I wanted to share with you my wonderful experience recently at a Soul Collage workshop with friend and colleague, Connie Banta, LPC at Saranam Retreat Center. If you haven't come across Soul Collage yet in your expressive therapies explorations, I strongly recommend it! It is a creative medium that uses collage materials to invoke meaningful images in your life.
During this wonderful workshop, I was guided on a visualization in which I encountered a character I will call the Laughing Alchemist. In the visualization, I was seeking guidance about my feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and urgency to respond to many worldly problems, particularly the destruction of the natural world. The Laughing Alchemist appeared to be an elderly lady hard at work at some kind of task that involved cultivating some kind of natural process in wooden bowls. I couldn't understand what the process was, but it may have involved mushrooms, roots, or other hidden and underground materials. When I tried to convey my concern about the world, she heartily laughed at me and seemed to find it quite comical that I expected things to be different than they are. The image above is my attempt to depict her essence through Soul Collage.
I have gained a great deal from this experience and have found myself energized by a new capacity to laugh at difficulties, both in my own life and in the world. I feel compelled to focus more on the underworldly processes that feed my inner life, and less on externally measured efforts to solve problems around me. And though this new perspective risks being overly dissociated or defeated, it paradoxically frees me to engage in endeavors that feel more authentic and purposeful than before.
What new visions have inspired you in response to the chaos in the world?
During this wonderful workshop, I was guided on a visualization in which I encountered a character I will call the Laughing Alchemist. In the visualization, I was seeking guidance about my feelings of overwhelm, frustration, and urgency to respond to many worldly problems, particularly the destruction of the natural world. The Laughing Alchemist appeared to be an elderly lady hard at work at some kind of task that involved cultivating some kind of natural process in wooden bowls. I couldn't understand what the process was, but it may have involved mushrooms, roots, or other hidden and underground materials. When I tried to convey my concern about the world, she heartily laughed at me and seemed to find it quite comical that I expected things to be different than they are. The image above is my attempt to depict her essence through Soul Collage.
I have gained a great deal from this experience and have found myself energized by a new capacity to laugh at difficulties, both in my own life and in the world. I feel compelled to focus more on the underworldly processes that feed my inner life, and less on externally measured efforts to solve problems around me. And though this new perspective risks being overly dissociated or defeated, it paradoxically frees me to engage in endeavors that feel more authentic and purposeful than before.
What new visions have inspired you in response to the chaos in the world?
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