Realigning Thoughts and Colour.
Friday 5th February 2021 at 11 am and 2 pm (GMT).
I began the workshops with a short guided meditation as spending a few minutes quietening thoughts is highly beneficial. This weeks meditation was to ensure a clear mind and let go of any negative thoughts or stress. The affirmation that accompanied the meditation was, “I forgive myself and set myself free,” forming a feeling of release of emotions, situating the participants fully into this moment and workshop.
My work began with physically rearranging negative sentences to realign negative thoughts and emotions. As this is the main basis of my work, I decided to have this small activity in every workshop. A small explanation of this method is displayed below:
Write out negative thoughts / emotion – can be a thought that has been bothering you, or simply that you’re having a bad hair day.
Cut up the sentence – cut up each word individually.
Rearrange – with all the individual words, rearrange the previously negative sentence into a more positive version.
During this workshop I included associating colours with the negative and positive sentences. The colour chosen is to express the overall emotion and feeling of the sentences. Adding colour to the sentences allows for the words to be simplified and therefore seem less overwhelming. Workshop participants found that using colour was beneficial, as it allowed for a further expression of their emotions.
The next stage was personifying the colours/ emotions, answering questions such as, What do they look like? What do they feel? What do they say? It was up the individual how they personify their colours/ emotions, they could use words, drawings or both! The participants found this exercise fun and effective as it draws the emotions away from yourself, allowing them to see the negative thoughts from an outside perspective.
The final stage was the write a letter from the positive emotion/ colour point of view, in response to the original negative sentence. This exercise allowed individuals to disassociate from the negative thought, as they were no longer the person giving themselves advice. Writing the letter became cathartic as they were made to address the first negative sentence, resulting in thinking about it more positively.
Realigning Thoughts.
Gabrielle Spooner // Monday 8th February 2021
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