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Creative Casey's Blog

Monday, May 9, 2016

SC NAMI Art Therapy Represents

This past weekend SC Mid-lands NAMI organization participated in the NAMI walk to spread awareness about mental health and where to seek help.  I volunteered along with a few other art therapist I've recently met in the Columbia area to create a giant chalk mandala to celebrate at the end of the NAMI walk.

I've never made a giant mandala so it was pretty neat helping with that process.  The design was created by one of the art therapist and it was beautiful.  It took us about 2 hours to create the basic outline and mark the outline with color.   Then we slowly filled in a couple of areas to give participants an idea of what the activity was all about.  As people came to the finish they started joining us in coloring the mandala.  Many children participated and spent a long time coloring while quite a few adults of all ages also participated. Adults were more reserved at first and often colored a small portion. They seemed afraid to "mess up" while the children had no such fear and went to town.   The difference as we get older and our reservations was a neat process to see. We were right in front of the stage so we got to see all of the awards and dancing going on as part of the celebration.  I also got to see some coworkers which was cool.

The end result was awesome. If you want to know how to make a giant chalk mandala send me message and I'll try to write step by step instructions.











Heart and Sole 5 miler

I was lucky enough to have a great friend of mine from Rochester come down and visit me for a weekend in April. I also conned her into running an all women's 5 miler race.  This race went through downtown Columbia and kicked my behind.  Mostly because at about mile 2 after going down a steep city side you then had to hike it all the way back up to the top. Not fun! I made it to the top but had to stop for a minute to catch my breath. Then my legs felt like jello and didn't want to start  back up again.  On the contrary my friend who thought she wasn't prepared felt awesome after the run while I felt like death.

This race was sponsored by Lexington Medical and was to help spread awareness of heart disease in women.  There was a total of 1,300 runners and walkers total.  My favorite part was the last half mile where it was all downhill. I made up some great time at that point. Then at the end I got a rose and 3 chocolate covered strawberries!!!   I also got a great massage afterwards. :)

My time once again wasn't up to par with my last 5 miler which was a little over a year ago. I was slower by 4 min.. I placed 102 out of 524 runners for the 5 miler. I placed 18 out of 92 for my age group. My time was 45.38.  Not horrible but not my best. Plus the fact that I thought I was gonna die during it.  Boy I can't wait for my nose surgery to have my deviated septum and spurr corrected. I imagine it will feel amazing after it's done and healed and I can finally breath like a normal person.