Art Cure

A frame that I like to play with is "art cure". When you make an art cure, you're making a bit of curandería for yourself: a healing packet you can touch into later on, as many times as you might need. 

One very simple and direct cure for a specific malaise is a catharsis piece, where you give a part of you free reign to express feelings, thoughts, and reactions to the world from its point of view, in your art form of choice.

The great thing about a catharsis piece is that, true to name, it releases the pent-up emotion associated with that part of you and her point of view. You are allowed to express thoughts and feelings that the regular you might not actually endorse. 

My invitation for you: if you're aware of the presence of pent up emotion, what might the theme song/words/visual representation/movement or other art expression of that emotion be? Could you capture it, get it down somewhere, so that you can reflect on it later if you wanted to?

Allow this part of you to say everything it wants to say, in its own words, even if you don't endorse them.

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The song below is my example for you. There is a part of me that just wants to be left alone, and feels angry about anyone or anything that intrudes upon my need for sovereign privacy. This part protects the artist within, the part that needs freedom and space.

Sometimes when I have not given enough space to myself - when other parts have dominated with their needs - this part of me becomes angry and flares up to set a boundary and push back a little against those things I have allowed to crowd in on her and what she protects.

One day when I was feeling particularly irritable, and I sourced it to this part within me, this is what she had to say.

Leave me the f*&^ alone. All I want is some time spent on my own. All I want is some time left all alone. 

Back off and let me breathe. All I need is some time alone with me. All I need is some time alone in peace. 

Hey relentless Watcher get your eyes off of me. High-rolling controller, leave me in peace! Back off, back the f*&^ up off of me. 

Leave me the f*&^ alone. All I want is shelter from your storm. 

All I need is a place to do nothing. All I need is a space to be nothing. All I need is a place to do nothing. All I need is the space to be nothing. 

All I want is some time to be alone.

Relentless Watcher get out of my face. High-rolling controller, get out of my space. Back off, back off. Back the f*&^ up off of me.  

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Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from Ruth Heller's Animals Born Alive and Well.