Self-therapy for emotional pain

Self-therapy for emotional pain

If you are dealing with emotional pain or trying to heal your inner self, this exercise can help you.

Maybe you have heavy emotions, painful emotions, which have a constant presence in your life.

To heal ourselves, sometimes we have to do the opposite of what we intuitively want to do.

We might want to disconnect from our pain. We could put an end to these negative emotions. But when we do that, we also close the positive. It’s that we can’t selectively shut down the emotions.

Many emotions boil down to physical sensations or pain. This physical pain can be a mirror of our emotions. And so it’s important to pay attention and be aware of our body and how we feel inside.

In addition, we also want to be aware of our preparedness. Ask yourself, am I ready to look deeply into myself and my emotions? It’s okay if you’re not ready. But it is important to know whether we are really ready or not.

When you are ready, you can use art to explore and connect with emotions and body pain/sensation. These things are hard to put into words. Words don’t do it justice.
Often our memories are stored as images in our bodies.

So to access those emotions and memories, we have to speak in their language – the language of images. Making art about our pain is a wonderful way to access emotional pain in a safe and mindful way.

If you’re ready to dive into the art therapy exercise designed to access your emotional pain and express it on paper, read on below.

Art materials you need

The materials you need are:

• Drawing or mixed media paper size
• Colouring pencils
• oil pastels
• watercolor painting
• paint brushes
• cup with water
• Cloths
• watercolor paper
• Pen / pencil
• Paper / notebook for writing

Emotional Pain / Self Healing Art Therapy Activity

Now that you are ready, here are the steps:

PART 1 :

1. First, breathe and relax your body. Notice where in your body you feel the pain the most. Dive into it. Notice what kind of feeling you have there. (Is it sharp, or dull, throbbing, just tense or diffuse?)
2. Imagine being able to visualize this sensation as an object. What would that look like? What color would it be? Shape, size, texture, temperature, weight? It might sound like something in particular
3. Draw or paint this visual/image.

There’s no wrong way to do this. Take the time to create this image. Once you are done drawing/painting, follow the steps below.

PART 2 :

1. Breathe deeply. Observe your drawing/painting. Imagine seeing this object in front of you. Walk towards him and sit next to him. Imagine looking at the object, as a friend would. This object appears lonely and dark. You say your name and say “I’m here for you. I am here to listen. »
2. Ask the object what it wants to tell you. Then listen and/or write down what he says
3. When you’re done, imagine saying to the drawing/painting “Thanks for telling me”. And just tell the picture what a friend would say to another friend who is in pain (you can also write it down)

This exercise is really about getting in touch with your emotions and physical sensations and looking at them from a distance. We use our creativity and imagination to bring care, understanding and compassion to the parts of ourselves that feel painful or difficult.

We really focus on the relationship that we deal with ourselves. And this is the step towards healing and inner growth.

You may also be interested in this article
How to draw or paint your emotions

I hope you try this exercise – it can be really powerful. If you feel stuck or lost while doing this exercise, try other activities to activate and deepen your healing through the creation of therapeutic art.
You will find in this blog several articles that can help you in this way.

Thank you for reading this article.
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