Big Ups

This is an awesome note from Miss Pat at Divine Mercy Catholic Academy, who we visited in July. Thank you, everyone at Divine Mercy, for such an inspiring time.

"I've seen a remarkable change in the students who attended Arts & Dreams in July. The program lifted their self esteem, they learned meditation, how to paint and how to love themselves and others as they are. Arts & Dreams is a program to remember. Looking forward to having Arts & Dreams come back to our school at a later date."

"Miss Pat" Geremia
Administrative Assistant
Divine Mercy Catholic Academy

October 6: Arts & Dreams at MPL's Manifesting Circle

Arts & Dreams are guest speakers at MPL's Manifesting Circle on October 6th!

The hour will include a conversation about manifesting, guided manifesting exercises with Joanne Morton, Founder of The MPL Project, and a talk with us, the Arts & Dreams team, Laura Baran and Patricia Geremia. We're going to share our personal experiences and how Arts & Dreams came to be. Everyone leaves with a gift. It costs $10. RSVP is necessary. Learn more here.

Manifesting Circle
October 6, 2009 (Tuesday), 7:30-8:30 pm
Magic Passion Love Studio on Doyers Street, NYC

Update: Here we are after the Circle! Laura, Joanne Morton of MPL, Patricia and Joanne's painting

Suggestions for Using Affirmations

We love affirmations. They're confidence-building statements with a positive essence. They make us feel good. In our Arts & Dreams affirmation paintings workshop, we explain what an affirmation is, then each child creates their own affirmation painting.

For older kids (like us), the concept of an affirmation can be understood more deeply. The spirituality inherent in affirmations is described in a book we recently came across. These wonderful excerpts about using affirmations are from Nurturing Spirituality in Children by Peggy Joy Jenkins, Ph.D.

Affirmations are positive statements about who we are and what we can become or experience. Almost anything we really want to change about ourselves can be changed by using positive declarations or affirmations. The change is in our belief about ourselves.

The most important affirmations for children are those that build their self-esteem. Self-esteem is the foundation of joyful, successful lives. Many parents and teachers teach their small children to use the magic words "I like myself." Such words foster friendliness and cooperation because we must first like ourselves in order to like others. Encourage the children to use these magic words three times when they wake up and when they're about to go to sleep in order to counteract the bombardment of put-downs from self and others that they may experience throughout the day.

Older children can use "I feel warm and loving toward myself" or "I love myself totally and completely." The "self" referred to is the Higher Self, and these words mean that the children are affirming the Spirit within them.

The more joyous the emotion you attach to the affirmation, the more effective the affirmation will be. Feelings, both negative and positive, have formative power.

Arts & Dreams August 2009 Workshops at MPL Studio!

We're honored that the Magic Passion Love Studio in Chinatown is hosting our upcoming workshops! Clicking the schedule enlarges it and makes it clearer.

August workshops are for 6 children each and can be catered to suit additional age groups. For more information and to register, please email us at artsanddreams@gmail.com.

What We Do

"What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. Self-approval and self-acceptance are the keys to positive changes."- Louise Hay

Arts & Dreams at Divine Mercy Catholic Academy in Ozone Park - July 21, 2009

Affirmation Paintings!

These are just a couple of the beautiful paintings. They were all amazing!
Here's what some of the kids had to say about the workshop:

Brandon (Grade 8):

"During summer school, I had the best time ever. The affirmations were fun to learn about. Hopefully I can get my cousin to do this also. Her birthday is coming up and she loves painting. She also wants to be an artist. I showed her the picture of mine and she wanted to do at least 3 on her walls. Thank you so much for everything."

Amanda (Grade 6):

"On July 21, 2009 Arts & Dreams came to my school. My favorite part was that I was painting. I felt happy and proud of what I did. Thank you so much for the time, I hope that you could come back again."