In the act of creating art, it is also possible to enter into a sort of altered state of consciousness that bypasses the rational mind and reverses the deadening effects of addictive habits that have been adopted as a shield against emotional discomfort. In reaching such a peaceful state of consciousness, art helps to open the heart and allows us to plunge into a deeper storehouse of information and guidance that might otherwise remain allusive.

I know this first hand. Throughout much of my life, I had engaged in all kinds of addictive behaviors and practices that ended up deadening me emotionally. I became the consummate intellectual – all head and little heart.

I also never imagined that I had artistic abilities. Nonetheless, when I found myself in a state of intense personal crisis surrounding the breakup of my first marriage, something compelled me to take the plunge into art, and learning to draw and to paint helped introduce me to my own feelings and intuition, perhaps for the first time in my life and in glorious ways. For the discovery of art as a pathway for personal liberation, I am eternally grateful.

When I was first learning to draw, I drew a self-portrait that revealed to me how enraged and distressed a soul I had become. It proved to be a moment of clarity in my life and an important step in changing my relationship to the world. Viewing my self-portrait, I became so conscious of the anger and anxiety that I was harboring. Until then I had barely acknowledged these feelings because I had cut myself off from my own inner being. With this new information about myself, I had something to act on.

Many people are like I was when it came to art. I spent forty years of my life thinking that art was a special talent that only the specially gifted enjoyed. Then, I came to realize that all people are born innate artists, but too often life experiences persuade us otherwise. I also discovered that the act of creating art is an end in itself. I came to realize that I could burn my creation at the end, and the exercise of artistic creation in itself would have been well worth the endeavor. So, I suggest that you put aside any reservations that you may have and understand that you are making art here for yourself. Besides, the exercises below are so designed to coax even the most timid of us into a creative act. Choose whichever of the two exercises that you find more appealing -- either the collage or the drawing exercise.

Drawing Your Self-Portrait

1. Requirements: Pencil, drawing paper, mirror, pen, notepad and a little courage.
2. Place yourself in front of a mirror and draw a portrait of yourself using a pencil and a sheet of drawing paper.
3. When your self-portrait is complete, take a few deep breathes, quiet whatever inner talk might still be going on and carefully examine your self-portrait. Using your pen and notepad, make a list of the feelings that you have toward the person that you have just drawn, and then make another list of the feelings you find expressed in the portrait. This exercise should give you a taste of the reservoir of information that our feelings and intuition provide.
4. Now write in the note, a paragraph beginning with the phrase, "If these lips could talk, they would be telling me . . . .

Making Collages: Who am I
and who do I want to be?

You will be making two collages. In the first one, you will arrange images, words, phrases and just about anything that expresses how you feel about yourself and your place in the world. In the second collage, you will have an opportunity to express how you would like to be in the world. This exercise is designed both to turn you inward and to encourage you to take responsibility for thoughts and feelings that determine your life’s destiny.

1. Requirements: Stiff poster paper or cardboard, glue, scissors, a stack of colorful magazines and a fanciful imagination.

Who am I?

2. Create some quiet time for your self. Grab your stack of magazine and from the magazines cut out pictures and words that speak to you in a special way and that express how you feel in this moment of your life. It is not even necessary to understand why you are attracted to any particular image or word. Accept every impulse that comes your way. Go with your gut feeling.
3. Paste your clippings onto the poster paper or cardboard in any order that you find pleasing. Follow your instinct in pasting your clippings in whatever arrangement comes to you. After all, you are the final arbiter of all that is aesthetically pleasing, authentic for you and expressive of your true self. Feel free to clip more pictures and words and add to the collage as you feel so inspired.
4. After you have completed your collage, take time to contemplate the meaning of your work. Ask yourself what emotions you are expressing in your art – happiness, joy, contentment, self-doubt, worry, guilt, shame, fear, anger, love, etc.
5. Hold onto these feelings and write as a poem or in prose the story of where you are now in your life based on these feelings.

Who do I want to be?

6. Repeat the steps for creating the first collage. This time, choose images, words and phrases that reflect how you would like to be in the world in the future. As before, go with your gut feelings in choosing your clippings and in arranging them on the poster paper or cardboard.
7. After completing the collage, study your creation and the elements that comprise it, and ask yourself what advice or guidance do you sense coming from the collage, from each element it contains.

Now write a story of your future, imagined life. Describe how you want to be in the world, and do it from the perspective that you are the master of your own destiny, that you are the one responsible for all your thoughts and feelings in this enriched life, and that you are an artist creating a world of your own choosing. This is how truly powerful people lead their lives.