Empower Yourself with the Freedom to Create
Connect with your inner self and unlock your creative power...Try some simple artistic exercises and create something for the joy of creating, just for your own pleasure and personal growth. Allowing ourselves the space to create freely is a powerful experiences that opens up our ability to perceive and interpret not only the world around us, but our feelings and interior life as well...
Aquarius challenges us to find wholeness within ourselves, to contain and then express our emotional nature in a healthy way. We all have feelings that can be difficult to express in words, and art is one way to bridge this gap.
Connecting with our emotions helps bring mind, body and spirit into alignment. This leads to powerful emotional healing over time, and from this place of wholeness, good things will naturally blossom and grow, creating a ripple effect of radiating healing energy.
It is all about the process, so give yourself permission to create freely. Dare to make art just for yourself and the experience, rather than the result. Creativity fulfilled makes our mind, body & spirit sing.
Ready to start? Here are some exercises to give a "voice" to your feelings, unblock stuck energy and get back into the flow!
"Paint to music. Letting your creativity flow in response to music is a great way to let out feelings and just relax.
Draw yourself as an animal. Is there an animal that you have a special interest in or feel like is a kindred spirit? Draw yourself as that animal.
Draw in sand. Drawing shapes and scenes in the sand can be immensely relaxing. When you are done, you can rake or smooth over your ephemeral art, or let the tide wash it away.
Draw your vision of a perfect day. Think about what constitutes a perfect day to you and draw or paint it. What about this drawing can you make happen today?
Only use colors that calm you. Create a drawing or a painting using only colors that you find calming.
Document an experience where you did something you didn’t think you could do. We all have to do things that we’re scared or unsure of sometimes. Use this activity as a chance to commemorate one instance in your life.
Draw your dreams. You can learn a lot from what goes on in your dreams, so keep a dream journal and use it for inspiration to draw or paint.
Use a found or made object as a paintbrush. Whether it’s something sharp or something soft, make your own artistic tool and use it to express what you’re feeling."
~From 100 Art Therapy Exercises to Make Your Mind, Body and Spirit Sing, Fellowship Hall website
Close your art-making session with a quiet moment of meditation, as you gently ease back into the present moment.
Sit comfortably (either on the floor, or in a chair with your feet planted on the floor) and take several long, deep breaths.
Close your eyes and feel the connection between your body and the ground, and feel the strong rootedness connecting you to the earth.
Drop your shoulders and free up your neck muscles. Loose, loose, loose! Big breath in through the nose, slowly breathe out through the mouth.
With eyes closed, get in touch with your senses, taking in your surroundings slowly, one element at a time—
Notice the sounds around you--are there birds chirping, cars rumbling, dishes clinking or a cat purring?
Notice the smells. Notice the feel of your clothes and the floor or the chair. Is there a breeze, from a window or a fan?
A couple more breaths, and come back to the present moment.
