Collage Myself: The Benefits of Collaging for Adults of Any Age

What if a simple activity of "collaging" could

1. save you time and money

2. reduce your stress & confusion

3. improve your relationships

4. get you in touch with not only what is going on inside

5. but get you in touch with the You, that you tell yourself you are too busy for.

Would you try it?

We are funny as human beings. Even when there are things available for our benefit, we create barriers and reasons why it's not for us, and talk ourselves out of it... before we even try it.

So here are some "reasons" we may use to defend our case...

"I'm not artsy, so I don't do that kind of stuff"

I am not a classic artist. Meaning I don't know how to draw or paint. But what I have been doing for the past 25 years of my life, and especially in the last 3 years, is collaging. Collaging is taking visual art that has already been created (like in magazines or books) and cutting them out to create and place them in a new visual piece of your own making (can be onto a sheet of paper, or onto poster frames or collage books which have been my favorites. p.s as referenced in the photos). For those, like me, who haven't traditionally considered themselves as artists, there is a way to tap into your creativity and into your psyche through this medium of "Collaging"

"Who has time to collage or do any kind of art project?"

Since when did we draw that line between what's beneficial for us to do as kids and what's beneficial for us as adults?As a therapist, I see the significance of why much of therapy with kids is done through play therapy and art therapy.It is challenging for kids to find the words to articulate their experiences therefore play and art gives the kids a medium to express themselves as well as a new language of communication between therapist/coach and the child.But why haven't we considered that the enormous benefits continue into adulthood?How many of us still struggle to put into words our experiences as adults?What if this medium of art can become a new language of communication between our conscious, controlled adult self and the unconscious self that usually runs the show without us even noticing.

"I need to spend my time & money on things that will truly benefit my life"

What if a simple activity of "collaging" could save you money & time, reduce your stress and worry, improve your relationships at home and at work, and get you in touch with not only what's most important to you, but get you in touch with the YOU, that you say you are so busy for?

Any type of healing modality such as therapy/coaching/body work or spiritual work all through different methods intend to do the same thing; to heal. Specific methods such as EMDR (trauma work), or body/somatic work (simple as massages) & Spiritual work through medicine and dream work etc...all do one thing in common...they connect your conscious self with that which is not conscious or sub-conscious to bring about unity, wholeness and/or resolve.

Collaging is yet another way to get there. What's awesome about this method, is you can keep your discoveries as a memorabilia to come back to revisit; re-learn or just remember. You will have a tangible gift of when your left brain met your right brain.

“Art can permeate the very deepest part of us, where no words exist.”

― Eileen Miller, The Girl Who Spoke with Pictures: Autism Through Art

Thanks to technology and our ability to see and track activity in our brains, much research has shown that we access the right and left brain for different things. In the simplest of terms, the left brain is for logical, linear reasoning and the using of words and the right brain is for non-linear, more emotional reasoning through pictures.(Yes, I said emotional reasoning. )However, consider this, by the time we have reduced our impressions or experience into words, we have left out so much...hence the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words".When you collage, you are accessing the right side of your brain by choosing the pictures that are catching your attention, and you are accessing the left side of your brain by organizing them into a structured template,You are therefore, engaging both the left and right brain and allowing them to connect and speak to one another. Whallah!

The result of collaging, is a collaborative creation of both the left and ride side of your brain.Therefore, by doing this activity, you allow your whole brain, the conscious and subconscious, your FULL SELF,  to explore and choose and heal.