My favorite visual journaling technique is to quickly and intuitively pick pictures to paste randomly on journal pages, with no thought to what they represent. My thinking brain goes on vacation while my intuitive mind plays with images. Often, as in these 3 journal pages below, what I write is also intuitive. After I’m finished – sometimes weeks or months later – my unconscious thoughts and feelings expressed come to the surface.
Here’s 3 pages that evolved that surprised me.
Above page MIND: Two parts of my mind are continually wrestling — eat healthy vs eat what I crave (largely refined sugar and carbohydrates!). My body is not able to think, move, choose. It must wait to see who wins the wrestling match.
Above page BODY: My body has been in free fall as I’ve been eating lots of things that do not help the fibro. The main criteria for whether I put it in my mouth has been if it contains maximum carbohydrates and sugar. There’s a smile on my face because it tastes SO good. But I am stuck – making no progress with eating nutritionally.
The four shoes are walking up – opposite to the direction of my free fall. It feels like a long path to get to a body that is healthy and whole. Bruises (right side of picture) signify that my body is bruised by my free fall eating and the fibro has flared.I notice that the two bodies at the top have no heads (not thinking?) I need to literally take it one step at a time and it’s an uphill climb.
Above page SOUL: When I first looked at this picture I was stymied. Had no idea what it meant so put it away. When I came back to it a month later I wrote:
The HeART of Spirituality 