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Mindful Art TherapyArt making as a form of meditation In the practice of mindfulness one learns to be present in the moment.
Art therapy can help you slow down and face challenges and struggles. Instead of being driven by the mind, thought, expectations, fear, or wanting to get somewhere else, you become consciously aware and present to the process.
The art process, a solitary undertaking much like meditation, often operates in the context of silence. A quiet inner space can be created in which a full range of human experiences can be witnessed, organized, formed, and externalized. The textures of silence flow, the mind chatters, the Witness observes, and creative awareness deepens, much like what unfolds during meditation. In art therapy the breath can also act as an anchor for self-expression and creating art mindfully.
Art therapy creates a space that allows the unconscious a chance to express, be seen, heard and felt. Art therapy fosters the interaction of belief and experience, of conscious and unconscious, of body and mind.
The practice of mindfulness as practiced by Jon Kabat-Zinn uses the simple but powerful tools of sitting meditation, practicing mindful activities such as mindful walking, mindful eating and mindful yoga. In practicing mindful art therapy we can literally see the changes that occur through following the practice. The artwork becomes the client's witness. You will experience:- sitting meditations followed by an invitation to paint - responding through creating art to focusing exercises - meditative art making - breath art work Art Therapy and Schemas Schemas: are a powerful set of negative thoughts and feelings. Every schema can be seen as an attempt, gone awry, to fulfill the basic needs of life; safety, connection to others, autonomy, competence, and so on. Some schemas are: - abandonment - deprivation - subjugation - mistrust - unlovability You can use art therapy for exploring and transforming schemas by: 1. Acknowledging the trigger. 2. Identifying and working the body sensation. 3. Working with the feelings, thoughts and behaviors 4. Transforming the pattern. |
In mindful art therapy you become relaxed, engaged and curious with your process and you naturally move into a state of using sessions to observe in a new way. Even if you are working with old beliefs or material, it can take on a new life in your art. 
Being more present in the moment suggests that you have some control in the moment because you can respond rather than react.
This practice helps enhance communication and integration of the self.
When these needs are met, we thrive, when they aren't, schemas can take root. Each schema has its own emotional hallmark, a distinctive gut-level feeling that takes over when the schema has us in its grip. These feelings may repeat the emotions we felt during traumatizing events earlier in life that created the schema. We are plunged into fear, rage, or depression.
These strategies, or emotional habits can have some valuable qualities. For example, people with the schema called "unrelenting standards" are often highly disciplined and motivated in their work. This can make them highly successful. However, the pattern may become maladaptive when a person drives herself so hard that the rest of her life suffers or she exhausts herself. The paradox is that schemas revolve around compelling needs, but lead us to think and act in ways that keep those needs from being fulfilled. They perpetuate themselves in a self-defeating cycle. Opening up these hidden patterns to the clear light of awareness allows a fresh breeze of change, like remodeling the old attic of the mind.