Health-ache and heartache. Art Therapy for the brokenness that comes with chronic illness

Scattered pieces everywhere

I know there are people out there going through it right now and feeling like they are broken beyond repair.

Many of us with chronic illness can feel like we are broken too. Perhaps we have even said the words 'I'm broken' and truly believed it.

Health-ache and heart-ache can weigh us down at times. I know.

There is so much anguish held within this phrase "I'm broken" isn't there.

It describes how we view our bodies, that have somehow let us down and feel less good, less trustworthy to be in.

It describes seeing your life, your plans and expectations in disarray.

Parts of who we imagined ourselves to be get scattered into the air when we become chronically ill.

It is enough to make anyone feel broken.

I am not going to paint a smiley face over your pain and call it fixed.

That's not what art therapy is about and it isn't what I'm about. 

It is completely normal to feel grief and frustration when faced with illness. Sometimes we need to hear that it is ok to feel whatever way we feel.

We need the pain witnessed, not swallowed.

We need to feel it and allow the broken pieces to ebb and flow.

After all every emotion is valid and even brokenness has its role for us.

BUT

I would say that even if you have a list of symptoms metres long, you are more than the sum of these things. Deep down you already know that don't you.

Even if you feel brokenness to your core today, it might not feel like that next week.

There might come a day when you wake up with the energy to start gathering and piecing yourself back together again.

I know you might not be quite the same as you were and that sucks to put it mildly.

But someday

you may surprise yourself

with what you create

from this new puzzle

that is you.

Until that day I want you to hear this....

You are here and you are important. All of your feelings are valid. You are not beyond repair, even if you feel that way sometimes.

Have you ever noticed that even the depths of despair can be punctuated with laughter.

Humour is protective, connection is healing.

That's why I do what I do.

Don't underestimate the power of one moment of shared lightness or creativity. A bit of colour or a moment of connection can transform even the darkest day.

Chronic illness asks us to be creative with our lives,

rejigging them,

reorganising and

reimagining our futures.

As an art therapist I can sit with you in the gloom of it all and watch as you reach for the colours again.

Wouldn't that be something?

So as you go about your day today keep this in mind....

you are immense, complex and unique. There is so much more than just brokenness in you.

I will hold you in mind until we speak,

Ellen