I'M A BRAVE GIRL ...

I've often mentioned the Brave Girls Club of whom I'm a long time member and fan!  I did their original course Soul Restoration 1 a while back and loved it - it was a lot of time to commit to the process but so worth the effort. It was a lot about healing the past and  I often go back to the book I made as part of the course.  So anyway, I'm doing Soul Restoration 2 now (the time just seemed so right) which is about actively working for the life you want to live, rather than just plodding along dealing with whatever comes, and this is the book I've made for this one.  Its actually not so much a book as a ring binder (I've covered an old one) because Melody who runs the course anticipated that you might want to go on adding to it in the future, so I thought this format would work best.

I used stuff from my (large) stash of scrapbook papers to do the covers, and plan to cover the result with clear plastic eventually, because its so pretty that I don't want lots of handling (which I expect it to get) to spoil it.  One of the first parts of the course was to write your own mission statement - harder than it sounds.  You had to write a long one and a shorter version - my long one is in the envelope and the short one is written out below it.

I thought putting this together would take ages, but because of the work we'd done in Week 1, this week 2 exercise was actually easier than I'd thought.  The Week 3 exercise of setting some goals is proving MUCH harder than I thought, and is taking some time ...

So a bit of a change from my journal, but very much in the same vein of striving for personal growth and development.  I'm a brave girl and can cope with that, even if some of it is scary.   I am still working in my journal as well, but this project is in the forefront of my mind right now so  I thought I would share it.

STRESSED ....

I don't know about you, but my art journalling is how I work things out ... and often the process of making a page brings me peace on the subject.  Perhaps its being able to acknowledge the stress which allows you to let something go, or at least the bad feelings associated with it?  Maybe its also about not wasting your precious energy on keeping down the negative emotions you daren't let out.  Whatever and however, it works for me ....

So this page began with lots of orange and yellow - sometimes happy colours for me, but not quite in this case.  Perhaps I associate it with intense emotions, good or bad?  I think in some way I needed to contain those feelings before they could overwhelm me, and that's why this page HAD to have a border around it!

I've used these jazzy stamps before - they're big and black, strong and powerful, which I like a lot.  Actually they were a complete bargain because they were an Ebay purchase, very inexpensive, and are really intended for marking clay.  I cut them up and made border stamps - and I've used them in the post below as well .... strong feelings again!

As so often, I just wrote on the page what I was feeling, in this case "I feel stressed".  Writing around in a circle reflected my state of mind too - I felt as if I was going round and round in circles.  Having written like that, I realised what I was doing was pointless - that I might be beating myself to death against something I was more or less powerless to change.  Maybe you know that feeling?

It seemed to me that I had some choices - to waste energy stressing about the things I couldn't change, or to decide to calmly accept.  Not easy, but I'm working on it.  What I can do is gradually enact small changes which make my life a little bit easier in the meantime, and I'm working on that.

The "hope" part - another cheapy stamp found in a bargain box - is perhaps the key word here. You have to have hope that somewhere, somehow things will change/improve, as it may be the only lifeline you have.   The Brave Girls Club of whom I'm an enthusiastic and grateful member, tell us to  "go where the peace is", and that we can choose to find that place.  My peaceful place is in the knowledge that the situation we're in won't last for ever ....

If you're another Brave Girl feeling stressed out about something, write it down to work it out!  Then draw and/or paint all over it and through that process find your peace - it works, I promise!

TRUTH CARDS

Some of you may have noticed that I've recently been doing the Soul Restoration course from the Brave Girls Club? Its meant a lot to me, especially at a time in my life when - preparing to move and start over - I've been thinking a lot about the things I want to take with me or leave behind. Anyway, one of the things the course asked us to do was make Truth Cards, something we could keep to remind ourselves of all the things we've been learning, or already know to be true but so easily forget. This suggestion was a complete gift to somebody who adored making ATCs but could never find enough people to swap with, and besides this way I get to keep what I make!!

So above and below are just a few of the ones I've made so far - the course materials provided some that you could cut out, and I have used a few of these, but mostly I've come up with my own. The result is that these reveal a LOT about me, but I wanted to share because I've found this exercise very very helpful, and its something you might want to do for yourself?
Not only does the act of making the cards and affirming my truths make me feel peaceful, strong and happy, but I now like to get them out regularly and read through them. That's definitely a brilliant tool for remembering the important things that I didn't have before. I made a special box to keep them in, but haven't shown it here because its just a temporary one. Some day I'm going to make a very beautiful box for them, which will show just how important these little cards are (they're ATC size of course), but right now I just don't have time - or a suitable box!

HAVEN'T BEEN AWOL ...

Sorry, I haven't been AWOL or anything just kinda busy doing an online course from The Brave Girls Club called Soul Restoration, and am I ever loving it! Talk about the right thing at the right time; I spent an unexpected gift of money on it and I'm SO glad that I made the investment in myself. Of course it has meant that I've somewhat neglected my art journal, but this is journalling of a kind anyway. This is the book which I got as part of the course kit, suitably embellished by me ...
We are getting into some deep places so I don't want to share all the pages but am happy to let you see these ... one of the key aspects of the course is the idea of a Truthteller (God basically) and certain truths which always hold good, but we lose sight of sometimes. The course materials include several lists of "truths" and we were encouraged to choose those which 'spoke' to us and make a page using them.
Here they are in close up - there's a particular reason for the bird because throughout the course it represents the Truthteller, which is why I chose to add feathers and nests to continue the theme. Whenever I see a bird's nest it somehow represents a place of safety where you can snuggle up out of sight ... OK, just me then is it?
These pages have deep meaning for me, particularly the Permission Slip which isn't from the course materials but something I encountered the other day and thought was powerful (thanks Ruth)! I think other permission slips may find their way into future journal pages, but for now I am busy with this book, which is a record of the journey us brave girls are making together ....