Through art projects—including visual arts, dance, writing, and music—along with spiritual practices and guided imagery, Healing With the Arts gives you the tools to heal what you need to heal in your life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Releasing the Inner Critic
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From the course by University of Florida
Healing with the Arts
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From the lesson
Course Introduction
This week will give you an overview of the course, an introduction to your guides, a get-started kit, and space to do art.
Meet the Instructors
Mary Rockwood Lane, PhD, RN, FAANAssociate Professor
College of Nursing
Michael Samuels, MD
Great.
Well, I wanted to take this next guided imagery to really talk about releasing
the inner critic, the part of yourself that causes you to doubt yourself or
to criticize yourself or take your light and just snuff it out.
So I want to honor the part of you that is this beautiful light.
That brings your creative spirit into the world and shares it with others.
So I want to take a few minutes to release the inner critic from within.
So I'd like to invite you to again get comfortable in a meditative state, and
I'm going to begin this meditation that really is
guiding you into releasing the inner critic that is within you.
because one of the things I discovered before I really started making art and
giving myself permission, as I always said I'm not an artist.
I'm not an artist or I'm not good enough.
And we tell ourselves this all the time.
Or we may had an experience when we were a young child,
where I was swinging on the swing set and I was singing at the top of my lungs.
And the neighbor came up and said to my mother she's really singing.
And my mother laughed at me.
And at that moment, I felt humiliated, and I stopped singing.
And I never sang again.
There are moments in our lives where somebody sort of does something,
maybe meaning to, or unintentionally, who tells you you're not good enough,
where you kind of close up.
And it closes up that part of yourself.
Where you feel hurt and you feel actually snuffed out.
So I want to invite you to do this meditation and
we're going to release the inner critic.
Maybe in your life, these outer critics became your inner critic.
So, I want you to take a moment and make yourself comfortable.
And we're going to begin this other guided imagery.
And this is called releasing the inner critic.
[SOUND] I invite you to
close your eyes and
settle into your body.
And allow yourself to focus on your breath,
allowing your breath to guide you into a place that is deep,
that is relaxed, and that is expansive.
In your mind's eye, I want you to acknowledge there
may be a part of yourself that's self doubt, self criticism,
that tells yourself you're not good enough.
You are not an artist.
You cannot paint or you can not draw.
I want you to see if you can take this part of yourself,
and imagine it becoming something tangible.
Maybe like a little gremlin, Or an object,
something that represents that part of yourself.
Take a few minutes, and visualize this part of yourself.
Now, in your mind's eye.
In a very compassionate way.
I want you to make this part of yourself very, very small.
Where it may be kicking and screaming, wanting it to be heard,
wanting itself to be heard, I want you to take this voice and
this part of yourself and make it very tiny.
And I want you to see it, I want you to see it and
I want you to recognize it, that it is not you.
Let it be seen in a form, and
you may take this critical interior critic and
you may ask it to go away.
Or you may ask it to leave your life.
You may ask it to disappear and not speak.
And you won't listen to it.
You may want to put it in a box.
You might want to ask it to leave the room and shut the door.
But in your mind's eye I would like you to imagine yourself,
the part of yourself that's grounded, whole,
the artist, and I want you to ask this part of
yourself that's negative and critical to go away.
That's good.
Put it away, so you don't hear this voice.
Put away the voice that is a nagger, that makes you feel insecure.
Now, in this place, I want you to have
an open heart that honors the beauty and
the talent and the artistic qualities within you.
I want you to invite yourself to
not be afraid, make mistakes.
Make ugly art, or awkward art, or childlike art.
And let it happen.
Embrace the place where you are, giving yourself permission.
Give yourself permission to be playful,
to be confident, to be happy, to be sad.
Allow yourself to be at home, wherever you are.
In this moment, you will be in a place of no judgment, no criticism.
You are supported in this process to make art.
You are not alone.
We share this journey together.
Now, when you're ready, open your eyes
[SOUND] I'd like to invite
you to go to your journal
after this is done.
And I'd like you to do something in your journal
that reclaims the artist within you.
Make an expression of that.
You can write a poem, you can make a drawing.
You can do a collage, You can put a piece of art in your journal that
reminds you that you are an artist and honor that part of yourself.
So I want you to take a page that says I am an artist and write that down,
I am an artist, I am a healer, The artist and healer are one.
And hold that place in your journal.
After you do that, I would like to invite you to make an image of that inner critic,
that inner critic.
Write about it, maybe listen to it.
Do something with that inner critic.
And you may take the pages out, crunch them up, throw it in a fire.
Or you make take something or make a little object that represents
that inner critic, and you may put it in a box.
Or you may do something that is a piece of art that you hold and
put all the negativity and
the voice of who you are into that little object, and put it away.
These are basically creating intentions, making art with intention.
So I'd like you to make a piece of medicine art that honors
the artist within you, and a piece of art that releases the inner critic.
And then you have these two pieces that you can do whatever you want with.
But this is the beginning of making art with intention.
Making art with the intention of creating the way of being.
So I welcome you, I ask you to release this inner critic,
because this is very important.
Nothing you do is a mistake, there can be no mistakes in art.
Everywhere you go in your creative process,
you have to have faith that it's leading you.
It's leading you.
You're opening up, when things come up and you feel obstacles of criticism.
Just be gentle with yourself and move through releasing this inner critic.
And you may do it once or you may have to do it over and over again,
but release this part of yourself that holds you back,
because you are an artist, welcome.
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