Write it down-with art this time!

Selfcare Emergency Meter: Overhaul
Time Commitment: 45 min. (or more if you wish)


Hey there friends!  It's time for me to resurface to write another post.  No, I have not forgotten about you.  You are always on my mind :) With school and life and everything in between, this Selfcare Fairy got a little bogged down!  I admit it. That doesn't mean the selfcare stopped flowing though--don't worry about that!  I am back to let you in on some of my Selfcare Adventures from the past month.
The current post is about a project I actually started in the summer, forgot about, then came back to me recently.    This "Overhaul" option is an altered book that has become my visual diary for the things in my life that I simply don't have enough understanding around in order to write about them in words.

Procedure: Start with an old hardback book, preferably one you are not attached to.  Snag one at a thrift store for under a dollar.  Skim through a few pages of the book (anywhere in the book, not necessarily the beginning) and find a phrase that speaks to your mood in the moment.  Most likely the phrase will be completely out of context for the book, and that's the point, you're making your own story in this book.  You may block out the phrase(s) on the page with acrylic paint or collage materials.  I have been using collage materials a lot lately.  (I may or may not have been conned on the phone into subscribing to 9 magazines...) 

It is important to let your automatic reactions guide you--don't think too much.  Pick the phrase, paint color, collage image that jumps out at you first.  Don't overthink.  If you think you're messing up this page, who cares? There are a million other pages in the book.  That's the beauty of this project.  Do what you want to the page.  When you finish painting/collaging, does the page feel done?  Maybe you need to grab a sharpie and write extra words or draw your own pictures.  Maybe you need to rip the page and sew it back together.  Oh the possibilities!  You are done with the page when it feels done.  This may take more than one session, and that's ok!  This project is meant to accompany you for awhile in your life; it will not be done in one sitting.  After you work on your page(s), sit with it.  Reflect on it.  Are there any relevant metaphors popping out to you ("this image means this to me")?  What does it mean to you in the moment?  It can mean anything you want, it's your project, it's your visual diary.  Look back at it the next day, week, month.  Maybe it will mean something different.  You might learn something new about yourself.


Why this is wonderful: It attends to 1 major sense: sight.  This project serves as a way of externalizing confusing parts inside ourselves so we can look at them and examine them.  Using our automatic reactions to dictate the page, we help unconscious material to surface, eventually fostering a deeper understanding of ourselves. Yeah!