When we create, we connect with our inner knowing effortlessly. Our expression of self actively captured in the process and symbolically represented  in the end result.  A testimony to the complexity of who we are.

The beauty of self-expression through art making is that deeper layers can be expressed than we may consciously be able to express otherwise. The image speaking for us in ways that words have escaped us.

The process of expression through art making has a transformative nature. We are not just talking about who we are, what we are experiencing or what we wish to accomplish, but rather through the art we begin the process of change as we reflect simultaneously on our art its meaning, its movement. We see glimpses parts of self both consciously and unconsciously and as a result can begin to assimilate parts that need to be. We can rectify inner conflict through an acceptance of those parts which we may have been struggling with.

As an art therapist I witness this on a regular basis, both with my clients, workshop participants, and within my own creative process.  Shift happens.  Sometimes it helps us articulate those feelings about experiences that we’ve had.  Sometimes it is enough to just express it through the art.

Whether you art journal, paint, dance, or make music, whatever art form is your choice of expression can take you to this place of creative connection that is at the core of our human-ness.

What form of creative expression connects you to Self?