A few Sundays ago, I spent an afternoon conducting an experiment. Instead of meeting at the usual garden setting to practice, I gathered with a group of women at an art gallery called Destination Art in Torrance, California. Our question was simple; can visual art inspire reflective journaling?
After a creative conversation about the benefits of journaling practice, I sent them off to explore the artwork with one objective in mind. Instead of assessing the value, story, or talent of the artist, just let yourself be drawn by one simple thing: find what you like.
Maybe it would be a favorite color, or a unique pattern of shapes that would draw them in. Maybe a scene would remind them of a long lost memory. Perhaps there would be no real “reason” at all except for the fact that “they just like it.”
For the next 20 minutes, I watched them wander through the gallery in search of their favorite pieces. Much like my students at the botanical garden who are inspired by the beauty of nature, these women let the artwork on the walls remind them of what they love, what they miss, or what they would like to create more of in their daily lives.
Plato said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and after their quest to find their own personal version of beauty, the women returned to their journals to put their preferences into words.
We spend so much of our day-to-day lives defending or rationalizing why we make the choices we do. “It’s a good value,” we say. Or, “it makes the most sense.” But when we allow ourselves the freedom of seeking out things simply because we like them or they make us feel good, we tap into our own individuality. Journaling about our favorite things reminds us of the resources that surround us. It also reconnects us to our ability to make choices that match our own unique expression in the world.
At the end of our journaling time, I witnessed the fruits of this practice. The quiet sound of pens moving across paper was replaced by lively discussion of people sharing what they had found, what they loved, and what they learned about themselves in the process.
Ellen Bell a certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher with a specialty in the practice of positive journaling for wellness. Find out more about Ellen.