Safety, Trust and Relaxation

Synchronicity is in my life big time! I'm taking three courses: The Artist's Way course, Building a Relationship with A Creative Client, and a Vision Journaling workshop with Kathryn Antyr. Week 1 topics were: Recovering a sense of safety, of relaxation, and building trust. Pretty connected, wouldn't you say?

My Creative Affirmations are
I am willing to create.
There is a divine plan of goodness for me.
I am willing to be of service through my creativity.
I am willing to experience my creative energy.
I am willing to share my creative talent.
I am open to whatever creative voice emerges.

As I set out on this journey, I am excited to be engaging with Julia Cameron's work again. I am also interested in doing this in community. I'm interested in what emerges and I'm willing to keep an open mind.

I love the morning pages, and have no problem doing them. I've already had an aha, which I'll share at another time.

My first artist date was at our Central Park. I took my notebook and pens down to a park bench intending to journal. Instead, I took full notice of colors and sounds and smells. It was interesting because I described the grass as the color of wheat ... this is not a color I have in my vocabulary. Cars traveling along the nearby street competed with the slight rustle of the trees. I was very much at peace. At this point, the connection to relaxation and trust was made. I was truly relaxed, and I trusted the process of staying at the park even though I had tons of work waiting for me.

These are two vision cards I made this week.

My newest journal

I've started two new journals as I prepare to return to work. One is my everyday journal. I simply paint pages and gesso every 10th page or so (for collages).

The one I'm showing here is going to be a visual journal. Visual journals have a different purpose than my everyday journal. There I do mostly morning page-type writing along with making lists and jotting down ideas and stuff. A visual journal is more of an illustrated journal entry. Each page tells a story, some loud and clear, others a mystery.

I'll be holding my first visual journaling workshop in September. This journal will be a sort of practice place. (Notice the "envelope" on inner cover where I can put ideas as they occur.)

I've prepared several pages for a couple of reasons. 1. When I return to work, I have very little time for art of any type. If I have journal pages waiting for stuff (photos, images, text) I'm more likely to work in it. By adding prompts to many of the pages, I can open to one that is appealing to me at that time. Like the one below is "Love notes" where I can put notes from people and to people in the sewn in pocket.

Another reason to prepare pages is to avoid the blank page syndrome. Because I put color (paint) on most blank pages, I no longer suffer from this syndrome. However, I have found that a blank book still is unwelcoming. I'm hoping that having lots of pages prepared and waiting for what's to come next, the book will remain "user-friendly."

And finally, I still have a goal to use my art supplies. I've given up the idea of using them all up -- I think it would take many books to do that. But I'm on a mission to not buy anything more until I have reduced my stash. I'm only allowed to buy glue at Michaels :-).

I'd love to hear your experiences with keeping a visual journal!

Visual Journaling

I've written about journaling before, but I keep returning to the topic of visual or art journaling. In September I will hold my first workshop on visual journaling for my creative playdate group. I must admit it makes me a little nervous to create this playdate because they are friends. Yet, that makes no sense at all ... one should try things out with friends first! Especially a group of women who are totally supportive of one another.

As I posed in the previous entry, what's the point? Why not just stick with pages and pages of words? Using visual imagery or simply color on a blank page taps into another part of the brain. We "see" things through images differently than through the written word. Using color and imagery allows us to learn more about ourself as we tap into a deeper and more primal place of knowledge.

Even though I've been keeping a visual journal for a couple of years, I feel like a neophyte. I google "visual journal" and get lost in the myriad of artist websites sharing their journals (artists who blog are really generous with their work and their process!)

What have I learned by keeping a visual journal? 1. I LOVE color. I prefer writing on a colored page than a blank white page. Hence, I paint several pages of a journal each week. Sometimes, that is the only arting project that I have time for. As small as it is, it keeps me connected to creating.

2. I have a long-standing love affair with pens. For my morning journal I select a colored pen to work well with the page I'll be using. That one little step is a healthy creative habit!

3. I enjoy gluing stuff into my everyday journal, like scraps from art projects. These scraps were put into the book at the end of one of my art retreat days. There is a neat place for journaling or an image. (This will also make a nice background page for another project/journal page.)

4. It doesn't take a lot of time. I don't have time during the academic year to do much arting. Putting an image in my journal and writing about it is not as satisfying as a whole day for art, but more satisfying than just putting words on the page.

5. Documenting your day is a fun way to make a journal memory page.

This journal page documents a Sunday that I decided to photo-journal. That forced me to pay attention, and when I put it all together, I was able to see that nourishment was all around me.

6. I really think this matters. As I seek a place within the creative coaching environment, a place that fits with my goals and talents, visual or creative journaling might just be something of value to women who wish to live more creatively.

If you keep a visual journal, I'd love to hear about your experience. If you wish to explore visual journaling, stay tuned ...