Visioning(R) Health Means Reclaiming the Self

"Regaining the Self.. How we see ourselves (our self-image) is reflected in how we treat ourselves and how we allow others to treat us. Our self-image also shapes our bodies and impacts our sense of health and well-being." Lucia Capacchione, Chapter 13, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

I learned this lesson first hand when I set out to write this month's post. I started with a drawing of recurring pain and injury to my right shoulder and most recently, upper right arm.

 

 

This is the drawing of my throbbing right arm muscle. The next step in the process is to do a non-dominant hand dialogue with the image. 3 angry pages of non-dominant hand answers yielded the following insight: My Sad Girl was very angry because I had not lived up to my promise of allowing her creative expression. She was mad because I was not finishing my creative writing projects.The reason why is that I had yielded to the  messages from my Inner Critic.

After I acknowledged and accepted this painful truth, I then made a healing collage. The first step was to depict the Creative Self. This self depicted below is powerful enough to take on the toughest critics, inner and outer. I like how she not only defends her words, but she definitely is protecting her self.

The next step was to create the collage using I Know What I Said as the theme.Because of limited space, I used four pieces of 8 1/2 by 11 construction paper. This allows me to create a large collage, yet display only the section that I am working with. 

The following are the collage pages, or steps of how to reclaim my voice.

Start Over. Collage 1

Follow My Dream. Collage 2

Express My Self. Collage 3

Play. Collage 4

This day of healing has given me a lot of hope. Prior to this work, I was aware that I was overwhelmed with the outcome of my creative projects, not the process. While it does seem overwhelming to stand up for my truth against my Goliath-size self-talk and ingrained habits, starting over is easy. After all, I start over every day. I am relieved that I do not have to re-do, regret or try to control any of my projects. I simply need to let my voice flow.Also, I am understanding allowing my voice to flow and launching a project as a product are two different things.

Now it's time for you to trust your voice and honor your self  by drawing and visioning your own healing.

Remember: "It is very important that you follow your body's lead and give it what it needs. As mentioned earlier, the body never lies. It will tell you the truth, but you need to listen and respond accordingly." - page 238, Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams.

Participate in Lucia's upcoming Visioning(R) workshop: Giving Birth to a New You, Sunday, May 18th, in Morro Bay, California.

Certified Visioning(R) Coach Dorothy Segovia finished her latest creative project when she scanned her collages, converted the images into jpegs and then wrote this post. Find out more about her work at www.writeinside.com.