It's with great joy that I'm here, sharing with you what art has taught me throughout my life and continues to teach me.
When I was a child and teenager, I wanted to be an actress. From 10th to 12th grade, I went to a high school that specialized in the arts, especially theatre. I loved theatre classes and the stage! I also wrote poetry and I remember so well the proud look on my mum's face when she introduced me to her friends as "my poet daughter!" This most beautiful validation from my mum has always remained in my heart.
The desire to travel before my academic studies made me leave Finland and travel around a few countries and I ended up settling in Madeira. I raised a family and in my spare time I painted, practiced yoga, and began a more conscious search for myself. I worked in a team of storytellers and it was then that I heard about art therapy. I knew that this was my expression towards myself and the world, because it was always art, whatever the artistic expression, that brought me more understanding, more serenity, more enthusiasm, more joy.
I firmly believe that art heals! It makes us more whole; it makes the invisible visible because creating is like writing letters from our unconscious mind to our conscious mind.
The result of the creation doesn't matter, it's the artistic endeavor itself that matters! There are many paths to healing, but art is undoubtedly one of them. We are all Creative Beings, the fruit of creative action, and it's so easy to understand this when we look at children who still resonate with their creative essence. To draw something, they don't make a prior plan for it, they simply pick up the colours and draw... their arm and hands move in an organic and spontaneous gesture for the simple pleasure of drawing. They are like this in all their games, spontaneous and creative. But then the endless NOs come... "Don't do this, it's not like this, it's not like that, don't jump, don't speak loudly..." and little by little our creative essence is covered up, layer by layer, until "the beliefs of the no's" take over to such an extent that we forget...
The good news is that when there's a moment to wake up when we realize that we've lost our way, we can walk back. In my courses and workshops, I've never seen anyone whose eyes don't light up when I invite them to simply doodle to the sound of music. Even those who say they're no good at it, and especially them! We later realize that creating is something intrinsic to man; it's been part of our essence since the dawn of time. We can simply put on some beautiful music, take two colours, one in each hand, close our eyes, and let our hands go where they want to go, tracing gestures according to our feelings. There is no right or wrong, only the Original Expression of our soul, right there, right now!
Comments