Here comes second part about Masquerade masks. Read this article only if you have done your mask already or you are not interested in the meaning of completed mask.
In this article I am going to mark some main symbols and what to look for once your mask is finished to understand what your subconscious is trying to tell you. Before that I need to tell you one important thing…
Looking back I think I was going through some rough times. No aspiration at work, environment felt very hateful, emotionally dried and tired. Does it sound familiar to you? My world was falling apart and only bright light was craft workshop I was going to on Saturday.
Mindful crafts.
Ideas I could use in my youth work. Workshop ´mindful crafts for children´ happened to be therapeutic session for myself.
First crafty idea was masquerade mask. I remember that day I came home relaxed and fulfilled. I did finally something meaningful for myself.
When use this craft making?
You can use this therapeutic craft whenever you want and feel. It is great way how to relax and cope once you feel anxious. It can help you to stop overthinking and just be present in the moment. It is great when you feel no motivation, sadness because again it takes your focus to something creative and away from your thought process.
It makes you present.
You can use it as tool to better understand yourself because the way you create your mask will let you uncover a little bit more about yourself. This step is not necessary though because process of making the mask is much more important.
Emotions.
What comes to your mind when talking about emotions?
Usually we are aware of basic emotions such as anger, sadness, joy, disgust. Luckily nowadays there are coming into awareness anxious, depressed, powerful, scared, distant but still those are just very basic spectrum of emotions we feel. There is much more into every single basic emotion and each of them can be divided into subcategories.
Some people are labelled to be very emotional because they express their emotions in extreme way without properly communicating what they feel then others are labelled to be cold because they don´t express any.
Both cases can be ´guilty´ of not knowing what they are experiencing and not knowing how to express it in healthy way towards the outside world.
Why is it so important to name our emotions?
Have you ever tried to draw with your eyes closed? Hands just dancing on the paper, picking up randomly different colours, not knowing what is going to appear on the paper.
We use our analytical mind almost every minute since morning until we are going to sleep.
´The coat she´s wearing looks nice´… ´Should I make this or that recipe?´… ´These colours together make a nice match´
Mind is talking all the time about almost everything because we can see what we are doing, select and put objects in front of our eyes into categories.
What if we try to close our eyes and just let go?
´Cooking a dinner. Take kids to the club. Doctor appointment tomorrow. Book accommodation in Spain for our holiday. That girl in an add looks stunning. OMG I am loosing it.´ This is mind running in the speed of 90% of people. Duties, duties and duties. Demands, demands and demands. We love it and hate it in the same time. If we could just get a break.
Art-therapy is based on mindfulness and expressing our deep desires, emotions, fears and struggles. Very often those are hidden in our subconscious and we use therapeutic techniques to bring them into the light of our awareness. What if we are exactly aware what bother us. It´s actually tones of things in our head we have to carry, sort out, manage, process, which prevent us seeing things in clear light.
This little technique might be helpful if you feel overwhelmed by thoughts in your head. It creates space for ´yourself´and that silent inner voice which is the one we usually need to listen to the most. I like doing collages in busy times when I feel stressed and there is way too much going on in my life. This is great way how to take these thoughts out of my head and have a bit of relaxed and creative time. Usually afterwards there comes an insightful moment of clarity.
This exercise is part of 100 art therapeutic exercises what I introduced in last article.
You can choose any size you want as any style you want. It is up to you what pictures you will include to the collage as it is up to you how you decorate the rest. Idea is put pictures in the shape of head (your head) and pictures representing more and less your thoughts (struggles, goals, desires etc.) or what is on your mind.
The key is not to overthink it just take some magazines and cut out what ever catches your attention.
Check out the group process of collage therapy, which I had a chance to try and would only recommend to everyone.
What a messy head. No wonder we feel overhelmed. Finally you did something for yourself and inner peace. Feel free to share your outcome with others. I´d be happy to hear your experience.
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