Healing through authenticity, empathy, and mindfulness: Life Book recap

July (Authenticity), August (Empathy), and September (Mindfulness) in Life Book 2013 focused on the overarching theme of Healing.  I got WAY behind after my daughter’s summer camp program ended in mid-July and so I’ve finally caught up and would love to share these with you all.  This is a full three months of Life Book in one post.  (Hope I don’t scare you away!)

“Embracing All of You” with Tamara LaPorte

It was coincidental that Tamara wanted to create a girl on a boat… we were going on an Alaskan cruise rather soon.  Each wave contain an aspect of ourselves, with hopes and dreams in the sails.

I did a separate blog post on this self-empathy process.  You can read more about it here.

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“Collage Figure Self-Portrait” with Jane Davies

Jane says the self-portrait is inherently a way of self-examination and can be whatever you want it to be… playful, critical, etc… but the process of creating it can lead to it’s own revelations.  I got a few weeks behind on LifeBook (and lost the photos that I printed to use on this project), so I just did this one quickly.

You never know… maybe I could be on the cover of People magazine with George Clooney in the background.  🙂

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“Making our Key to Freedom” with Danita

This one is about freeing ourselves from our own limiting beliefs.  Danita says that if we know what our beliefs are, we can work to change them and stop living in discomfort or pain.

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“A Healing Journal Page” with Dina Wakely

Journaling covered by ink drops, a stencil and paint.

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“Healing and Authenticity” with Jeanette Maisy House

This lesson was about creating a reminder to ourselves of the importance of gifting quiet time and space into our lives to recharge our batteries.  Jeanette says that our thoughts and instincts are our inner warning system that protects us and guides our choices and actions.  Doing this page was a gift to myself of some quiet time and I loved it!

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“Heart Sight, Heart Light” with Effy Wild

In this lesson, Effy led us in exploring self-empathy and reframing the stories we tell ourselves.  Effy taught us to tame that “inner mean girl’s” reaction and look to her with love.  The point is to find a more empathetic way to talk to yourself.  Moving beyond mistakes and making amends are some things we can do with the help of self-love and compassion and then we can apply it to others when they aren’t being very nice to us.

“The reframe is the ultimate self-empathy tool, in my opinion, because it assists us in changing the very powerfully negative language we use, and applying gentler, more loving language instead.”

We made a textured background with gelatos, tissue paper, paint and inks, and then a heart template and some paint.

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“Radical Compassion and Forgiveness” with Tamara Laporte

Question the thoughts that cause your suffering.  This week was about letting go of anger toward someone who has caused us pain because that anger is damaging to US.  By trying to understand the context of what was happening for the other person, we can see their regretful actions were caused by their own pain and their own misguided delusion.  Wish something for them that would have helped them make better decisions.

My creation went in a different direction entirely, but I enjoyed making it.  You can read more about it here.

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“Mindfulness Art” with Tamara Laporte

With a focus on mindfulness, we played with image transfers and collage.

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 “Ink Blot Butterfly” with Kelly Hoernig

Kelly helped us write some goals for the year back in week 5 and make a game board and this week is meant to be the same color palate to accompany that.  This was very timely because I could use my own encouraging messages to motivate me to play forward with Life Book.  🙂

So here’s the game board from week 5 and the finished piece.

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“Feeling and Healing” with Erin Faith Allen

Feelings are amazing inspirational catalysts.  Unfelt feelings create havoc.  Better to feel them, process them, and move on.  Expressing them through art helps too!

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“What’s Inside” with Rachelle Panagarry

I have no idea what the mulberry paper is that Rachelle wanted us to use, but I had this handmade paper with lots of leaves and fibers so I used that.  I love her idea of the hands cradling/covering the face.

You can view more “Behind the Art” posts here and more Life Book posts here.