by Lise Robinson
“At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. When you are an artist, you are a healer; A wordless trust of the same mystery is the foundation of your work and its integrity.”
~ Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen
The pain and power of grief.
It all started April 2020 with multiple family members and friends passing away. I was devastated, shattered, isolated and the complexities with the pandemic made it even more challenging to get help. An eruption of emotions occurred feeling the absolute pain and suffering that penetrated every fiber of my being. I was in shock, paralysed for weeks in a lockdown with no external resources other than my internet connection and phone.
I was isolated feeling stuck in time with a broken heart, lost and absolutely scared of my life without my loved ones. I felt absolutely stuck and like no one understood what I was going through.
Asked the universe for help.
From that moment it was as though my call was recieved and all of a sudden things started unravelling in my brain where I took control of my entire emotions and realized that I had the power within me to shift and make a difference in my healing.
The breakthrough creativity was the key to unleashing my own darkness.
I realized I needed to move that pain to a place of peace.
I became creative, making a photo book of my moms life was absolutely powerful in helping me to heal and honor her in this way. I accumulated all the photos from sibblings and her grandchildren and sorted them to make this beautiful family legacy book. This took many hours of work and made a huge difference in my recovery as it was empowering for me to bridge the stories of my moms past, present and future stories will be shared with family and friends for the years to come. I felt accomplished and contributed to her legacy which was helpful in unleashing the pain to power.
I felt as though this helped me to reminisce about her life and channel my feelings into her story. This was precious to my breakthrough in going from a place of deep sadness to a sense of deep peace and recovery.
Writing was exremely therapeutic.
Expressing myself in writing a tribute letter was truly a selfless expression from heart to hers helping me to come to terms with my grief. It was truly great medicine for me to do this masterpiece for my mom who gave me life. I wanted to give back to her and I feel this helped to heal me.
She was Unstoppable.
One night I dreamt of my mom and the words kept comthing through as be unstoppable. That is how I sum up my mom as she worked tirelessly was a servant leader and gave of herself to the world to make it a better place. Creating this posture picture was the key to how I should live my life TO BE UNSTOPPABLE.
Paintings of my pain and my peace.
These are some of my pain and peace paintings.
Create your own peace story.
Draw it
Write it
Paint it
Write a song or make music
Make colleagues digitally or posters
Write your own story of your loved one - who will if you don’t?
Write a tribute or thank you letter
Share your story in whatever form you choose
How art contributed to my healing.
Allowed me a space to express my deeper feelings.
A sense of release of the suffering and pain I was going through.
It helped me tell my story in various forms.
It helped me to connect my past, present and future together.
Remembering my past, living my present by creating and narrating the story of my loved one through my lense.
Extremely healing and therapeutic.
This helped me to move the pain to peace.
I can now live my life fully again and that is priceless.
To access more healing go to www.lrwellness.net