Day 6- Art Therapy & Belonging

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Welcome to DAY SIX of our new 30-day project where we make something with our hands every day to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.

I'm going to publish an episode to follow along with several days of each week (I'll take breaks on Fridays and weekends in order to give you time to catch up as needed). These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!

Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fitting in and belonging are not the same
energy.
You can't feel as though youbelong anywhere until you make a
home for yourself in your ownsoul, a place where you are safe
, whether flawed, achieving orin stasis.
Fitting in is just the ego'sdesire to be like the rest, to

(00:21):
move with the crowd.
It is fueled by the unhealedparts we weren't taught to
nurture early on.
But it's never too late To feelthat you belong.
You must decide that you doAccept yourself through your own
front door and make a home forlife.
You'll never feel the urge tofit in again if you belong at

(00:43):
home within yourself.
This is another one by DonnaAshworth, from the same book as
Joy Comes Back, and the book iscalled Growing Brave.
I went in my closet today and Ifound this wonderful book that
is so perfect for this projectthat we're working on.

(01:03):
It's called Essential ArtTherapy Exercises by Leah Guzman
.
There's an entire chapter oncollage making.
Collaging is great because itinvolves sorting through imagery
, cutting, gluing, assemblingitems to create this composition
that you have in your mind, andthen each art experience helps

(01:27):
you gain insight into differentareas of your life, and in this
book there are several pages onall different types of collages.
The one that I'm choosing todayis called the I Am Collage.
It says the benefits areincreases self-esteem and coping
skills.
And you need a pen, you need asheet, a large sheet of

(01:51):
heavyweight drawing paper,magazines, scissors and glue.
And the steps are you write Iam in the center of the paper
and then you look through themagazines for words that
represent all of your positiveattributes and you cut those out
.
You glue the words onto thepaper radiating out from the

(02:12):
words I am, and then you keepthis image where you'll be able
to see it, because it remindsyou of your strong points and
kind of helps your self-esteemwhen you're doubting yourself.
This is also a really greatactivity to do with a child if
you have one or children, it's afun group activity or solo

(02:37):
whatever.
But I think it's so perfect forthis project and I just want to
make a note here that I haven'tbeen working on this project
that long and I haven't been offof social media that long.
But I am so much more clearright now in my mind.

(02:58):
I'm so much more present whenI'm in the room with someone.
I'm more present for my family,I have to say, working on, you
know, a little creative thingeach day and also being held
accountable to sticking torecording these episodes is
changing things in such apositive direction right now.

(03:22):
I didn't know if I was going tobe able to pull through on this
and who knows, still at thispoint, but I'm doing pretty well
.
I have taken a few days offhere and there and I am behind
on getting this started outpublicly in publishing, but I'm
doing it and it's working and Ihope it's working for you.

(03:46):
I really do.
I said it before creativity isvital, especially right now.
I'm going to ask anybody that'sbeen with me all of these days
so far, and if you have neverleft a rating and review, can
you please do that?
It would be so great.
Nobody has left one in like twoyears and it makes me sad, if

(04:11):
I'm being honest, because Idon't really hear from everybody
that listens to this.
You know people send memessages on Instagram, but I'm
not on social media.
So reviews, ratings, oh, thatwould make my day.
I know I'm not supposed to careabout that, but you know it
feels good and I would love toknow if this is helping anybody

(04:33):
the way it is for me.
But regardless.
Keep it up and stay curious.