Journaling Tool Share: The Masks I Wear

Journaling is one of the best ways to practice mindfulness! We bring intention, cultivate awareness, and bring focus (so that our brain can do its “neuroplastic” magic).

When I’m “out of town,” I like to be creative with my five year old son. Time away from home seems to make the days longer and flow more effortlessly. This Sunday, we picked a card from a “Guided Art Therapy Card Deck” by Emily Sharp titled “The Mask I Wear,” a collage activity. My son ended up creating a self-portrait, and I followed the card’s invitation to explore my masks. Here is the prompt, which I’ve adapted some. You’ll want colored pencils and at least an hour to explore.

Draw the outline of a face. Cut out pictures from a newspaper/magazine and add them to your face. On the inside of your mask, consider placing what you show to the world and what others see. On the outside of your mask, place what you keep for yourself. Maybe there are things that align in the inside and outside? Explore these themes through colors, pictures, shapes, words, textures.

When you’re done, you can journal:

–Are the inside and outside of your mask different? Why?
–Is there something inside you that you wish you could show to the world?
–Notice what surprises you on the outside of your mask.

After my son and I finished making art, we each spoke about what the art meant to ourselves. Then we both shared “what we observed” in the other person’s art.

I also journaled a few hours after the art-making:

I am surprised that the outside includes so much about my core self. I think “glimmers” of this are shown to the world and definitely shown in my poetry/memoir writing, which are vessels for more intense truths. Social medias show highlights of this spiritual life, the tender life, the woman “in a process” way of being who has also arrived and isn’t going anywhere, so I don’t feel conflicted or am not carrying the weight of negative connotations of “mask.” I like that I hold private things longer and closer to my being. They are things that nurture me so. When they are done with this relationship with me, I give them away. This is a beautiful cycle.

Overall, I felt more connected with my son, more alive/in relationship with my core self, and more aware of how I see myself (and how others may see me). I pray my son and I continue to “hold” these positive experiences in our sphere together.