Clearing Your Blocks Guest Post: Kendra Kantor

For the Law of Attraction to work at its best the more you clear your crap, the better.  I love it that we all have our own ways to help us do this.

Today Kendra Kantor explains how art journaling works for her.  Kendra is a Wellness Mentor and Guide for creative women looking to embrace their self discovery and improve their mental health wellness.

 

Your Journal Is Your Own Personal Therapist

As I grow up, I’ve noticed more often that there are so many things in life that you truly have to experience to understand. I always thought about having a baby, but never really got what it would be like or how much I could possibly love my son until he was born. As much as I write about my mental illnesses, people who haven’t experienced them won’t ever be able to understand where I’m coming from.

As an artist, I didn’t understand the significance of having a daily(ish) practice until I created one, and then stopped.

I’ve been dabbling in art journaling off and on for years and years now. It’s a love hate kind of relationship I think. I love the release but for so long hated the outcome of my page. I was too focused on the look and on how “popular” journalers styled their books.

About a year ago, I said EFF THIS! And did what I wanted. I went minimal, lots of watercolor, tech pen. My pages are filled with poems and affirmations. In late 2013, I started working regularly and consistently in my journal. Being a mama, I don’t get time every day but about 3 or 4 days a week for 30 minutes, I sit down and show up at the page.

It can be hard some days. Other days, it’s such a release. I sit down and the words, the pain, the images just pour out of my fingers and before I know it my time is up.

Have you ever used an art journal (or written journal) as a wellness tool? How about this, have you ever been in talk therapy? I’m a big believer in both. I’ve always loved my talk therapy sessions the most over the years because it was about getting my words out, my emotions expressed to someone else.

That’s what your journal is for. It’s your own personal therapist that you can fit in your purse. Spill your words, your emotions. Let out the pain onto the page. It won’t completely go away from inside of you, but that letting go, that making it visual, tangible goes a long long way to feeling lighter and well.

Do you ever feel like your emotions are hard to contain? I get that too. Trigger alert: my anxiety often manifests itself by making me feel like I need to throw up to get the pain, the adrenaline and the negativity out of me. I don’t, but I often turn to my journal page and watercolors. I scribble poems, I doodle portraits.

Instead of keeping your emotions pent up, let them bubble out in a productive manner. Let them out onto the page, with your ink or paint. Let your emotions and thoughts free.

“Dear Self: a collection of poems and art” is Kendra’s first publication. The official release date June 10th, 2013, special per-orders are available through Kendra’s website. This collection of 30 poems and art perfectly blends her love of visual art and the written word. What started as a personal project to improve her wellness blossomed into a lifetime dream coming true.

When she’s not helping you improve your life and wellness or working on her next book, you can find Kendra indulging in her guilty pleasure reads (romances or zombie novels), stealing as many cuddles as possible from her toddler and bribing her husband to go get ice cream (it’s really not that hard!).

Pre-order your copy of Kendra’s new book “Dear Self”, today!

Website: http://kendrakantor.com
Blog http://likeabirdblog.com