It was time for our mastermind group to meet up again. The highlight of this mastermind weekend was the “Releasing Emotions through Art” workshop that I facilitated in my practice in Oerlikon.
We (the painting workshop participants aka my mastermind group) started off with a guided meditation to the 5 Chinese elements.
Exploring these helped us understand how each of the elements related to our daily experiences, emotions and relationships.
The participants were taken on a journey through a relaxing meditation and visualisation techniques to activate awareness of their thoughts, emotions and any other physical sensations.
After the meditation they were then free to express whatever came up first using a dominant colour for a while to stay in the relaxed, meditative state. This was then followed by whatever colours called them.
Being in this meditative state allowed them to go with the flow. To not be in their heads and just allow what needed to come out. They described it as a peaceful, rewarding and satisfying time.
Some went deeper and deeper not being able to stop, others were done quickly. Some tweaked their paintings more and more not wanting the experience to end.
For some the dominant colour was important and symbolic, for others it was the colours that followed. Some started with white, went through all the whole palette and later came back white to start all over but with a rich underground. Others started with bolder colours and kept tweaking until they felt a sense of satisfaction.
Some just used paint brushes, from the biggest to smallest. Others experimented with sponges, their fingers and even the back of the paint tubes for more depth and structure.
This workshop was a journey designed to help clear out obstacles and bring balance. Their inner dialogue became obvious and they had the opportunity to allow themselves to change it. It empowered some of them to shift emotional trauma, feelings of insecurity and process emotions for insightful value rather than avoid them as uncomfortable. Everyone felt a sense of release and also commented on how painting a wonderful medium is to get things flowing.
