I read this beautiful post by Jodi Chapman titled “Do You Know?” (in which she writes that we are amazing and infinite and definitely already enough – do read it) and it reminded me that I haven’t told you about this course yet.
About three years ago, a friend invited me to a Houston PBS lecture on wholeheartedness. That’s where I first heard of Brené Brown, enjoyed her down-to-earth manner and the lessons she imparted that evening, took copious notes, bought her book The Gifts of Imperfection, and subscribed to her blog. I felt so proud that we had a gem like Brené here in Houston, a city that honestly I don’t like that much.
When Oprah had Brené on her show in September (twice!) and they announced a two-part art journaling e-course, I didn’t think twice about signing up. (See previous post about my e-course addiction.) I am eagerly awaiting Part 2, which begins at the beginning of April, but in the meantime, let me share with you what Part 1 was like.
The overarching aim of the class (and her book) is to help you move from “What will people think?” to “I’m imperfect and I’m enough.” Oprah and Brené give weekly guideposts and reading assignments, then Brené shares some art journal lessons that are simple and fun.
One of the lessons was to look at a photo of ourselves as a child, describe what we see, and then think about what qualities we still have and those we’ve lost along the way. It’s a challenge to love ourselves as we would love a child, but we all have that inner child within us who deserves loving.
This is part of a self-care collage I made. There’s a difference between healthy and unhealthy self-care. Brené described it aptly as the difference between savoring one piece of quality chocolate and mindlessly eating an entire bag of M&Ms. Ahem.
We also came up with personal mantras.
I’m looking forward to the next half of the course! I know many of you are taking it also because I’ve seen your names in the Twitter stream. 🙂
On Friday, I hope to share with you details of a wonderful course that I just completed and one that begins soon.
E-courses taken and coming up (psst… no judgement allowed!)
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Loved Part 1! Love the gentle reminder about journals and her videos but I lost focus and never finished and now the stream is unavailable. Lesson on procrastinating I guess! Love your list of e-courses. We have a lot in common 🙂
debbie recently posted…Creative… with Poetry
Once I let myself get behind in a course, it’s sort of hopeless to catch up. That said, maybe you got from it exactly what you needed to. I’m glad to know a fellow e-course junkee!
I enjoyed Part 1 but I won’t be signing up for Part II. It’s partly that I think art doesn’t have that great an impact on me. I was all worried that I wouldn’t be able to do the assignments for Part 1, but it wasn’t hard, except for making the time. Ability to use a photo printer and scanner was the major requirement. I thought the Gifts of Imperfection wasn’t that great a book either. There just isn’t that much in it. My issues are different than Brene’s issues, although I do have some bad habits I use to avoid painful thoughts, I don’t have the perfectionism or addiction problems she’s got. I don’t own a working TV and get plenty of exercise. I think her class is well designed for a more mainstream and artistic women, it’s just not for me.
Susanna, I know exactly what you mean. For me, I enjoy watching her and finding the relevancy for me. I certainly have the perfectionism tendencies and so I get a lot from her self-care ideas.
I just discovered Brene’ Brown’s work…..getting to the party really late.
Her book The Power of Vulnerability is like heaven blowing a kiss
to me these days….so grateful. I didn’t know she did art journaling stuff
too…oh wow, I’m even more a fan, now! So glad you’ve gotten to play
with her so much:) Joy. bliss. gratitude:)
-Jennifer
Jennifer Richardson recently posted…suddenly soaring instead….
Better late than not at all! The art journaling is really whatever you make of it. Simple but a great guide to expressing fears and dreams however you like.