Inner Process work using Journaling, Inquiry, & Self Awareness

Ever since a child, I have used art making as a way to make sense of the world, to connect to an inner world that seemed more alive, curious and abundant with possibility. These processes engaged in the emotion of symbols and color brought deep self-awareness and embodied understanding. As a teen, I became intimate with the psychology of metaphors and the creative process, and used it as a space to express my voice, and to heal through family crisis. Later on that curiosity directed my doctoral research on how arts practice benefits mind and body. This investigative process is what I call Life Excavations and these are some of the mindfulness tools used in that excavation process to help unwind stress, break through habitual patterns, and support a clearer capacity to see reality as it actually is, not how we construct, manipulate or story it to be.

Mind mapping

Mind mapping is tool for sense-making, or feeling into an issue, topic or experience using symbols and text. It is a free association process that allows the conscious and subconscious mind to make meaning and order out of ambiguous, overwhelming, or chaotic content. As a type of graphic organizer, I engage with ink pens, grey tones, and whiteout pens for contrast.

Visual Journaling- The Imaginarium

Another tool for sense making is to allow the imagination to speak using images, text, and organic design. Journaling helps us to unpack complexity while visual expression taps into the nonverbal, subconscious and sensory-emotional storehouse of imagery. Combining both allows for a rich, immersive experience where the journal, like a mirror reflects back greater self awareness, creative flow, and empathy.

Collective Scribing/ Visual Presenting

Scribing is the capacity to listen in real time to live content such as a story, discussion, or video and capture it visually using color, placement, text, etc. We call group scribing, a collective process where sensing together and then sharing that visual data creates nonverbal, energetic connections and deepens communal insight of the content.