Back to the gypsy that I was: a self-recovery collage

What does it mean to recover yourself?

Self-recovery, in the inner life sense, I've come to understand isn't a project. It's making the small choice that gives you energy rather than draining it.

Honoring the creative part, the dreaming part, the life-giving part.

Art is a shortcut through overthinking and back into ourselves. Simple, unrefined, process-driven, holy gluesticks and torn paper style.

This is an exercise in delight. 

I know delight doesn’t always feel accessible.

And, yet…

This little collaged inquiry has become one of my favorite ways to check in with myself and help recover my energy.

I’m suggesting it here for a season (summer), but you could do it for your birthday —mine happens to be today — or anytime you want to get clarity around an issue.

the "WHAT GIVES ME energy?" Collage

Step 1: Listen for Your Wishes

Put on a great playlist. (May I suggest Gypsy Summer, Windows Down?)

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Grab a cheap notebook and collage the cover, or create something you'll see often—take a pic and save it to a phone background, hang your poster where you get dressed each morning.

Divide your surface it into four blocks, and number them 1-4. Take a breath and ask your heart of hearts: What are your wishes for___ (this summer), what do you want to embrace?

Some themes might be:

• Rest, prayer, or renewal

• How to hold the practical tasks life is asking of you

• Creative dreams and projects

• Friendship, family, community, or fun

Write a word in each quadrant. 

Step 2: Gather the Clues

Now begin gathering images. Flip through magazines, catalogs, junk mail, old cards, or letters. As images catch your eye, place them into one of your four piles. Let yourself free-associate without overthinking it. 

Intuitively place the images down with glue, allowing the collage to emerge.

Reserve one image or snippet of words for the center. This is what I have found is the ‘key’ to unlocking the potential of this process art piece. 

(P.S. A coating of Mod Podge swirled on with a paper towel or brush might be a nice touch.)

Step 3: Discover the Key

When you're done, step back and spend a few moments in conversation with what you've created. What is this collage trying to tell you…?

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What do you notice?

Is there anything that surprises you? 

How do you feel about these four wishes or themes now? Anything different from when you started?

Are the quadrants speaking to one another in some way?

What is the key to you feeling more alive?

“If someone is unhappy with your life, it shouldn’t be you.”

— Brooke Castillo

Field of Wildflowers grew from my own “she shed.” From questions I started asking mid-life, mid-parenting, mid-everything: what happens when a woman actually prioritizes her inner life?

For years I lived with an inner self who felt like she couldn't dream because life demanded too much of her.

Yet what I've discovered — in my journey and with other thousands of women — is that our innermost dreams and secret joys give us the energy to meet the demands of the outer world.

I’m learning to ask myself: What gives me energy?

Not what's productive. Not what will win approval. Not what's on the never ending list (I actually own a book about coping with being a finite human). What actually fills me, the way sun through a window fills a room.

Joy is not a reward for finishing everything first. It's not what you get to when the work is done.

I have known women who wait their whole lives for that moment, and it never quite arrives.

But, I have also known the adventurers…

Those who are realizing joy belongs in the middle of a life, not just at the end of a to-do list or when all problems are solved.

So let’s ask ourselves: What if delight is fuel? What if the playlist, the long walk, the afternoon with scissors and a stack of old magazines — what if those aren't indulgences? What if they're the thing that makes everything else possible?

You may want to… 

• make some notes for yourself on your own insights

• book a few appointments on your calendar for what gives you energy (and cancel others)

• send this little exercise to a friend who could use recovering her own precious life energy

• share your collage and ah-hahs with me here

Psst.. before you leave, save this soundtrack  🎧