right now!

Nature is alive, the Sun was nurturing her. I was alive, and I felt nurtured too!. Happy Solstice!