know what direction to take when they might not have a clue as to what’s even there for the taking!?!
The interesting thing about my art therapy, is that although I have not been going to college for an advanced degree to pursue this new found path, I believe that my life actions, my innermost hopes, and dreams, and my care of self, when I take the time to do so finds me independently studying this advanced degree. In fact, when I am most honest with myself, it is clear as day that it is my dharma. My life’s purpose. My one-true-thing. Yet …
One of myriad things I’ve learned to accept about myself is that I’m not a public speaker. I am quite introverted, and truth be told, I’m most comfortable in the background. So actually pursuing something like intuitive art therapy, which means that I would be some kind of guide to another; helping them find ways to sort out their life and feelings through art, is basically a personal impossibility.
The beautiful thing is that what I have come to very graciously realize is that through this contemplative research, hands-on-experimentation, and regular, devout independent study, that I am becoming my very own intuitive art therapist. For me, in life, in order to be happy, to maintain a sense of purpose and hope and steer as clear as possible from melancholy, I need art. It is my therapy.
"Art is a constant agent of
transformation & is indeed the soul's drive to health."
-Malchiodi
Photograph by Aubrey Ann Parker
50 | ElementsForAHealthierLife.com | April/May/June 2017