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The Creative Connect

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Say what you need to say


Saying how you feel depends on knowing how you feel. Emotions or feelings announces themselves through bodily reactions or sensations.


Strong emotions are so intimately a part of you that expressing them can leave you feeling exposed and vulnerable. So, most people keep it to themselves hoping that it goes away. The problem with this is that you start developing a habit of nurturing concealment and convince yourself that others will find your feelings unacceptable. Learning to say what you feel has beneficial effects such as releasing negative emotions can diffuse them


Become emotionally aware and regain your power to direct your emotional state, start:

- Noticing you're experiencing an emotional state

- Identify what it is


A Visual Presentation of your life


Take time to think about your current life. What metaphors come to mind? One effective metaphor for life is a landscape. Think of the feelings that come over you when you look at a landscape of violently blowing trees compared with a landscape of gently rolling hills with low grass. Think of different objects that would symbolize your life right now, or where you’re heading.


STEPS:


1.Take 15 minutes to reflect on your life. What metaphor represents your current situation?


2.Sketch a visual representation of your metaphor on the paper with the colored pencils.


3.Use the watercolors to add more color to your art.


Life Reflection Collage


The Life Reflection Collage will allow you to honor the moment you are experiencing. Choose images that represent your current feelings. Think of this as a mood board. Accepting current feelings is a way to really experience them and release them. Look for objects, places, and colors that express your current mood. You can be creative with where you place each item and how the items interact with one another.


BENEFIT: Improves emotional regulation


Exercise time: Allow yourself 50 minutes to complete this exercise


MATERIALS: Magazines Scissors Glue 1 sheet of 18-by-24-inch heavy-weight drawing paper


STEPS: 1.Using the magazines, find a headline that matches how you feel today. Cut out the headline.



Journaling Exercise


Overcoming Fear


Fear serves a purpose that can be necessary for survival and is often a natural response for protection. However, when fear and anxiety start to negatively impact our lives, we can become stuck. This exercise will help you understand how fear is playing a role in your life. Using your nondominant hand for this writing exercise will tap into your unconscious mind.


1. In your journal, use your nondominant hand to make a list of three fears that are interfering with your life.


2.Continue to use your nondominant hand to write responses to these questions: ·When was the last time you experienced fear?


·If fear was not present, what life experiences would you be able to have? ·How is the fear serving you? Is it helping in any way?


With all that is happening globally and locally, it can trigger traumatic responses to situations that they may be considered 'normal'. This sometimes results in 'overreacting to small mishaps.

Traumatic events can include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, wars/combat, assaults, and other violent crimes. Individuals with PTSD may experience symptoms months or years after the event. Symptoms of PTSD can include nightmares, unwanted memories of the event, heightened reactions, anxiety, or depression. This exercise will help you clarify the order of the events that took place right before, during, and after the traumatic event. Many people who experience a traumatic event have difficulty recalling the details because they were in shock. By drawing out the events, it can help you retell the story to integrate it into your memory.


STEPS:


1.Use a drawing pencil to draw three lines to divide the paper into equal sections.


2.In the first section…


A creative journaling prompt:

  • Take note of the books, movies, visual art, performances, or any other creative endeavour that you have consumed over the past month. In one sentence write out what it taught you about yourself or the world. Naming this helps to clarify its impact on you and let you decide if that was of value to you or not. Beware the readily available distractions and indulgent stuff in the world that is reinforcing negative ideas....

  • Ask a friend for a recommendation for a creative work that has inspired, transformed, or taught them about themselves and the world. Make a recommendation for them too.

 

A creative invitation for you….


I borrowed this activity from another therapeutic artist....


Take a photo or sketch an image of the season around you.

In your journal give it a voice, use the prompt “I am spring and I am here to remind you….”

Let the words come from your image, get curious about what is it trying to tell you?

Fill 1-2 pages allowing it to speak to you then underline 2-3 key words and consider how these words can guide your activities over the coming months.


Love and Connection


Whether we realize it or not, love is that thing what we need more than anything. When we love 100%, we feel alive, and it is a powerful force. For love, many people are willing to do extraordinary things for others, whether it is love that a parent has for a child or love of romantic relationship. However, if we don’t feel we can get love, we settle for connection – even if these connections do not serve us. There are many ways to get connection, whether it is through friendships, a pet or even connecting to nature. Less constructive connections are the ones in which we sacrifice our authenticity to conform to a group or people pleasing.

You can meet this need by establishing lifelong friendships spending more time with likeminded people, as well as improving your relationship skills.


Ask yourself:

How are you currently meeting…


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