Body Mind Connection

This week I wanted to continue our "Hour of Art" with a time spent to further purposefully explore some positive emotions. My goal was to spend time priming those positive emotions and participating in some 'unconscious' art expression. I decided to have the women draw a simple stick figure of their bodies and then asked them to circle and label the places that they liked.

It is extraordinarily difficult for women to affirm their physical attributes at all, let alone in front of other women. Most of us practice judging our bodies so frequently that to turn that around and actually look for and speak out the places we like,  feels foreign and backwards. I knew this would be a challenging task for all of the women.

But we did it. All the women found five attributes and shared them with the group. Then we spent the remainder of the time coloring Mandalas. This part was just as challenging as the first because of the patience needed to complete the Mandala. Most of the women had a hard time focusing for that length of time, a few felt that they weren't able to finish, and some needed to take frequent breaks.

The time proved to be both challenging and rewarding. We were able to discuss some difficult topics while coloring. We touched on child hood memories and Father's Day. Women shared about childhood trauma, trips to the ice cream store, and Father's Day memories. Some were pleased to have happy reports of the holiday and others fell silent, while some reported the day to have been very challenging.

The women were very open and vulnerable. They were pleased with their creations and their ability to find places that they loved about themselves physically. We dug deep and reaped much. It was a great day.