You have a thought, an insight, an “a-ha” moment about your life that opens up a new perspective for you. But without action to back up that intoxicating insight, it can blow away and not be integrated into your body and your whole being. Similarly, when you read about how to do something in a book, and listen to a teaching about how to do a specific new to you skill, and you don’t practice it, you lose it.
In college I worked closely for many years with my University’s General Chemistry Professor. His class was notorious for being a weed-out class, it was very challenging. This professor had a dual doctorate in Chemistry and Psychology, and his specialty was how people learn, particularly how people learn chemistry. Every lesson he taught there were prompts within the lesson that the class worked through in their small groups. The students then went home and had about 20 more questions to work through that applied learnings from the lesson at hand. It was a lot of work for the students, yet those who went through the questions were rewarded with success when the quizzes and tests came because every problem on the exams they had worked through before and had really learned it.
I’ve written about the magic of writing and doing ritual before, and doing art has the same embodiment magic that the ritual process involves. These are both very active experiences. You think about something, you have an insight, and then you write about it or create art about it and all those neurons that were firing in your brain spark electricity that moves from you brain down through your arms and maybe through your body depending on how much you move when creating art.
It takes a lot more effort to solve the chemistry problems yourself. It takes a lot more work to have a thought or a curiosity and rather than just listening to someone, you write about it, do art about it. It takes more effort but it also wires your body to embody and really learn about the change you’re making. It’s empowering to embody your own wisdom.
Yet a lot of spiritual teachings and the ways we learn when we are older is often more passive than when we were in school. And thus more difficult to actually embody and apply to your life. But if you could apply some active techniques to your evolution, you would move much more quickly, fully and wholly, on your path of evolution. You would begin to make the path yourself through your body and your art.
So will you choose to take a little more time to slow down, craft a small art piece or write a short summary of what’s going through your mind? It may be a little slower initially, but it will lead to a more embodied version of yourself, a version of yourself where you not only know yourself, but you’re embodied and empowered in this knowledge.
Many of my practices that I craft for myself and others use art as a way to know one’s self. I personally love painting the symbols and omens that I am currently working with. It helps me to make my own meaning of what is swirling around me. When I work with others I create art experiences where one creates a piece of art and uses the art as a reflection of themselves. Art that you’ve created with a specific intention is a wonderful way to look at yourself more clearly. Often times we have difficulties seeing ourselves as we actually are. But when you create an art piece and then get curious about the art piece and what it is informing you about your life, you gain great insight.
A woman that I crafted a personal art ritual for recently wrote a testimonial for the work we did together. These art experiences unfold wisdom for those I work with over time, long after the art experience is complete. That is because I create activities that are constantly inviting you back into the experience and into your evolution. By calling you forward to explore yourself, you are actively learning about yourself and the ways in which you operate.
And the power that comes from knowing yourself is a quiet, unshakable power. When you know yourself, when you act from your strengths, when you are curious about the world around you, you open up many doorways of possibility within and outside you. And seemingly, as if by magic, your entire world shifts around you, as you’ve shifted from within. This is the magical power of being a woman. As you shift and evolve within, your outer world shifts to harmonize with your inner world.
