At the end of last month, I participated in an art therapy workshop designed for artists. This virtual-but-live event was presented by the Montréal-based English Language Arts Network (ELAN), and led by licensed art therapist Emmanuelle Meunier. The goal wasn’t for us to become art therapists ourselves, but rather to learn how to apply some basic tools to improve not only our creativity but also our overall well-being.
We did a few interesting art therapy exercises, and this first photo shows my creation during a “Centering Exercise”. This was meant to let each of us listen to our bodies and minds, and then identify any immediate personal needs that seemed to arise during the activity. After finishing our creations, we took the time to look at them together to try to get insights into what our lines and colours and shapes were trying to express.
Looking at this one, it seemed very clear to me that my mind and body were sending me two messages; a) to get off ZOOM meetings for the day (which I couldn’t do at that point as I had additional ZOOM meeting from 1700 to 1830, for a chronic pain volunteer program); and b) to get more sleep. The image that I’d created instantly reminded me of the kind of ‘static’ pattern that used to appear on old television screens when the signal was weak or there was interference on the channel or bandwidth – even though I hadn’t thought of that at all when I was creating it. I felt that my brain was telling me that my own bandwidth or ‘brain power’ was running low, and needed some replenishment.
This second image resulted from a 2-step “Scribble Exercise”, in which we each added colour to what we ‘found’ or ‘noticed’ after we’d scribbled or doodled in pen or pencil for 3 minutes. What did I ‘find’ in my scribbles?
What I saw were nature scenes, of course; if you’ve been following me here for a while, you’ll know that time in nature is very important to my well-being. It felt as though my body and mind were telling me to get back into the forest near my home, and to go for a walk along the stream there. The art therapist noticed that my duck-doodle resembled a child’s rubber-duck bath toy much more than an actual duck, so she suggested that a warm and relaxing bath might also be helpful for me.
It was an interesting workshop, primarily focused on creative ways to listen to our bodies and to calm our minds. These skills are also important for chronic pain management, so after the holidays I may well search out similar ideas as tools to help me deal with the multiple symptoms of my Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – and to share with other chronic pain patients through my volunteer activities and my Art Despite Pain initiative.
I’ve chosen to post this on the cusp of the holiday period, as a reminder to seek out activities that you find calming and restful. Whether that’s chatting with loved ones, crafting, drawing, exercise and sports, knitting, metalworking, painting, reading, sketching, woodworking, writing, or anything else, I hope you’re able to take some time over the holidays to do something just for yourself.
Feel free to reach out over on Instagram or Twitter, or find me with the #ArtDespitePain hashtag. I’ve had to disable the comments feature here on the blog, as it got to be too much for my cognitive issues to handle (as a result of my CRPS rare disease, I developed a mild cognitive impairment at the end of 2018), but I do love hearing from you.
All the best for the holidays, and for 2024!