September 26, 2006
The Encourager
Volume 2 No. 04 Septmeber 2006If you know a Square-Peg-Person who would appreciate reading encouraging words, please forward this newsletter to them.
If you're not receiving the newsletter in it's regular colorful format (with pictures) - I encourage you to read it at:
back issues of The Encourager.
What's New at Square-Peg-People.com
In this issue:
Square-Peg-Spotlight
Square-Peg-Stacks
Looking ahead
What's New at Square-Peg-People.com?
IT'S HERE! The e-course that was the seed that grew into the Square-Peg-People.com site:
Do you ever feel uncomfortable being a Square-Peg-Person? Do you have more negative feelings than positive ones about being a Square-Peg?
Come explore your Square-Pegness with the Celebration e-course - It's time to find out what's right with you, not what's wrong with you!
You can Buy Now or click
here
to find out more.
For a limited time - 10 days, to be exact - Square-Peg Celebration! will be available only through The Encourager. And we're offering Encourager readers a whopping 50% reduction in the regular price.
On October 6, 2006 Square-Peg Celebration! will be presented through the Square-Peg-People.com site at regular price ($29.98) - so hurry - you don't want to miss this great deal!
We've also got a new humor article (on the Humor page) from Jenny Ryan, called
A Tale of Two Spouses
and an article called
Self-esteem
(on the Body Image page) from someone new to Square-Peg-People.com - Erin, from Homemomma.com.
Thanks, contributors!
Our interview and book review this month revolve around the theme of Soul.
Anne Marie Bennett, our interviewee, is the founder of Kaleidosoul.com - a web site filled with information and help with the SoulCollage™ process - which is a way to use art for inner growth and healing.
The book we review - The Soul's Palette, by Cathy A. Malchiodi - describes and explains numerous kinds of art processes you can use for expression of soul.
I hope you enjoy "meeting" both!
Square-Peg-Spotlight
We're starting backwards with this interview. Anne Marie has agreed to help us shake up the interview section this month by shortening it a bit and adding an article of her own!
I'd like to introduce you to Anne Marie Bennett: Writer, Artist, SoulCollage™ Facilitator, Cat Whisperer, Painter of Rainbows and Weaver of Dreams!
So much! Encourager readers can enjoy finding out first-hand what they can learn from Anne Marie, by reading: "Fall In Love With Yourself With SoulCollage ™".
I believe that this, combined with checking out Anne Marie's Kaleidosoul.com site shows more than I can tell about what you can learn from Anne Marie. Her work is awesome and encourages each of us on our Square-Peg paths.
Thanks, Anne Marie!
(FYI - we're only offering this great article in The Encourager, not on the site - Isn't it great that you're a subscriber!!!)
Fall In Love With Yourself With SoulCollage
By Anne Marie Bennett
This is my Self-Nourishment SoulCollage™ card. I created it to honor the voice inside of me that says:
Each card in a SoulCollage™ deck represents and honors one of the following facets of my unique life: a voice that lives inside of me, a person who supports me, an animal that has special energy to give me, or a mythical figure which guides me.
Using very simple materials (scissors, glue, mat board, and magazine images), I create my cards and interpret them using journaling or other activities. I use my deck to help me find answers to the questions that arise in my life, and to access my own deep wisdom.
Falling In Love With Myself
I am the one who intuitively knows how to nurture myself.
I am the one who invites rainbows into my daily practice of self-nourishment.
I am the one who drinks deeply of life, who doesn't worry about the bowl ever being empty.
What is SoulCollage?™
SoulCollage™ is a unique blend of spiritual practice and the fun of collage. It was created by Seena Frost in 1980 as she worked with clients in her therapy practice in California.
I make cards for all of the voices within me... even the dark, shadowy ones. For example, here are some of the voices I honor with my SoulCollage™ deck: the one who loses her temper, the one who weighs too much, the one who is lonely, the one who is impatient.
Of course, I also make cards for my inner voices which bring me light and joy: the one who is a teacher, the one who is nurturing, the one who creates, the carefree child.
As I work with this amazing process, I find that I am more and more able to embrace every part of me, even the dark ones. It is in this embracing that I come to wholeness, and it is in this wholeness that I discover I am falling in love with myself, one SoulCollage™ card at a time.
9 Easy Steps To Your First SoulCollage™ Card
The most important thing to remember while you are making SoulCollage™ cards is to honor your own process. Please keep in mind that these steps are only guidelines. Feel free to deviate from them at any time and in any way! And don't forget to have fun!!!
1. Create sacred space by lighting a small candle and/or putting on some soft music that delights your soul.
2. Gather your materials and put them on the table in front of you. You should have the following: a piece of 5" x 8" mat board or cardboard, a pair of scissors, an acid-free glue stick or jar of rubber cement, and several magazines.
3. Spend a generous amount of time going through the magazines. Tear out any images that you like, that seem to appeal to you for ANY REASON. Don't question WHY you might be drawn to the images. Simply rip them out!
4. Spread the images out around you. Gather them into smaller piles, sorting them by colors, energies, themes, or patterns. For instance, you might notice that you have lots of images of stairways, or windows, or birds, or people who are frowning, or..... You might see several images that just seem to go together for some reason. You don't need to verbalize a reason for grouping some images together.
5. When you have a few different piles sorted by theme, choose one of them.
6. Start playing around with the images that you have chosen. Lay them on top of one another, or beside each other. Arrange and rearrange them until you come to a layout that you like. Trust your intuition. You will know when it looks "right."
7. Glue the images onto the 5" x 8" mat board or cardboard.
8. You have made your first SoulCollage ™ card!
9. Now it's time to do the I am the one who's exercise with your card to deepen your experience with it, and to begin to integrate its meaning into your life. Detailed instructions for this part of the process can be found
here.
Now, continuing with our interview:
Anne Marie puts a different slant on the Square-Peg term, saying: "I prefer to think of myself as having been on the road less travelled". How's that for a creative twist right in the beginning?
...even as a child I noticed I was different - in simple ways. It was like I was an only child - I had 2 WAY older brothers.
Lots of kids had straight hair - I had curly. I am left-handed. I'm always asking questions.
Anne Marie has taken many different paths in her life -
I moved 500 miles away from home to be a teacher. Teachers were being laid off in New England, so I went to Virginia.
I taught 2nd grade...in a teeny, tiny farming town - the nearest McDonalds was 1/2 hour down the road. The town was so small that within a week of moving there everyone in the town knew my name.
Later she worked for a learning corporation -
I was a consultant, then I trained consultants who would train teachers.
Even in my family I've taken the road less travelled. The path seemed to come from inside - I instinctively knew when to do the next thing.
I met my husband, Jeff, who had 3 kids. That was the next thing on the road less travelled. Putting all that creative energy into helping raise three children.
She writes for those of us who call ourselves artists - and those of us who wouldn't dream of using that word about ourselves. She "talks" to the practical-minded as well as airy-fairy-idea-lovers (like me!), sharing art-supporting information garnered from Leonardo da Vinci, Hildegard of Bingen, Andrew Weil M.D., Jung, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others.
And Cathy provides factual back-up from medical/psychological/scientific sources - to explain what the experts have learned about how art making and art process work to help us.
For newbies, she offers good news: "..anyone can engage in art making, even with minimal technical skill..." And notes: "Also, remember when first starting out that your immediate goal is not to produce a beautiful painting or sculpture but to express yourself, take pleasure in the artistic process, and see what emerges."
For those already comfortable with art making, she offers IDEAS - more ideas than you'd expect from a 6-person marathon brainstorming session!
The icing on the cake is that the whole book is woven through with stories. She says: "By nature, we are storytelling beings. To be a human is to have a story to tell. The images we create are the reflections of ourselves and our experiences, and contain the stories of our lives...Without stories, we cannot make sense of things." And she gives us plenty of them.
Cathy tells us that the art process IS for all of us. In a chapter entitled "Embracing Your Creative Birthright", she talks about people's relationship to art and art making. She understands that some of us have lost that relationship.
She describes how people are discouraged about making art - usually when they are young. She also mentions a twist on this: "You may have been encouraged to make art, but in a way that discouraged your true voice and vision."
Cathy talks about working with people who ..."may have been out of touch with art making for a long time..." She says that she will "... often ask them to think about the places, events, and experiences that influenced their inner artist." She offers us interesting questions to ponder - prompts that will help us explore our relationship with art making.
She shares part of her story - about a big, positive influence when she was in grammar school. She had a teacher who encouraged her to make art when she was finished other assignments - prompting her when she was stuck and allowing Cathy to find her own art and style (not mimic his preferences). In her words: "...suddenly my whole world changed."
In an effort to help us move into that world changing experience, Cathy asks open-ended questions, inviting exploration and reflection. Throughout the book she continues offering these kind of questions - giving us opportunities to integrate what works for us from her teachings.
She also guides us with "exercises" and "practices" at the end of each chapter - that deepen our understanding of the concepts we've learned.
She describes these: "Creative activities are exercises that will help you to develop and enhance your creative powers, tap your imagination's healing potential, and access and use imagery for personal growth. Transformational practices are long-term creative experiences designed to deepen and enhance the potential of art in our life."
I'd like to give you a little idea about how inclusive this book is - how many creative possibilities Cathy offers us. In just ONE subchapter "Creative Activities: Drawing" she lists and describes these choices: self-stick notepad sketches, Non-dominant-hand drawing, "Kill the hand", Drawing the heart of the image (my favorite), Dance your drawing, and Just experiment.
Continue reading...
We're scheduling another "Meet your Tribe" tele-call in early November. Do you have any ideas for a topic? If so, please tell us - use the Contact form on the site - and keep watching for the tele-call announcement on our Home Page.
And next month we've got an interview with Tina M. Marks Shirley (Certified Instructor of Integrative Yoga Therapy, and Usui Reiki practitioner and writer). You've seen her work in numerous places on the Square-Peg-People site - now you'll get a chance to "meet" her. Tina's website - where you can see more of her fantastic work - is
ready~set~free.com
Read more...
Square-Peg-Stacks
Review of Cathy A. Malchiodi's book The Soul's Palette: Drawing on Art's Transformative Powers for Health and Well-Being.
In this book Cathy A. Malchiodi explains the whys and hows of using art for inner growth and wholeness.
Looking Ahead
We can't wait to show you our new look! Within the next month
Square-Peg-People.com
will get a face lift. All the great articles and information will still be here - but we'll be looking prettier - woo hoo!