In Expressive Arts therapy, it’s a common practice to talk to the images we create and it’s also a practice to listen to the images talk through us. The images, having been created in the intuitive right-brain, seem to express a point of view that often surprises the intellectual left brain.
More times that I can count I have received insight and wisdom from my own self by letting my images talk through me. I also have observed in my therapy practice the surprise and wisdom happening to my clients when they let their images express themselves.
I will recount one particular dialogue with my image that is a great example of the wisdom of the images and the deeper level of communication happening when we allow ourselves to express this intuitive part.
Since I was a child I ‘ve suffered from neck and back pain, following a painful neck injury suffered at age 9. As an adult the injury became chronic and the pain would be debilitating; the rotation of my vertebrae would also make me dizzy.
In a therapy session I drew a lotus flower with blue circles on the sides. Then I allowed the images to speak through me.
This is what the images said:
Image from my journal
Lotus
I am consciousness, I am the spinal column and the nervous system
I feel existence happening through me
I need balance and I need flow, so that I can grow
I need both feedback from the body and its process of existing, and the light from outside; inner and outer feedback, I need them both
Life and experience illuminate me
I trust the resilience of my nature, my willingness to survive
I trust that with no effort everything will grow the way it needs to grow, it just happens by itself
I fear fear and pain
I fear physical pain from the body and its fragility, and the emotional pain there is in the world
I fear how much suffering I have gone through as well
I know everything I need to know, even if I don’t know that I know or how I know
Because I am a flower, I have all the knowledge. From the seed and how to grow; how to flower; how to create new life
Pain is a part of being human
…to be continued…