Emotional Awareness Through Art & Self-Reflection

Today is about introducing you to the course, giving you an overview of the modalities that we will be using (meditation, journalling, art therapy, breathwork, emotional validation, routines), a supply list for helpful materials (art supplies, journal or notebook, cushions, etcetera) and ending with a grounding meditation to use as a foundation for the emotional awareness work that will follow. Journal prompt: The most prominent emotion I am experiencing right now is…. Art prompt: If this emotion had a face, what would it look like?

Using visualization and breathwork to locate anger in the body, breathe through it and approach it with curiosity. What can we learn from anger? Is there anything attached to this emotion - perhaps another emotion, or a lived experience? Students will be encouraged to use these two questions in their journaling. Journal prompt: How do I wish to use my anger going forward?

When the world tells us to shy away from a big emotion like fear, what we often do is suppress it. In this session, we will actively lean into the feeling of fear, validate our external adrenaline responses, and discuss how we often mask other emotions by labelling them fear. Journal prompt: Fear has prevented me from…..

A by-product of lived experiences, particularly trauma, is the unworthiness of joy. In this session, we will use affirmations, journaling, and art to tap into a new space of worthiness where joy is welcome to be felt. Journal prompt: If I were to lean into joy, what would change in my life? Art Prompt: What does this space of worthiness look like?

Today we will talk about acceptance of self, of our emotions, of the shadows and spaces of vulnerability. In day 5 of this course, we will continue with visualization by returning to that foundation built on Day 1 and seek to challenge our perspective centred around acceptance in order to access it fully for ourselves. Journal prompt: How can facing my shadows allow me to access acceptance?

In a discussion about processing our emotions and societal conditioning, students will be led in guided journaling to help normalize their emotions and their emotional responses. In this lesson, students walk away with the notion that there are no bad emotions. Journal prompt: If I were to see my emotions for what they are and stop categorizing them as positive or negative, what would change about my perspective?

On Day 7 of this course, we start getting into perspective and challenging those that we have carried for lifetimes. The teaching that disappointment is inherently ugly and with it comes pain. By using meditation and journaling, students will learn that they hold the power over disappointment, rather than the other way around. Journal prompt: Why have I given my power to disappointment rather than look at it as an opportunity for change? Art prompt: What is the colour of disappointment?

What do we do when faced with anticipation? Do we run from it or feel pulled to it? Anticipation brings to the surface a multitude of emotions, ranging from excitement to anxiety. In this session, we work with perspective to grow comfortable with this uncomfortable emotion. Journal prompt: In the beautiful chaos of anticipation, what is connected?

At its very core, defiance means the open resistance and bold disobedience. But where does that feeling come from? What are the roots of defiance? In this session, we merge visualization and art therapy by using colour to further understand our connection to defiance. Journal prompt: Is my defiance an open resistance or disobedience, or is it an affirmation of self?

In a session of what ifs, we dig a little further into perspective and consider what if the point and purpose of exhaustion is to slow down and rest. What if we slowed down, just a little, and allowed ourselves the opportunity to rest, rather than push ourselves to the point of exhaustion? How much more expansive could we be in our awareness if we learned from exhaustion rather than fought against it? Journal prompt: What is the invisible load of exhaustion that I am carrying? Art prompt: What would it look like to lean into rest, instead of push to exhaustion?

After processing eight very different emotions, it’s time to get grounded by creating a beautifully supportive breath practice. In this session, students will be invited to give themselves permission to cultivate their own physical and emotional space. Physically, we will create a nurturing space for comfort. Emotionally, we will create a compassionate and grounding space to unravel in. Journal prompt: What does it feel like to cultivate a nurturing space, both physically and emotionally? Art prompt: What are the most important pieces for this nurturing space?

The emotion of sadness is one that is often pushed away. We are conditioned by society to not express this emotion because it shows weakness and may make someone else have to sit in their discomfort. If we shift that perspective and settle into sadness, we show others that it is okay to be vulnerable. Journal prompt: My sadness is deeply rooted in…..

Regret and remorse are emotions deeply associated with guilt and shame. In this session, we recognize these emotions as ones that are intertwined in lived experience. We use the modality of art therapy to express what these complicated experiences are. Journal prompt: The most prominent experience where I felt regret or remorse is…. Art prompt: If my regret were to look like a box, what would it look like? What would be inside?

In today’s session, we will anchor down in breathwork and calm place imagery to find a space of calm within the chaos of emotion. When we dig up all of these emotions, ones that we are unfamiliar with and ones that make us feel uncomfortable, it is important to regroup and reground. Using anchor words and imagery, we can slow adrenaline responses and develop coping skills. Journal prompt: The anchor words that will lead me back to my calm place are…. Art prompt: What item in my calm place can I use as my anchor?

Hope is a counterbalance to fear, and in this session we are going to actively lean into it, so as to diffuse fear. How? With colour imagery, breath, and meditation! Journal prompt: How can hope help me in times of fear? Art prompt: If hope looked like an explosion from the heart, what colours, patterns, and shapes would I see?

We are taught early on that in order to feel validated in who we are, others have to express praise or disappointment. In this session, we learn that the most important voice is the one inside of our being and that the only person we’ve needed validation from the entire time is ourselves. Journal prompt: Validating my emotional needs has allowed me to…...

Now that we have settled into validating our emotional needs, we can look closer into the roots of emotional attachment. In this session, students will be guided to use the imagery of a tree with roots to validate what the foundation is for the emotion of shame, and the branches of a tree to understand where this exploration can take them. Journal prompt: The roots attached to my tree felt like….. Art prompt: The roots attached to shame, looked like…..

There is so much growth that can happen in space of discomfort and distress when we stop suppressing emotions that make us feel uncomfortable. In this session, we will travel back to our Day 11 grounding breathwork to work through discomfort, pairing it with colour theory to claim and reframe these big emotions. Journal prompt: How does discomfort feel in my body? Art prompt: What is the colour I associate with discomfort?

We often hear the phrase forgive and forget, but what if the hurt runs so deep that forgiveness seems impossible? In an open and honest discussion about forgiveness we learn about the importance of this emotion from a self perspective and allow ourselves to travel back to a time in our lived experience when we needed forgiveness of self the most. We also release this emotion with a waterfall release visualization and mindful journaling practice. Journal prompt: When I needed forgiveness of self the most, what was going on in my life?

They say that the only way out is through, and today we gather with the intention of sitting with, actively listening to and pushing through pain and heartbreak. By using guided visualization and journaling, we validate the things that have caused us hurt in the past, and reframe how we are using these emotions as information to push forward from. Journal prompt: What is on the other side of pain and heartbreak?

Art is an incredibly healing tool to use when navigating emotions. In this session, you will learn about some of the basic principles of art such as line, shape, colour, and form and how they relate to emotional awareness. Journal prompt: What principle of art best describes the emotion that I am sitting with today? Art prompt: What would it look like to use this tool to elevate my emotional awareness?

As we begin the final phases of the course, there is bound to be uncertainty and discomfort. There is perhaps confusion and disconnection to self, and in this space here of Day 22 we take time to honour that discomfort. We take time to sit in that uncertainty and see it for the shift that it is. This is an opportunity to push forward and access the other side, which is growth. Journal prompt: What growth is waiting for me on the other side of uncertainty?

In summoning your highest self forward, we do so with a deep sense of adoration. We lean away from the ego and into the sense of selflessness, with a profound love and respect for the self. This true nature is something we often forget to nurture, and one that society tells us we are selfish to show love for. In this space of collective meditation and cultivation, we nurture this adoration. Journal prompt: What would happen if I gave myself the adoration that I so freely give to others?

On Day 24 we anchor down into that foundational breathwork, and work on the cycle of grief and its attachments to guilt. While we breathe and anchor, we will access powerful visualizations that will translate into an artwork of the grief cycle. Journal prompt: How is grief and guilt attached in my lived experience? Art prompt: If I were to draw out grief like a circle, what would it look like?

Being humble is the emotion of removing ego and putting another as more important than the self. It is showing up for others and embracing them as they truly are. With 24 days of emotional awareness under your belt, we enter into a new state of being where you can hold space for others to do this work. Journal prompt: What is the most important lesson I have learned so far about my emotional awareness?

What makes a daily practice so impactful in our emotional awareness? We discuss the importance of using all of our senses for elevating our emotional practices, the need for consistency, how to track our progress and how a daily journaling practice can aid in our emotional awareness. Journal prompt: Today, my emotions tell me that….

Going back to the teachings of accessing the higher self, built on the grounded foundation from Day 1, we anchor down into the breath and seek to push our boundaries further, so as to enter into a state of bliss. We centre this practice in breath awareness and repetition, as well as processing through journaling and art. Journal prompt: When I access the feeling of bliss, it feels like…. Art prompt: What does the physical representation of my breath look like during this practice?

Two very uncomfortable emotions that are often seen as problematic, today we work with stress and anxiety. We acknowledge their existence by seeking them out in the body by guided visualization, and look for patterns and shapes that can help us identify them. Journal prompt: Why do I find stress and anxiety so uncomfortable? Art prompt: What is the shape of anxiety and stress?

In this guided visualization, we use our anchor words to travel back to the calm place to find four items that represent the emotion of gratitude. Then, through journaling and art, we look with curiosity as to what these items are attached to and what stories they can help us unravel. Journal prompt: What are my four pieces of gratitude connected to? Art prompt: What do my pieces of gratitude look like?

In our final session of this course, we lean into a space of loving kindness and compassion. We bring forward the grounding breathwork, routine practice, journal prompts, art techniques into a powerful session that allows you the space and freedom to express the loving kindness and compassion that you are deeply deserving of. Journal prompt: The most impactful thing I learned in this course was…. Art prompt: When I consider my future state of emotional awareness, what do I wish it to look like?