Feeling and sharing through art therapy
I just came back from a fantastic dinner with Daniel Cremin (@danielcremin) and Francine (from Creative Open Workshops). As it is being usual lately, I’ve started with my personal problems. I’ve spent a big deal of time telling them about the situation I am right now, concerning my emotions for someone I met recently about whom I care very much. They gave me amazing advise.
Then, when Daniel went to put money into the parking machine, Francine told me about her work as art therapist for mentally-ill children. She said that it was a great way for them to feel and share emotions. Art is an amazing way of experiencing feelings together with others. Why are we keeping art therapy in the margins? Why aren’t doing art therapy in the schools for everybody, for all ages? This is one of the main points of what I call emotional revolution. We need to feel more. We need to start investing in activities that teach our kids and us how to feel and share these feeling with others. Experiences by which we learn to interpret what we feel, and give us the opportunity to share it with others. We cannot invest all our resources in utilitarian and rational activities, which in great part are forgotten or simply ignored in our lives. Art therapy, as cooking, or dancing, or farming are ways for us to make a new world where emotions become the core of our actions, in complement with our reason. This is what the emotional revolution is all about.
