The wonderfully creative Anna Curnes, a Dallas-based glass artist, is my guest for this episode full of so many beautiful, personal shares and actionable offerings. Anna was yearning for a way to express her pain (and eventually celebrate her healing) after her younger sister died from colon cancer, and now works closely with her clients’ stories to create custom-designed glass masterpieces. Her work is an expression of her mission: finding the beauty in the brokenness.

We’re culturally ingrained and trained to compartmentalize and power through our pain. Anna shares with us how a hands-on practice, such as art-making, can be an incredibly cathartic and perhaps powerfully healing experience. It’s true–there’s no cure or easy fix for grief, but these practices we examine can help create an expression of grief and love in a more tangible, visual, malleable way, while also potentially illuminating precious insights to your inner world as well.

“Many times words can’t express what you’re feeling, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, and your hands can get it out.” -Anna Curnes

Topics we cover include:

• Why (and how) to let your curiosity lead to making things with your hands…even if you don’t identify as artistic.
• Creative expression and its rich offerings…beyond the physical thing you’re creating.
• Real methods to creating a home space that feels like “yours” in grief.
• Cultivating safety in stillness (instead of staying busy)

Resources:

• Check out Anna’s beautiful website!
• Connect with her on Instagram @annalouglass