The perks of unhappiness

Finally some research that tells us that it's ok to not feel ok and it's actually healthy for you to feel the negative emotions. This article even says there are benefits to our negative emotions, check it out:

The perks of unhappiness

Overwhelmed

Ever feel overwhelmed by everyones 'opinions' about what is wrong with you, what you should do about it and general assumption that it's a simple fix? Of course you are! This is a 'false' help, the person usually hasn't spent the time to understand what you have tried so far, or even acknowledge that you are trying, or to understand the debt of the issue. After all if it were that simple, we're intelligent enough to have fixed it ourselves by now! Right? Healing takes time, it is as individual to the person as the person is individual! Those people around you who really care will help you explore what is right for you and not impose themselves on you.

Music Bubble

This is a Promarker drawing of one of my favourite Gorjuss girls. This is more of a bit of fan art, but it also represents the peace I feel when listening to music and creating a little safe bubble for myself to just be who I am in the moment.

Lost

This is a water soluble pencil drawing of black clouds. I think at this point I had completely lost myself in the depression I was feeling and all that I could see was the depression. But clouds don't last forever and there is a strong breeze on its way to move those clouds on!!!

Depression

This is a quick drawing using a water soluble pencil. Depression feels like a foggy black cloud that takes over everything. It's like the world is void of anything enjoyable and completely takes over everything. If you have people around you who suffer with this, try to understand the place that they are in. It's not something that they have control of, they can't snap out of it and acting like it's not there is likely just to make it worse. Instead come along side them and just listen without judgement. Being listened to and accepted without judgement or expectation is one of the most healing experiences we can give to a fellow human being!

Music and emotion

The words here speak about the connection we have with music and our emotions. When I have bottled a lot of things up, I feel the emotions are present but I can't access them. I use music to bring them to the surface. It's important to feel and process in times that are safe for us to do so. Music can provide a safe way of bringing them up and experiencing them again and sometimes a good song can even give new perspective to the feelings!

Goals

During my down journey I wrote down everything that was bothering me about myself and where I wanted to be in terms of understanding myself and changing things I wasn't happy with. Of course I revisited this many times but it helps give focus and perceptive of where you want to go and eventually how far you have come!

Clouds

Have you heard the phrase, 'every cloud has a silver lining"? I like to imagine my thoughts as clouds in my mind. I can then decide which thoughts I want to focus on and which ones I don't. When bad thoughts come I remind myself of the transient nature of clouds, the breeze will move them on shortly and so that thought will only be there foe a few moments. But other times I have lovely thoughts or memories that I want to focus on and I spend some time appreciating that little thought cloud and how it makes me feel.

Mirror

Another snippet today friends!

Ever looked in the mirror and had a hundred racing thoughts of self criticism and disgust? Me too. Often we look at ourselves through the lens of the inner critic, or through the labels that others have given us. This is about peeling off those labels and accepting the truth of who we are exactly as we see it in the mirror. No filters or lenses, just the reality of what we really are.

Open

Another section of that drawing for you today!

 

Being open and honest with yourself about how you really are is so important. If we can't be honest with ourselves, the chances are that we are harbouring some shame or guilt about something that we need to forgive ourselves for. Once we learn to accept ourselves and be open internally we can learn to do the same with those we love. A good practice I found helpful to banish my inner critic was to think, 'would I say this to someone else?' If the answer is no, I'd think what I would say to the person I loved the most and I'd change it and say that to myself instead.

Isolation

Another snippet of the larger drawing I posted yesterday! As we are recovering we need fellow flower growers by our side to encourage us and keep us motivated. It's never comfortable pulling out weeds and the discipline of planting and nurturing can become tiring but a faithful friend can be invaluable to nurture and care for you little delicate bud on the days the wind is blowing so hard your just focused on not loosing your one petal you were brave enough to poke out on your little protective bud!

Flowers and weeds

This is part of a larger Promarker drawing in my art journal but I wanted to share the meaning of this little snippet!

To grow a flower the soil must be maintained, have nutrients and be watered. Sometimes as we have grown up we haven't had these things so we get what I call emotional weeds. Those hardy plants that spring up in bad conditions to survive the toughest of times. But as we start to recover we want to be like the flowers of the field. So we learn new coping skills, we practice them and grow them until we see a change in us. Much like the gardener who plants, waters and feeds the garden.

Welcome

I created this blog to use my art to make a difference in the world. A picture can speak a thousand words (so hopefully this will keep my posts short!!!) Seriously though, I'm really passionate about empowering people, sharing experience and equipping people to live happy, healthy and successful lives. Physical and emotional wellbeing is so essential to this so I will be posting lots of informative and encouraging posts here on my blog.

Feel free to share anything you think might help others, but please respect my copywrite and ask permission if you would like to repost/reuse any of my work elsewhere. You can contact me at myimaginationsuk@gmail.com.

Happy browsing friends!