EXPRESS YOURSELF WITH ART ACTIVITIES

An invitation to articulate your thoughts beyond the boundaries of mere words by creating your own artworks.

Mantra:  A word or phrase that inspires you and/or expresses your goals and/or beliefs.

Collage:  An artwork created by affixing a selection of objects (such as photographs, ribbons, and/or colored papers) to paper, board, or canvas.

Mandala:  A circular shape, design, or diagram representing wholeness within the organizational structure of life.  A mandala serves as a personal reminder of one’s connection to the infinite world that extends both beyond and within the body and mind.

1. Choose and inspirational word or phrase as your personal. Power mantra.
2. Use any art supplies to create a visual symbol of your special expression. 

MAKE A COLLAGE OF YOUR MANTRA

All you need is a selection of art materials, glue, and a surface on which to glue your materials (such as paper, board, or canvas).

CONTACT YOUR INNER SELF

Use this exercise as a direct way to make contact with your inner self.  Go inside and find meanings unique to you only. 

Note:  Avoid realism so you don’t have to think about what you’re drawing.

1. Find a quiet space where you won’t be interrupted for at least thirty minutes.  Before you start, you might want to play soft music and/or meditate on a particular question or issue.
2. Use markers or crayons to fill the paper with color and shapes.  The important thing is to free yourself from thoughts and just flow with the color.  Just let your hands draw without thought of outcome.  Be spontaneous and let go.  Let the piece flow and create itself.
3. When you are finished, outline shapes with a black or bright-colored sharpie (or other type of marker.)
4. Hang your finished picture in a place where you can examine it frequently and study the different shapes and objects that you find.  You’ll be surprised at what manifests.  Turn the paper different ways and you’ll find different shapes.                                            Are there any repeated patterns?                                                                                                                                                                              Do any emotions surface?                                                                                                                                                                                                Does the piece give you any clues to issues you may be encountering?                                                                                                          Journal any thoughts about this assignment.

STRESSBUSTER

1. Take five to ten minutes to draw and color just like you did when you were a child..  Don’t think - just color.
2. When you are done make a list of a few things you can do to begin the restoration of you.  Even the simplest thing can and will make a difference because it is those simple things that add up to create the big picture.
3. Title your list My list of simple things for me to do.

CREATE A BOARD GAME OR ROADMAP

Are you willing to settle?  For how long?

1. Create a board game or road map with what you really want as the final goal.  
2. Along the way place markers of areas where you might settle.

It might be fun to stop along the way periodically but is the path to your goal worth the diversion?  Notes for your board game may include:    My goal. Possible diversions.

FIND THE STILLNESS

Find the stillness - ask yourself the following three questions and journal the answers:

• What makes it difficult for you to take time to get emotional support for yourself?
• How was emotional release treated when you were young?
• How did adults treat you when you expressed your feelings?                                                                                                                                
• Play some music and begin to draw whatever comes to your mind after answering the above questions.  Let your hands do the work.  Pick colors at random.  Flow with the music and the supplies.

When you are done place the picture where you can view it and meditate on your images.  Use your intuition to guide you.  What difference do you think it would make in your life if you regularly took time to release emotions?

INTRODUCING ROBERT BREM

I first met Robert Brem when I was an undergraduate studying for my BA in psychology.  He was my favorite professor and we are still friends to this day.   Robert is a professor, academic, philosopher, author - well, a man of many hats.  DeBono’s six thinking hats comes to mind because Robert also excels in organizational constructs.

Although we live on different coasts, (he is in Seattle, I am in New York) Robert and I meet on zoom.  I love our discussions.  They always offer food for thought and personal growth.  Recently we have been discussing the coaching options we both offer.  I wanted you to meet Robert because he provides a service that I am honored to recommend.  

As you know, I offer creative self-discovery workshops and individual sessions both in person and online.  My emphasis is using creative expression to facilitate empowerment.  

I offer the healing power of art in a safe and reassuring environment by presenting empowerment tools and techniques.  If you are seeking relief from stress, creative blocks or you just want to have fun doing art, then my sessions are for you.  Although I have a degree, in professional counseling I am not offering therapy.  As a registered expressive arts educator/consultant, I offer coaching. My goal as a coach is to help you glean the courage to establish a relationship with the living matrix - the self you know little about.  According to Carl Jung, one finds oneself by uniting one’s conscious self with various levels of one’s unconscious. 

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” - Aristotle

“Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.” - Lao Tzu

Robert also offers coaching with reasonable costs and negotiable options for payment to suit your needs.  Although he may use counseling techniques in facilitation of self, he does not engage in therapy.  Being interdisciplinary trained as a consigliere, Robert is competent to serve as your personal confidant, ethicist, and advisor in multiple ways.  He can serve all or in part as your personal coach and mentor, mediator and representative; and political, organizational, and community consultant.  His approach with you is a systems approach to meeting your needs that considers your own personal reality, seeing you as part of a cultural and social context that is unique to you — your story of self, in a story of us, in a story of here and now.  

Robert and I are both willing to travel as part of contract services as needed.  We identify your story and your voice and seek to find ways for you to express yourself as you want to be rather than how others want you to be.  Our job is to advise you as you create your dreams and achieve your life’s goals!

You can contact Robert at [email protected].

You can contact Judith at [email protected]