i am facilitating a healing circle workshop this weekend. what i want to do with this is create a space where we can all relax into our own healing experience.
so healing is on my mind this week. and when i think of healing what i think of is:
a luxurious and pampering spa experience
being in nature
feeling at ease in my body and in my life
a sense of renewal
transformational workshops
a cup of tea and an afternoon with my art journal
noticing the way the sun streams through the trees in the mornings
letting go
ahhhh. the healing is in the letting go.
and the letting go opens up to
knowing that i am going to be ok no matter what
knowing that i am loved no matter what
knowing that all is well
absolute relief.
just in writing this out, it feels like a healing has occurred.
i talk a lot about comfort zones. they are so fascinating to me. it’s like we build these little boxes to live in to stay small and safe but then we slowly discover that when we make our lives small and safe we are not just keeping danger out – we are keeping our dreams and our heart’s desires out. and then the comfort zone starts to become less comfortable.
right now i’m at the part where my comfort zone is actually miserably uncomfortable. i feel like i have outgrown it in every way that it can be outgrown. like alice in wonderland (omg i loved the movie and her clothes especially!) this room is too damn small and my muscles are aching from being cramped in here. literally. i am sore. so i booked some time at my favourite spa – but i couldn’t get in until friday. what to do until ten?
this art journal page is still in progress. i’ve noticed that i share more in-progress pages than completed ones. this is because all of the power and magic of art journaling lies in the process and that’s what i want to share here – the power and magic of art journaling.
i have been resisting my art journal for about a week. it is sitting open on my art table waiting for me and i keep walking by and feeling not ready. when i am resisting my art journal, it means i am resisting my feelings. there’s something happening inside me that i don’t want to see that i just know is going to pop out onto the page.
i have been doing affirmative meditations with a lovely woman who is healing her body of cancer. first, i created a specific affirmative meditation for her to support her in focusing her commitment to healing and to feeling good, and in building her faith and her knowing that she can heal herself.
at this point, she is absolutely committed to her healing and her medical tests are showing wonderful healing results already.
there are parts of me that are hidden, that i want to keep hidden. the parts that feel not good enough. too messy, too ugly, too wrong. i never learned how to love and accept these parts, and i never wanted to.
sometimes an ugly art journal page is the best art journal page.
life gets messy and downright ugly at times. using an art journal as a tool for self-discovery, for healing, for growth, means looking at the messy parts and the ugly parts and giving them much needed space to express.
