"What do you have to give yourself permission to do when you’re doing something scary?"
RECOMMENDED MATERIALS
A journal and watercolors, waterproof pens or markers, or whatever art materials you have on hand and want to use to decorate your journal.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Get ready to create some art and join us on this wholehearted journey. Crack open your journal—don’t be intimidated! Let go of perfection and get messy!
2. Skip the first page and save it for another assignment later in the course.
3. What do you have to give yourself permission to do when you’re doing something scary? Draw permission slips in your journal or simply write them down as a list. I give myself permission to __________.
4. Decorate the page by using colored pens or markers and watercolors to create the permission slips or list.
First, I watched the video online with Brené and her friend Karen Walrond. Karen introduced Brené to journaling and is a speaker, author and photographer. Although I can’t share the video online here is a short video clip on Brené giving herself permission to be uncool when she met Oprah.
Why Brené Brown Gives Herself Permission to Be Uncool
Next, I made some homemade hot chocolate - clearly I was procrastinating to start this first journal entry, I set my paints out, took a bath (seriously), gave my dog a bath (again, seriously), and when my hot chocolate burned, I strained out the bitter and burnt pieces and put it in to my Charlie mug - Charlie is my 10 year old Golden Retriever who has been around since I was 20, he’s pretty awesome and has seen some of my most vulnerable moments.
So I took a few pictures and watched the 13 minute video of Brené and Karen and then drew lines in my journal with the back of an envelope - I still couldn’t think of what to do and my husband has taken over the TV so I put my headphone on and listened to my acoustic afternoon mix on Spotify, I heard a song by Hozier called Take Me to Church and thought it was such a great song that I looked up the chords and wrote them down - at this point in time I would usually get up and find my guitar and play a song until I went to bed and completely space on whatever it was I was doing, but this is my process, this is my journey and I am giving myself permission to procrastinate.
I wrote some word…honestly, some words that I was hearing in my music, I came up with get inspired, cry, be idealistic, be authentic, be broken, be strong, be thrill, fall behind with the caveat of “a bit”, take a break (AMEN!) - I kept writing a few more words down, I wrote the word fuck, but then I gave myself permission to curse, because if you know me at all, it’s an unfortunate part of my vocabulary. After I wrote down more words, I was ready to decorate my page - part of the courage here is to remember you can always add to your permission slips.
Brené used hard watercolors in a palette called Gouache (rhymes with Squash) because she thinks the colors are more vibrant - use whatever you have but I like the tube colors because I find them easier to mix if you want.
For whatever reason I started with red, then blue.
I stuck with primary colors and did a few lines of each, I used a paper towel to blot any drip or heavy spots.
Ultimately, I finished with some pretty great permissions - permission to be unleashed, to get over it and lose control. To not take this journey so seriously, to laugh, to stop and get distracted, to shared, to hate it - then love it to *start over* - to have courage, compassion, and connection.
prguitarman
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
yousharknotpass
