When I became afraid of words, language and it’s power, I still had this urge, this need to create. To find myself on the page. This is when playing with paints, images and mark making became my life line.
Back in August 2015, while touring the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with family, I started Lisa Sonora’s Dreaming on Paper eCourse, which was all about creative play, getting rid of the blank page, working through blocks by smearing paint over the page. This simple task of smearing paints, with a disused credit card, over the white page brought me so much joy. Simple joy. It helped me to breathe again. It brought back a feeling of safety for me.
In the eCourse, the basic techniques were shared but it quickly became apparent that anyway I showed up at the page, with paints, images, felt-tips, ink, wallpaper scraps, was the right way to show up. Because with my hands moving across the page, filling the blank space, I could feel again. I could explore how I was feeling, what was causing me heartache, in a safe, non-judgemental space. I could show my heart and soul, explore my ugly parts and know I wouldn’t be rejected, cast a side, made to feel less than. I could just {BE}.
2015 seems such a long time ago now and a lot has changed in the meantime. I still practice dreaming on paper but it’s what I call ‘visual journaling’ now. It’s a practice which combines the joy of paints and image with words. It’s a combined practice of Morning Pages from Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way, 3 pages of long-hand writing, with the settling into the page practice of paints, and images and quotes. Visual journaling not only taps into my soul on a daily basis but it also forces me to slow down and {BE}. It allows me to take deep, nourishing breaths before I meet the day and whatever that might bring. It allows me to touch base with myself, work out where I am in terms of feelings, thoughts, worries and joys and makes sure I can enter my day soul-connected, self-connected, whole.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about my visual journaling practice because it literally saved my life. I feel everyone should have some kind of creative practice in their life. I spend quite a bit of my time advocating for this; this exploration of creativity, through the different opportunities and employment I’m grateful to enjoy. It’s our right as human beings to be creative and we shouldn’t be denied it as the disconnection, we are not living our full potential for ourselves never mind anyone else. And the most important relationship we’ll have in this lifetime is with ourselves. So let’s start cultivating a more deeper and honest and nourishing relationship with the self. And it can start with smearing a little bit of colour across the page.