Episode 056 - Corry MacDonald

In today's episode, I welcome Corry MacDonald! Corry is a creative healer and first-time author, and she uses her love of the arts and her background in art therapy to help people overcome obstacles and move forward. She shares about her book-writing process and the stories of clients she's helped that have touched her heart as much as she touched theirs. (Fun fact: the cover image is a picture of Corry!)

 

Get in touch with Corry MacDonald: https://www.creatinghealingwithcorry.com/ | https://www.facebook.com/CorryMacDonaldPage/ | https://www.instagram.com/corrymacdonald/

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Episode 56 - Corry MacDonald

Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome to Artfully Told, where we share true stories about meaningful encounters with art.

[00:00:06] Krista: I think artists help people have different perspectives on every aspect of life.

[00:00:12]Roman:  All I can do is put my part in to the world.

[00:00:15] Elizabeth: It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. It doesn't have to be perfect ever really. I mean, as long as you, and you're enjoying doing it and you're trying your best, that can be good enough.

[00:00:23] Elna: Art is something that you can experience with your senses and that you just experiences as so beautiful. 

[00:00:31] Lindsey Dinneen: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Artfully Told. I'm your host Lindsey, and I am delighted to have as my guest today, Corry McDonald, she is a creative healer and first time author, which is so exciting. Can't wait to hear all about it. So, Corry, thank you so much for being here today.

[00:00:51] Corry MacDonald: Oh, I'm so happy to be here, Lindsey. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course. I'd love to hear more about your background, sort of what got you into the work that you do now maybe, and just art and you and, and how all that intersect. So I'd love to hear all of that.

[00:01:08] Corry MacDonald: Yeah.  It's why I'm so excited to be on your podcast because there are so many pieces to what I'm doing as a creative healer, but the thread that joins them all is creative power and creative intelligence and art. So in a nutshell, what drives me is I believe each one of us is meant to really just flow as the creative intelligence we are so that we can leverage life's challenges. Like whatever comes at us with stress, pain, triggers, heavy emotions, all whether body, mind, spirit, and we can learn to leverage them. And in real time, because underneath those things, there's wisdom and new potentials to access rather than just getting derailed by them. So think of it as artists who upcycled broken or discarded pieces to transform them into these masterpieces. You know, we also can learn to do this with our heaviest life pieces.

[00:02:06] So how that all came about is a lot of broken pieces in my life early, in my earlier years, I'm coming into 50 now. And so I learned a lot of incredible, creative power tools that help take me from a downward spiral up into a much lighter way of being. So those kind of weave together now. So whether it's like transpersonal art therapy. I started in art and design and then I started to learn after the art therapist or to learn about energy healing, learning that we're all energy and how we can learn to move from less of our overactive beta thinking mind into our heart, feeling mind. So I became a heart speaker, advanced cognitive coach, all these things that I do to help me. I started to get trained in them and smash them all together to become a creative healer, which is what I do now.

[00:03:04] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. And I love the idea that you were talking about of upcycling.  But I just love that. What a great illustration. And it's just a perfect way of thinking about how, you know, nothing that happens in our life needs to be wasted. It can all be replanted, you know?

[00:03:24] Corry MacDonald: Oh my gosh, I just got complete goosebumps when you said that. Cause it's, that's it! Like nobody taught us this in school, right? Like we learned lots of great stuff in school. Don't get me wrong. But I, this is stuff that-- this is life. And there are things that come into our life and it's actually, I'm learning, I call it creative intelligence. Some people, whatever your higher power is, you know, a source, great spirit, Allah, God, you know, there is a big energy, a creative force that is on the macro in, in, you can see it. I mean, just look into the universe, look into the stars at night, but that universal intelligence, the creative intelligence, I call it, is running and humming through us too. So it is ready to transform whatever stuff is coming at us, but we, we need to learn how to do that.

[00:04:18] Because most of the time we just react, which-- it's our wiring. We go into fight/flight/freeze, but we can override these systems and find new and better ways of being, and create different realities. And I I'm so grateful actually for all of the life that I've lived because I had to go through some --I call it off-roading, like four by four-- I had to go through some rough waters and rough roads to kind of have my self look deeper and go, "Wait a minute. I want to approach this different." And the minute we start looking for a higher or a, a better, vaster solution. Again, we're co-creating with the universe. So it dovetails and the helpers will come, like whether the right book or the right course or the right conversation with the person at the checkout. It doesn't matter. Something will help to upshift and upcycle, whatever you're wanting to. So it's a beautiful, natural process of life. We're meant to grow.

[00:05:20] Lindsey Dinneen: I love that. Yeah. And that's so encouraging to realize exactly what you're saying, that there's so much more. And if you can help yourself and just be more aligned with truth, then that makes such a difference in your life, which is, you know, obviously transformative. Well, I would love to hear about how art specifically has kind of impacted and influenced your work, because I know that's a big component for you of what you do and sort of your own processing.

[00:05:55]Corry MacDonald: Yeah. Fantastic. I mean, even-- I love that question because even when I went to art school, I just kind of did it, Lindsey, 'cause it was the only thing that kind of lit me up, not even I, I was in university and I was one of these people --I did kind of do everything pretty well and easily. I had a good memory. I could study stuff, but it didn't excite me. And I was thinking, I'm going to just fail, go travel. And I remember how it was. I grew up in Canada. So I remember at the university, I had to take an arts elective, you know, so I just thought, "Well, I love to paint. I'll just take the fine arts." And I, the prof was almost failing me. I thought, "I'm not even good. I'm not good at this. I'm not going to continue." Even though it was the one thing I really loved, I love to express more of myself.

[00:06:46] And I remember him saying, "You know, Corry, I'm sad to hear, you're not going to try to get into art school." And I said, "Well, you're my lowest mark in my average," because I was all about the marks then, you know, and he said, "I'm doing that 'cause I'm pushing you. I think you should apply." So we ended up becoming partners. And he kind of helped me to create a portfolio and I got into art school. And when I got in there, I realized very quickly that I was wired-- I could do all this stuff that I was learning-- but I was wired for the emotive stuff. Like I could feel people's energy in their art and not in critiques. I was noticing that, and the profs were noticing I was much more interested to talk about what's going on internally with people, not about the arts, separate from the, the emotions and the feelings.

[00:07:38] So a few of the profs pulled me aside and said, "You know, have you ever heard of art therapy? You might consider that, Corry, you're really leaning that way." And I had no idea that that existed. So then it just enfolded in life, you know, that I went that path, but that is so exciting to me because that tells me that this path was there before I even knew I was going to go. And for a while, I even resisted it because I kind of thought, "Who am I to be a therapist?" My life was such a mess at the time. I just ran away from it, but it kept coming. You know, I kept taking psychology courses or we'd move to a new country. And I met a new lady, a new friend today, and she's an art therapist. Like I kept attracting it into my life, you know, so eventually I went there, I went to that direction.

[00:08:30] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course. And so in your work as an art therapist, what are some stories that stand out where you got to witness, or was your own experience of witnessing art, having a really big impact on someone's life, like a moment to remember?

[00:08:50] Corry MacDonald: Oh, I'm so excited to share that, Lindsey, in the book that just came through me. And that's another exciting thing that, you know, we don't even see where we put limits on ourselves. And I just never thought I would write a book. I just thought I was all about creating with a paintbrush or, and hammer and nails. I like sculpting too, but all of a sudden during the lockdown, this book came through and it was-- so many stories came through of what you just asked for. And that was, as the stories came through, I then reconnected with past clients and said, you know, this book, "Life in Full Colors," is coming through. It's called "Unlock your Childlike Curiosity to Uncover and Activate the Creative Intelligence You Are."

[00:09:32] So I was starting to write and all these past clients, I said, "Can I use your story?" And there are two that really stand out. But as we're talking, I wonder if I could just read-- it's a few paragraphs-- the story of Talia, because it was powerful what happened in her art, and I think we can all relate. So Talia came when I was just in new to being a creative healer. So this is a section in the book called Facing Fear to Find a New Focus. It's about going to that stuff that is painful, but we can upcycle it. I saw this happen for Talia, a soft-spoken woman who joined one of my workshops to discover that she took up very little space in her own life. While she had a sense that her vibrancy had been swallowed by her new role as a practical-minded, at-home mother, it wasn't until she saw it reflecting right back at her from her artwork that she realized how small her self-worth had become. Amid a chatty group busily creating magazine collages to express who they perceive themselves to be, Talia sat pensively.

[00:10:42] The emptiness of her large white paper engulfed the only image she managed to set into her collage: a lone peering eye. For Talia, I could see this eye felt almost unbearable to own. And yet that is exactly what she did. As she looked into the eye, surrounded by all the white space, it looked straight back at her. At first, she gazed back disturbingly as the expanse of emptiness echoed back the emptiness she felt inside. And then something happened. She just started to grow easier with it, that lone eye-- initially piercing and judgmental --transformed for Talia. Now she had a focus partner to help her to look below the surface of her life. Her artwork became an invitation to honor the silent space within her life is in the collage, allowing Talia to be intentional with what she chose to fill that space. As she listened inwardly to her creative intelligence, she recognized she could now consider her happiness and explore her life as a blank page, waiting to be filled.

[00:11:57] What followed that powerful pivot point were many more moments for her using art to express her innermost self, and to her delight, her color-filled creations became more and more vibrant and radiant, as did her life, recognizing she'd uncovered her passion. She took up the series of art classes, until one day, she began to introduce herself as an artist. She discovered a whole dimension of herself by literally moving through the eye of her personal storm to allow the fullest expression of herself.

[00:12:32]Lindsey Dinneen: Wow. That's really beautiful.

[00:12:37] Corry MacDonald: That's all of us. That's all of our story. That's why I share it today. You know, we don't even know what's inside of us until we go there, but that can be the scariest thing in our mind. And yet when we jump in, our heart joins us and we start to get coherence and we get a new rhythm and find things that want it to be expressed just start to flow out. But it takes the fit of courage, doesn't it?

[00:13:08] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, yes, it does. Yeah. That's a beautiful story. I'm so glad she was willing to share that because what a, what a perfect illustration of the way that, you know, one seemingly-- maybe it could have been insignificant, so to speak-- encounter with art, literally transformed her life. I love that.

[00:13:30] Corry MacDonald: Yeah, it really did. Yeah. And it's, it was such a joy, Lindsey, because you know, that was seven years ago when I had-- maybe eight now-- and so to go back to Talia and to all the others and say, "Guys, this book is coming through me like a download, and I'm having all these moments pop into my consciousness and they're streaming into these pages. Can I share? And how are you? And I miss you." And then they, all of them said yes, which was really cool, 'cause I met them at a time where they wouldn't want to share, but it was like unanimous. They said, "People need to know that it's that, especially people who think 'I don't have a creative bone in my body' like this, it's not about art, the stuff we're making." You heard, she stuck an eye on a piece of paper and that did something.

[00:14:23] And also with, with the art therapy, you know, it's not even about the arts so much. It's about the process. Much of what we do is like just doodles on a page. We're moving energy out onto the page. So it's our emotions are essentially energy in motion. So then we get to actually see them and look at ourselves outside of ourselves. So all of the people who shared their stories, they were in such a different place in their lives, such a more open and more rich place, that it was really amazing, Lindsey, to think, "Wow." That one moment you had on that, in that workshop, you know, you think about the butterfly affect and how that impacts so many pieces down the road and their relationships, their marriages. So it's, you mentioned earlier, like when we take care of ourself, like how powerful that is, and it's true. It has a big resonance, because then those around us in our immediate world feel that it's felt and it's experienced by them. But then it also goes out with, they can measure this now energetically, but what's out to our communities. It goes out to that, even the trees and plants around us, like it's all connected. So it's quite phenomenal when we start to upshift and upcycle ourenergy, the impact we do have on our world.

[00:15:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Well, congratulations on your book. This is super exciting. Do you want to share more about how that all came to be?

[00:15:59] Corry MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah, because like, as I mentioned, I did not see it coming and yet it's one of those things when you look back, you think, " Come on, Corry, how did you miss that? It's coming." Do you ever have that in your life where you look back and you think, "Oh, there were hints along the way?"

[00:16:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, yes.

[00:16:18] Corry MacDonald: Yeah. And that's how it was with this book because I, I am one of these people that when I go into something, I just dive in so that I kind of forget everything else around me. It's like part of that creative process, right when you're in flow. And so actually the book kind of happened like that, that it was suddenly locked down, and now I'm in Belgium, but at the time we were living in Dubai in the Middle East and it was very strict there and they can be because, you know, they have  cameras and drones everywhere. So it was really locked.  And, but I just really kind of dove into that and thought, "Oh, I'm going to kind of treat this as my own time, like a silent retreat in a sense." And so in the house there, there was a-- we have three teenagers and then the dog and everyone was in the house, my husband, and then there's a little house off to the side, like a little extra room and I just kind of delve in there cause I could get into my own space and I call it in the-- in my book-- the creative space called The Cloud. And I was thinking to get away and have some kind of meditation time, maybe paint a bit.

[00:17:29] All of a sudden, I got a kind of message. It's like a whisper in my ear. It said, "Grab your laptop." So I grabbed my laptop. Then after I would meditate all of a sudden, boom, I would just receive like a download of a chapter. It would just come out. And I realized, I think this is a book that I tried to start writing like five years ago, but  I was doing it so much from my mind, my kind of mind and the ego. Like this is my book. I'm going to write my book. And it wasn't flowing. And then life happened that I was really doing a lot of inner work, where it was really getting my heart and mind aligned, which is creating heart coherence and heart math tells us. And when we start using our whole mind-- and of course I share this in the book too-- there's our thinking mind and our feeling mind, and that feeling is located in the heart. And often it's not-- in Western culture-- not really tapped into so much because it looks messy and childlike and it looks like a kid. Think of a kid in preschool, going nuts on a painting.  There's no sense of time. There's no-- it's, it's imaginable, but it's essential because it's our intuition and all of these things. Whereas our thinking mind, it's also essential. It's keeps track of time.  It organizes. It's very, you know, methodical, but if we get too much in that thinking mind, we lose the wonder and magic of life and we lose the creative power.

[00:19:00] So I had been doing all this work to integrate the two, and like hard math tells us that there's a magnetic pull to the heart, that feeling mind of 5,000 times stronger than when you're in your, just your thinking mind alone. So all of the sudden I'm within this great alignment that, yeah, I'm sure that's why a book could flow in so quickly. And so all the skeletal structure of the book I had created with my thinking mind five years before, it still was there, it was in my memory. So I had a framework for it, but all those little spontaneous hits of, yeah--Talia's moment, that should go there!  And all of those downloads of memories and ideas and teaching, breaking these seven steps, because it suddenly formed seven transformative tools that leveraged life's challenges is  your ultimate art material. These seven steps showed up. And that was gorgeous because it became like doing a painting to me where you're blending ideas and you're, you know, having kind of a rhythm of things going and I realized, "Well, maybe writing could be another art form that I've never considered for myself, you know?" So it was a fun process for sure.

[00:20:17] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. That sounds so fun. I love that you were sort of in that flow state of just "here it is." It's just coming for you. What a wonderful way to write a book.

[00:20:29] Corry MacDonald: Oh my gosh. Yeah, because when I, like I said, five years before I was trying to write a book. And when you're trying, or you're saying, "I should sit down to write," you're not in flow, you're just forcing something. So it was a different feeling. It was power versus force, which I loved. And, and now people feel that when they're, when I'm getting the reviews and people say, "Wow, I feel like I'm..." My husband said, "Corry, this feels like you're right beside me, like your voice. And it feels like I'm in a workshop with you." And that's what I wanted, especially with COVID. Now I want to, to give people the power tools that they could, if they're stuck somewhere, all they need is a pack of crayons and a personal problem or challenge-- well, we all got those-- and to see, to learn, "Oh my gosh, I can take this relationship that seems to be falling apart because I'm stuck at home with my whatever-- grandma or my daughter or my, my spouse-- or I can take this backache that just doesn't go away and I can use it and get information from it through this process." So that's been really exciting because I think that's it. We need to help each other and give each other tools.

[00:21:44] And the most beautiful thing is there's a non-for-profit I support in Canada who are bringing art therapy to immigrants and refugees who come and I feel this affinity to them. I've just such a kinship to them because I've lived overseas for almost twenty-five years, willingly. And even then it's been challenging at times, but a lot of people are coming from like war-torn areas or they're just, they're struggling. They leave a traumatized area so often to be retraumatized when they enter into a culture that maybe doesn't accept them or doesn't like the religion or what have you, you know? And so I'm partnered up with this Vancouver Island counseling center for immigrants and refugees. So all the net proceeds of the book go to them. And so not only is the reader uplifted, but they know they're lifting another just by getting the book. So I'm grateful that it all flowed in the way it did. And it's still flowing out and lifting others energetically.

[00:22:44] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, that's beautiful. Oh my goodness. What a cool organization too.  That sounds like such a needed thing. And I just love that that's what they're doing. Oh, very cool. Well, so I'm, I'm curious you know, if there's a listener who is thinking, "Oh, you know, maybe I should try this," do you have like a very, maybe simple exercise for someone to just start with?

[00:23:13] Corry MacDonald: Oh, yes, let's share that. That's great. And actually, I put a bunch on my website, which is got an area called like Resources and then under-- well, it's in the dropdown under my book-- and like listeners, definitely, if you're interested, go there 'cause there's some PDFs where I teach you playfully how you can-- for example, there's a "How to Do a Massage". I was missing massages so much. How to create an  massage from the inside out as you use your imaginal world and colors. So there's that. And there's "Create Calm and Colors with Your Breath" and "Creating Direct Path Home to Yourself." There's different fun little exercises you can do that, you can go right inside, but right now you could even do this energetically. And when I say that, I mean, just with your imagination.

[00:24:03] Lindsey Dinneen:  Thank you for that. And you know, I'm sure that our listeners are going to want to connect with you and follow your work and hopefully purchase a copy of your book. Is there a way for us to do that?

[00:24:16] Corry MacDonald: Yeah, thanks for asking. You can definitely, you're always welcome to tuck into my website, which is creatinghealingwithcorry-- and Corry is spelled C O R R Y .com, creatinghealingwithcorry.com, and that website is just a colorful schmozzle of, of stuff for ya. There's the, like I said, the resources. There, there's all the little links to my social media. So I've just started a new YouTube channel,  just learning all this stuff. And I've put a lot of these kind of playful processes in there in time-lapse. So they're quick. You can just think, "I'm really angry. What do I do?" Tuck in: I've got one on anger. I, just all different trapped emotions that get stuck and make us feel off you can find there, but there's all sorts of stuff. And the information about my book is there as well and how you can find it on Amazon and the, if, if you want to try it out, test it out. There's a little place you can sign in for a free chapter. And I also share a free creative exercise from the book in there, so you can test drive it, but it's on Amazon in ebook and paperback too. And it's called "Life in Full Colors."

[00:25:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Perfect. Thank you. Well, I always like to ask my guests the same three questions if you're okay with that.

[00:25:40] Corry MacDonald: I love this idea.

[00:25:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. So first of all, how do you personally define art or what is art to you?

[00:25:50] Corry MacDonald: Oh, art to me is pure expression from anybody's soul: on a page, in a meal, it can be the way they garden, the way they put themselves together with their clothes, or sculpture, music. Oh, any pure expression from the soul.

[00:26:09] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, I love that. Okay. And then what do you think is the most important role of an artist?

[00:26:17]Corry MacDonald: Oh, artists are the way-showers.  Most of us are stuck in our, our brains, myself included. Why do you think I share this? I have to learn what I'm sharing. So the artists seem to know that when they go into that flow state, when they go into that still point inside and bring something into the world that was never seen before, that they're dovetailing with all of life, with consciousness itself. And so  they show those who've never gone there before what's possible, and they bring something new to form, which is sheer magic.

[00:26:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Oh, wow. That's a really unique perspective. Thank you for that. I love that. And then my final question, and I'll define my terms a little bit, but do you think that art should be inclusive or exclusive? And by inclusive, I'm referring to an artist who puts their work out into the world and provide some context behind it, whether it's a title or program notes or the inspiration, something to give a little bit of background. Versus exclusive referring to an artist who puts their work out there and doesn't provide context so it's solely up to the viewer to determine what they will.

[00:27:32] Corry MacDonald: Oh my gosh, lindsey. Oh, that question just got me so excited because, what a question, right? Because both of them have such a different experience. They offer a different experience. I guess I'm going to answer the latter, in that because of who I am and what I do-- because why I say that is-- so often when someone is new working with me and they decide to express themselves from their heart, they'll be timid the first time. And they'll say, "Well, I feel this is what's coming out of me. Maybe this image is about me wanting to discover myself." And then they'll look at me and say, "But what do you see, Corry?" And then I laugh because I say, "Well, everything I see is going to be about Corry's story." Just about the same in the workshop group. Like if Lindsey looked at it, you would bring your interpretation for it.

[00:28:31] So I feel that it's quite gorgeous when someone just doesn't explain what it's about. And then all of us can, our souls will make meaning from whatever medicine we need from it, you know? And that's quite powerful to know that, wow, we are able to walk up to something-- I'll even do workshops where I'll say, "Go out in the woods and see what's calling you, bring it back and let's make a group sculpture of it." But each person comes back with a stone or something that has a message for them. So  we're meaning makers. So I like the idea of keeping it kind of open, but letting everybody take responsibility for their own meaning and not, you know, and not me saying, "Well, I see this, so it's that." yeah, that's a great question. Those are great questions, Lindsey. Oh my gosh. Thank you for that.

[00:29:24] Lindsey Dinneen: Of course! Thank you. Well, I love hearing people's perspective and their answers on those questions because, you know, like art, it's completely subjective and it's so much fun to hear people's different interpretations. And like you were saying, sort of you bring your own story into it too, which is fun.

[00:29:42] Corry MacDonald: So it is, but on the flip side of that, I have done that where I had a show and then I invited actually a lot of people who were creating in workshops. And I said, "You guys, now you see, you are creative powerhouses, like join me in the show." And then when we started to hang it,  so many people requested, "Please share some information behind these paintings because we're so curious." So I see the validity of both, you know, and in the end, it was chosen that, okay, we'll share a little bit about these pieces. So it's kind of cool. Like there's, there's, you can have it all and it can all benefit the, the universe because we're always curious ones, aren't we?

[00:30:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so very much for being here today, Corry, I really appreciate it. I love your insight into art. I love your illustration about upcycling, and I just keep thinking, keep picturing a mosaic, you know, how those are historically created with broken tiles, and they're made into something new and beautiful. And I just keep thinking about your, your artwork and your perspective on that. And I just love it. So thank you so much for sharing today. I just really appreciate you.

[00:31:00] Corry MacDonald: Well, I received that in full and I flew it right back to you for creating this space where these sorts of things can be shared because art matters. Beauty matters. If ever we knew that more than ever is now when so much has shut down, we need to share the things that bring our souls alive. So thank you so much for having me. It's been so much fun.

[00:31:23] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, of course, of course. Well, and thank you so much, everyone who has listened to this episode, and I hope you do check out Corry's work. And I, I just appreciate you listening to this episode. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I would love if you would share this with a friend or two, and we will catch you next time.

[00:31:48] If you have a story to share with us, we would love that so much. And I hope your day has been Artfully Told.