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.

Most people tend to idealize artists, writers, and others of the “creative class” as uniquely gifted. But the capacity to create is part of being human–whether that means writing, making art, cooking, gardening, sewing, dancing, acting, singing, or virtually any activity. In Chi and Creativity, Kaleo Ching and Elise Dirlam Ching show readers how to use a wide range of strategies to harness the energy of chi to uncover, and cultivate, that often elusive inner artist.Based on their popular workshops, the authors offer an integrative process to generate the joy, wonder, and sense of well-being necessary for artistic self-expression. Specific exercises draw on everything from acupressure and breathing techniques to Chi Kung movement and meditation. Through Chi Awareness, the body, mind, emotions, and spirit come into greater harmony. Through guided imagery, they dialogue. Through journaling, they speak. Through art, they join in creative expression of the inner discoveries along the path to greater balance and integration. Chi and Creativity is the authors’ way of sharing this magical transformative process and can be used by anyone who wants to add fuel to their creative fires.

All writers have experienced feelings of isolation and intimidation when they are faced with a blank page. For over twenty years, three women discovered that engaging together in the writing process-rather than working in solitude-rewarded them with a gratifying friendship and a growing anthology of work. This delightful collection is proof that writing need not be a lonely endeavor.

This guide to spiritual empowerment provides a spiritual approach to the psychology of everyday living by offering practical strategies and step-by-step methods for clearing out negative psychic energy. Addressing topics such as spirit interference, spirit possession, and spirit attachment, Diana Burney--who has helped thousands worldwide refocus energies for positive results--shares timeless lessons and basic techniques for psychic protection and spiritual cleansing. Those who feel stuck energetically, emotionally, mentally, or financially will learn tools for healing and self-empowerment that will help them release impediments and accelerate their spiritual journey. In these difficult times, Spiritual Balancing provides answers for readers at all levels of spiritual growth as they seek to establish and maintain equilibrium in body, mind, and spirit. Contents Chapter One: Moving Forward Spiritually Chapter Two: How to Cope With the Ascension Process Chapter Three: Elimination of Barriers Chapter Four: Clearing Your Living Space Chapter Five: Spiritual Protection Chapter Six: Violet Fire Chapter Seven: Spiritual Power Tools Chapter Eight: Spiritual Ecology Chapter Nine: Divine Guidance Chapter Ten: The Empowerment of Meditation Chapter Eleven: Toward Energy Mastery Chapter Twelve: Energy Matrix of Chakras Chapter Thirteen: Awakening Divine Blueprint Chapter Fourteen: Spiritual Growth Exercises Chapter Fifteen: Earth Healings

In Faces of Your Soul, Elise Dirlam Ching and Kaleo Ching combine art and archetypes, meditation and acupressure, guided imagery, journaling, and many different creative processes in a collage of healing knowledge and wisdom. The authors start by stressing the balance of complementary opposites—left brain/right brain, challenge/comfort, practicality/the sacred—as crucial to beginning the journey. Then through guided imagery, they lead readers through subconscious realms to connect with archetypal sources of inner wisdom. This process frees the creative and healing spirit, connecting explorers with the body's instinctive intelligence, which expresses itself through the creation of art. Central to this process is a detailed description of maskmaking—including how to work with a partner to mold each other's gauze mask—balanced with self-explorations of the inner experience of this event. Poetry, personal stories, photographs, and a gallery of Kaleo Ching's evocative totemic masks expand the reader's experience of this richly resonant journey to self.

“The only stability possible is stability in motion.”—John William Gardner In his classic treatise Self-Renewal, John W. Gardner examines why great societies thrive and die. He argues that it is dynamism, not decay, that is dramatically altering the landscape of American society. The twentieth century has brought about change more rapidly than any previous era, and with that came advancements, challenges, and often destruction. Gardner cautions that “a society must court the kinds of change that will enrich and strengthen it, rather than the kind of change that will fragment and destroy it.” A society’s ability to renew itself hinges upon its individuals. Gardner reasons that it is the waning of the heart and spirit—not a lack of material might—that threatens American society. Young countries, businesses, and humans have several key commonalities: they are flexible, eager, open, curious, unafraid, and willing to take risks. These conditions lead to success. However, as time passes, so too comes complacency, apathy, and rigidity, causing motivation to plummet. It is at this junction that great civilizations fall, businesses go bankrupt, and life stagnates. Gardner asserts that the individual’s role in social renewal requires each person to face and look beyond imminent threats. Ultimately, we need a vision that there is something worth saving. Through this vision, Gardner argues, society will begin to renew itself, not permanently, but past its average lifespan, and it will at once become enriched and rejuvenated.

Christians can have confidence that because death is not the end, preparing to die helps us truly live. In this well-researched and pastorally sensitive book, Rob Moll explores the Christian practice of dying well, giving guidance for those who care for the dying as well as for those who grieve. This expanded edition includes a new afterword by Rob's wife Clarissa reflecting on his life, death, and legacy.