Hello Cocooners,
Lori here in the Michigan Cocoon.
I am a co-creator with my dear friend Sarah and I wanted to come on today and just talk a little bit about my journey with grief and using art as a way to move through my emotions.
So if you're new here I just want to give a little bit of background for my story but if you've been around then you might know a little bit about my past.
In 2011 I was injured with a spinal cord injury.
I fell about 15 feet and landed on my spine and I have a t10 level so about from the waist down.
I don't have feeling or mobility so this journey began I would say before my spinal cord injury with using art but the spinal cord injury definitely propelled me deeper into my emotions,
Deeper into the wonder of life,
Deeper into what art can give you as a healing tool.
So right away I turned toward personal development tools and I also worked with an art therapist for the first time.
Funny enough I actually wanted to become an art therapist before my spinal cord injury so I was determined to go back to school for a master's in psychology.
I had actually gotten accepted to a school while I was in the hospital and decided not to go back to school since I was on a very new path.
I definitely could have gone and I see that you know many people with disabilities are thriving and going to schools although when I look at universities it's pretty difficult to imagine some of the terrains that I would have had to traverse at the time.
So what I did end up finding was soul art and soul art was created by Laura Holic and she is a beautiful artist from Canada.
I actually found her before my spinal cord injury,
Was very interested and had already started to learn a little bit about how she uses art in a very therapeutic way in order to journey into yourself,
To create,
To transform,
To gain insights.
It was just I thought so fascinating.
She felt like a kindred soul to me so after my injury I worked with an art therapist,
I dove back into soul art and I also did The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
I totally dedicated myself to the book.
It's a 12-week program and all of these tools really helped me get back out into the world,
Learn how to be an artist in a different way and embrace the changes that I was going through as well as feeling all the feelings as they come up.
So I just wanted to share a little bit about my story.
I have been painting a lot since my spinal cord injury.
I was not a trained painter.
I did go to school for graphic design and I also majored in sculpture but I no longer really use those mediums as my primary form of creating.
I really love just doing anything with my hands whether it's something on the computer or learning a new craft or painting.
My most recent painting started in.
.
.
Let's see when did it start?
It started in the summer of 2012 and I have this really big canvas here.
It has traveled with me in two states now and it was just one of those canvases that I would let it be for years and then I would paint on it and then I would come back to it and then I would let it sit and finally this year I had a dear friend who has a beautiful project for integrating different types of grief and it really helped me to finally finish this painting and I'm just so grateful.
I used some of the methods that I learned with my art therapist many years ago.
It was about 11 years ago now and I also used some of the soul art methods where I put.
.
.
I actually traced my wheel from one of my wheelchairs onto the canvas and then I traced my foot here,
Both feet,
And that is a method called body mapping which I did learn from soul art and I am certified to teach and I just.
.
.
I feel so good about this journey.
It's just communicating lots of messages.
I am sure it's going to keep talking to me for many years to come but I wanted to share with you that no matter what you're going through in your life,
Whether it's something physical,
Emotional,
Or even spiritual,
Feeling like you don't know who you are anymore,
Maybe a loss of identity,
Maybe a loss of function,
Or just a sudden loss in general in your life,
I am here as proof that you can feel through using art and there are so many beautiful teachers in the world to help you on that journey including yourself and I just want to encourage you to get up and stretch your wings into your creative soul.
I am rooting for you,
Literally rooting,
I'm rooting for you to to find who you are,
To become something new,
To allow your limitations to guide you into a new phase of your life.
I'm going to get so emotional just talking about it.
I just feel that when we do truly allow ourselves to grieve,
To move into what that is and find out what that even means to us.
I know for me,
I didn't know what grief was when I had my spinal cord injury and just connecting with that version of myself right now,
I feel so much for her,
For the journey that she is going to go on.
So I highly encourage you to step into your grief and find the gifts that are hidden within you.
My dear friend Sarah and I will be continuing to play with the different things that come up in life,
Whether it is a life transition or change or moving to a new home.
There are so many ways to play with the challenges or just the desires that we want to create.
What do we want to create in life?
We love to weave in nature so if you are interested,
Please do stick around.
We would love to hear how you work with your grief.
Do you use your voice?
Do you use art?
Do you use movement?
We really like to use a combination of all three and call it expressive arts.
So come along on this journey.
Thank you so much for sharing this with me today.
I'm so grateful you're here with care and connection from my cocoon to yours.
Bye!
