Hi everyone! Today we’ll see how to use art when you need more self-love. I invite you to create it with me and do some self-art therapy. This exercise will help you work on your self-care in a non-judgmental, safe space and create more compassion, love, and healing for yourself. When we practice art as a therapy it doesn’t matter how your end result visually appears, what matters is how we feel through the process, hence there is no right-wrong in this, it is all about expressing ourselves.
The materials that you would require for this are a rough cloth, watercolors, a cup with water, brushes, and you can optionally include other drawing mediums like color pencils and crayons or any other coloring medium and a plain sheet of paper to create the art of any size. It’ll be extremely calming if the environment is most comfortable, which will help you to relax and concentrate so that we can light a candle and listen to some soft music while practicing self-love.
It is equally important to take care of ourselves as it is to take care of anyone else, self-care helps us to boost our self-esteem, confidence, and be completely aware of ourselves. We all go through a very busy life, so it is very important to invite mindfulness and become aware of our physical body before we start with the art activity.
Close your eyes, slowly and gradually without putting pressure on yourself, gently place your attention on your breathing - in and out this will help you regain your body's rhythm which we lose because of our fast paced life. We will now get our awareness back to our body in this present moment. It is important to gain awareness to each and every part of our body- feet, legs, stomach, chest, arms, neck and our shoulders. This will help us invite gentleness and mindfulness. Let's get started. This exercise will help you take care of yourself and help you understand the difficulties you are facing with yourself. Maybe you have disappointments, regrets, feelings of hopelessness, or just frustrated with yourself.
Try and create an image that describes your relationship with yourself. You can express however you like in an abstract manner with shapes, lines or forms or you can be as realistic as you like, remember just one thing that you are trying to get an understanding of your relationship with yourself through this creation.
The most important thing to remember with self-care is consistency and practice, as easy as it sounds for some of us it is very difficult as we are not aware about taking care of ourselves. With this art activity we are allowing ourselves to feel the thoughts and emotions especially the ones we have rejected for so long. It is very important to understand that this activity is all about self-love.
What is your version of self-love? Please share it in the comments below. We would love to see your thoughts. Take your time to finish the first part and don’t rush into it. Once we finish this part we will be moving into the second part for which we will require a new page to create an artwork or image which will be a mindful response to the relationship that we represented with ourselves. Something that will be a calmer, softer and compassionate response to our previous image. We all have an inner voice inside us that loves, cares, supports and respects us unconditionally. And whenever we self-doubt this inner voice takes over and comforts us and assures us that we are the best versions of ourselves and we are more than enough. You can use any shapes, lines and colors to express this.
So whenever I feel like I'm not caring for myself, whenever I feel I don't have self-love. I hear the loving, caring voice inside me that tells me it’s time to show some love to myself for me to realize what a beautiful human I am. By this time you would have finished your second piece. After using any art form therapeutically it is very important to put down your reflections and what you gained out of the entire process.
For reflections you may need a pencil or pen and a journal or any notebook you can use to write in. I generally use only one book to write all my reflections as it just helps me understand my entire journey a little better. If you are new to reflective writing these few questions might help you:
1. How did it feel loving yourself?
2. How was your whole process of art today?
3. Were you feeling worried while making it or just went with the flow?
4. How did you feel after expressing love to yourself through the activity?
Once you are done just sit with your artwork and reflections for a little while taking it all in. If you wish to share your artwork and spread self-care awareness you can share your artwork on social media on Instagram. So if you hashtag it #letstakeamoment.life, I can see your artwork and we can share this beautiful path of self-love.
Written By -
Vijayta Jagnani Let’s take a moment-Founder Arts Based Therapy Practitioner Counselor
Your mental health matters as much as your physical health. Don't hesitate to take a step towards your mental well-being. If you’re looking at talking to a professional, book your Initial Consultation with us on https://www.themoodspace.com/freeconsultation or write to us at info@themoodspace.com. Take a step towards bettering your mental wellbeing because you deserve it!
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