This month, we’ll resume our series: Art, Stories & Body Whispers® .
As you know by now, to follow along, you will need a blank-page journal or sketch book and some basic colours or collage materials. Every month we will explore a theme using art exercise and stories, sometimes I will suggest songs, poetry, or traditional wisdom that will add some insight to the theme. Finally, we’ll discuss common Body whispers® related to the theme we are exploring.
This month is about soul yearning and daring to live.
As you know by now, to follow along, you will need a blank-page journal or sketch book and some basic colours or collage materials. Every month we will explore a theme using art exercise and stories, sometimes I will suggest songs, poetry, or traditional wisdom that will add some insight to the theme. Finally, we’ll discuss common Body whispers® related to the theme we are exploring.
This month is about soul yearning and daring to live.
Story
Years ago, my cousins and I used to rent a small boat from the shores of the Alexandrian sea. The fisherman would warn us, “you can row far and wide, but never cross the boughaz (the inlet)” – this was a small opening in the wall of the breakwater rocks that the city had instilled years ago to protect its shores from the raging sea…. The Alexandrian coastlines were thus tamed and peaceful. Still, its sea was vast and wide… you can safely row for hours and hours and stop your boat to fish and cast your net… You’re safe and protected as long as you don’t cross the inlet - the boughaz!
Yet, crossing we did… EVERY SINGLE TIME… We couldn’t help it… Those bunch of rebellious kids who wanted to experiment with the unknown. As soon as we got the hang of our tiny boat, we row and row away from the shore and out of sight right through the boughaz… it’s a whole new world out there, a magical feeling. In just a few seconds, you are thrown into the wild and the Mediterranean shows its true face, its untamed and scary side. It is much more alive than the boring smooth waters of the safe coastlines. Once we've tried it, we could never enjoy the tamed sea again… we had to cross the inlet every time we’re out in the sea… and, it was our little secret. The beauty, serenity, and the peacefulness of the vast blue waters that meant the world to everyone, was but a boring illusion that kept us away from the true taste of the mysterious world – a world with no boundaries – the true Mediterranean – the True Sea, we yearned for.
Decades later, I am wondering where this adventurous rebellious girl went… I can’t remember how many times I surfed art supplies stores buying art supplies and stocking them in my already busy drawers and tool boxes. When I decide to finally paint, I open my tool box, gaze at my endless materials and think: “No… these are too precious, I’ll save them for a more serious project.” And, guess what! This ‘more serious project’ never comes. My paints, glue cans, and mediums wait in their safe storage until they dry up and flake, until they turn from precious to useless waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ that never came, and may never come.
Of course “art supplies” here are but a metaphor for everything in life… every new adventure, opportunity, dream, passion… that we stock in our safe drawers waiting of the perfect time. Kind of like the story of the poor fisherman throwing away the big fishes he catches as he only has a tiny frying pan at home. The big fishes just won’t fit!!!
The most important lesson I learned from my art classes at the faculty of Fine Art back home is to be bold, to take risks. You are faced with a blank canvas, you could paint it any way you wish. If you choose dull, monotonous colors just to ‘be on the safe side’, you will end up with a boring lifeless painting. “What if I mess up? What if I used the wrong colors?” I asked. “Just add a fresh new layer,” my professor calmly answered. Accidental mistakes and bad choices in art, like in life, are revealing strokes. They teach us and force us out of our comfort zone, “see them not as mistakes, rather as opportunities,” my professor taught.
I’m wondering whether the beauty, safety, and comfort of our modern life became but a boring illusion… a veil that denies our soul its yearning of crossing the boughaz, of reaching out for its True Sea?
Yet, crossing we did… EVERY SINGLE TIME… We couldn’t help it… Those bunch of rebellious kids who wanted to experiment with the unknown. As soon as we got the hang of our tiny boat, we row and row away from the shore and out of sight right through the boughaz… it’s a whole new world out there, a magical feeling. In just a few seconds, you are thrown into the wild and the Mediterranean shows its true face, its untamed and scary side. It is much more alive than the boring smooth waters of the safe coastlines. Once we've tried it, we could never enjoy the tamed sea again… we had to cross the inlet every time we’re out in the sea… and, it was our little secret. The beauty, serenity, and the peacefulness of the vast blue waters that meant the world to everyone, was but a boring illusion that kept us away from the true taste of the mysterious world – a world with no boundaries – the true Mediterranean – the True Sea, we yearned for.
Decades later, I am wondering where this adventurous rebellious girl went… I can’t remember how many times I surfed art supplies stores buying art supplies and stocking them in my already busy drawers and tool boxes. When I decide to finally paint, I open my tool box, gaze at my endless materials and think: “No… these are too precious, I’ll save them for a more serious project.” And, guess what! This ‘more serious project’ never comes. My paints, glue cans, and mediums wait in their safe storage until they dry up and flake, until they turn from precious to useless waiting for the ‘perfect moment’ that never came, and may never come.
Of course “art supplies” here are but a metaphor for everything in life… every new adventure, opportunity, dream, passion… that we stock in our safe drawers waiting of the perfect time. Kind of like the story of the poor fisherman throwing away the big fishes he catches as he only has a tiny frying pan at home. The big fishes just won’t fit!!!
The most important lesson I learned from my art classes at the faculty of Fine Art back home is to be bold, to take risks. You are faced with a blank canvas, you could paint it any way you wish. If you choose dull, monotonous colors just to ‘be on the safe side’, you will end up with a boring lifeless painting. “What if I mess up? What if I used the wrong colors?” I asked. “Just add a fresh new layer,” my professor calmly answered. Accidental mistakes and bad choices in art, like in life, are revealing strokes. They teach us and force us out of our comfort zone, “see them not as mistakes, rather as opportunities,” my professor taught.
I’m wondering whether the beauty, safety, and comfort of our modern life became but a boring illusion… a veil that denies our soul its yearning of crossing the boughaz, of reaching out for its True Sea?
Art
You might have already guessed our art project for today… Open up a new page spread in your art journal and just pour a blob of random paint - any random color… better yet a color that you don’t really care for.
Then, close the journal while the paint is still wet and open it up again.
Now that you created a mess, use more colours, paint, scribbles, collage, whatever you fancy and turn this blob of random mess into a monster. Yes, a monster!
Remember, there is no right or wrong way of doing it. Your art could be realistic or abstract… don’t worry about the drawing skills… don’t worry about colouring inside the lines, perspective or proportions… just freely capture the feelings you are experiencing.
Take your time and then jot down any words that come to mind.
Now, look at your art:
Here is a song, you might enjoy while painting your monster:
Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying
Then, close the journal while the paint is still wet and open it up again.
Now that you created a mess, use more colours, paint, scribbles, collage, whatever you fancy and turn this blob of random mess into a monster. Yes, a monster!
Remember, there is no right or wrong way of doing it. Your art could be realistic or abstract… don’t worry about the drawing skills… don’t worry about colouring inside the lines, perspective or proportions… just freely capture the feelings you are experiencing.
Take your time and then jot down any words that come to mind.
Now, look at your art:
- What colour did you use? What texture? What shapes?
- How strong, sharp, heavy or light are the colours, lines and shapes?
- Who or what is your monster? How strong, sharp, heavy or light is it?
- What is he/she trying to push you to do? Or prevent you from doing?
- How scary is your monster? How big is it?
- What triggers it?
- What calms it down?
- How does it block/ stand in your way?
- If you want to add yourself to the page, where would you be?
Here is a song, you might enjoy while painting your monster:
Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying
Traditional Wisdom of the month
Rumi gives the simile:
“When you load your cargo on a ship, you do
that with full trust God keeps it safe for you.
You don’t know whether you might drown
Or, you’ll be saved from ever sinking down.
If you say, ‘till I know which one I’ll be
I won’t go on the ship or in the sea,
I need to know if I’ll be drowned
Reveal to me if I’ll arrive safe and sound?
I won’t embark on a journey with all the unknown
The truth to me has to be clearly shown.’
No trade will be accomplished, then, by you
Because the answer is hidden far from view.
The frightened merchant with a fragile nature
Finds neither loss nor profit in his venture.”
Reflection & Journaling prompts:
“When you load your cargo on a ship, you do
that with full trust God keeps it safe for you.
You don’t know whether you might drown
Or, you’ll be saved from ever sinking down.
If you say, ‘till I know which one I’ll be
I won’t go on the ship or in the sea,
I need to know if I’ll be drowned
Reveal to me if I’ll arrive safe and sound?
I won’t embark on a journey with all the unknown
The truth to me has to be clearly shown.’
No trade will be accomplished, then, by you
Because the answer is hidden far from view.
The frightened merchant with a fragile nature
Finds neither loss nor profit in his venture.”
Reflection & Journaling prompts:
- Name your fears
Body Whispers
There are so many ways your body can whisper to you that your soul is yearning for more out of life… You need to sit and listen. Everyone is unique.
Yet, usually, the parts of the body that get affected when we deny our life passions and yearnings, when we let our fears prevent us from pursuing what we are called to pursue, are the sexual organs and the thyroid.
Yet, usually, the parts of the body that get affected when we deny our life passions and yearnings, when we let our fears prevent us from pursuing what we are called to pursue, are the sexual organs and the thyroid.
- Sex organs & female hormonal imbalance - things like PMS, hot flashes, uterine fibroids, PCOS, and ovarian cysts... are trying to tell you that you are missing joy, excitement & creativity in your life.
- Throat & thyroid whispers want to tell you that you need to be heard; you need to reclaim your authentic voice. This area is also related to issues with surrender and learning to align our will to the Divine will without compromising or giving up on your dream nor ignoring your voice.
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