Intuitive Art for Emotional Support

I have been a highly sensitive person all my life. I experience emotions like waves that take over my whole body. Alongside the emotions, I experience overwhelming sensations, like heat, and physical pain in my body. Over time I have learned to center myself and be the calm in the storm. I am not always successful, but I am mostly able to handle my emotions now and know that I will make it, that the wave will pass. 

Something that has helped me understand and work with my emotions is Intuitive Art. Intuitive art is a healing modality that uses art materials, color, and technique (like what you draw and how you draw it) to express emotions, and become aware on a deeper level, of what is going on in the body, where support is needed, and what natural resources are already present within us to offer support.

I was always creative but didn't feel I had any real talent as an artist. Still something about the feeling of painting and the way the colors interacted with my emotions, made me want to paint. One night after a difficult situation where I felt ashamed and taken advantage of, I was experiencing intense emotional flooding. I didn’t know what to do. My paints and a canvas sitting in the corner of my room caught my eye. I put some music on and started painting. Strokes of color and shapes started coming out on the canvas. I didn’t plan what to paint or ask myself if it looked good — I just kept painting. 

At first I was releasing shame, sadness, and anger, and then things started to shift. I noticed my stomach and chest started to relax, my breathing slowed back to normal and I felt like a weight had been lifted. I felt better! I felt like I could accept the situation and the emotions I felt about it, and I could appreciate myself for what I tried to do for someone else, and look at the places I made mistakes and could grow.  

I still have that first painting. That was 3 years ago and since then I have made Intuitive Art a daily practice, using all different materials and finding even more benefits. Now I offer weekly Intuitive Art circles for the community on Zoom, as well as 1:1 sessions. I’m creating workshops that dive deeper with subjects like color healing, and decoding Intuitive Art coming soon.

The bonus is that I have started to turn some of my Intuitive Art into digital art pieces, and I feel proud of them. Through Intuitive Art my confidence as an artist has grown. Intuitive Art has changed my life for the better.