It's okay to feel your emotions.

    The art itself is powerful and carries many therapeutic potentials, as the saying goes "Pictures speak a thousand words". Art can act as a container for personal emotions, memories, and experiences, and it serves as a tangible form to capture the moments of our conscious and unconscious. Art itself contains personal metaphors and symbols, and which through reflection and introspection allow an in-depth understanding of our inner and outer world. The process of creating art involves the holistic process from body, mind, and soul, which through exploration and experimenting of art materials provides a channel to release and process excess tension, stress, and lethargy. There are more advantages I could go on with the listing, but simply put, above all, engaging in one's own art-making, and when practicing regularly is beneficial and therapeutic. I personally found that my art allows me to be aware and compassionate towards my emotions, serve as a channel to express myself freely in the here-and-now moment, validate and contain my emotions as well as act as a tool to practice self-care. Most importantly, art-making helps me to stay regulated and hence keep my mental wellbeing in check. 

    We sometimes feel happy, sad, scared, and angry. We can get confused when we feel more than one emotion at a time and find it difficult to articulate these feelings and experiences. Emotions are part of who we are. It's okay to feel your emotions. Emotions are just like a messenger. When we could visualize how the emotions are and work, we will have a better understanding of ourselves and the situation we are in and hence make the best choice of action to handle them. 

    Dear readers, 

This post is intended only to record my own art practice and reflective visual journaling. [All images and texts belong to the artist/writer.] 

In this safe, held, and contained space, I invite honesty and acceptance and simply focus on engaging in my creative-making and reflective visual journaling, to find ways to express, empower and build inner resilience.  

Color of Life, 2021, watercolor paint and ink on an A5 paper

When I see this artwork, I felt a rush of positive energy within me. I created this piece when I finally completed my art therapy training and had returned to my hometown. I was taking a break at that time but could not help thinking about what and how my future path will go. This artwork was a transformative piece from an artwork I created using inks. The inks stained the back of the page and I did not enjoy the look of the ink stain. The ink stains appeared to have reflected my fear and uncertainty and at that moment, I was compelled to pick up a black pen to outline all the ink stains. This act of outlining provides grounding and security towards the feelings I was experiencing. I continued to add colors surrounding the stains and it was as if I was creating an island of my own strengths. Island has many meanings, some may see it as an escape, a retreat, a sacred land; to me, it's a safe place or a final destination. In this piece, to me, each color symbolizes various meanings; blue for passion/motivation, red for courage, purple for leadership, green for self-care, and yellow for support. I titled my artwork Color of Life as a reminder to myself that I possess these strengths, and to believe in myself for one day I would succeed. 

🌼Ling In🌼