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Creative Expression / Vision Board
5 TFM - Befriend your Inner Voice
First read (and perform) the General Instructions. Click here.
(and for Main Introduction, Click here)
Here’s a breakdown of 12 months of APPENDIX tailored specifically for 5th Transformation: Befriend Your Inner Voice.
Remember, the focus here is on understanding and accepting your inner voices for self-awareness and growth.
Typical Negative Thought: “I’m never going to finish this project.”
Transformation 5 Response: “Okay, I hear you, inner critic. This project feels overwhelming, and the fear of not finishing is strong. Let’s explore that a bit. Where does that fear come from? Is it past experiences? A current lack of resources? Let’s hold space for these feelings and see what insights they hold…”
Key in the 5th Transformation:
- Understanding is the Catalyst: Understanding the roots of your inner critic is essential for establishing a new relationship with it.
- Compassion Over Confrontation: Respond to negativity with curiosity and non-judgment rather than trying to forcefully replace it with positivity.
- Finding the Hidden Meaning: Negative thoughts offer clues about unmet needs, unresolved past experiences, or limiting beliefs that deserve attention.
Important Note: Befriending your inner voice isn’t about instantly becoming positive; it’s about acknowledging all aspects of yourself, especially the difficult parts.
Important Note 2:
- Flexibility is Key: If digging into the roots of a negative thought feels overwhelming, try journaling, talking to a trusted friend, or working with an inner voice coach.
- Celebrate Progress: Any step towards understanding and compassion for your inner voices is a win—perfection isn’t the goal!
- This is Ongoing: Befriending your inner voice is a lifelong journey, and your tools strengthen with practice.
Select the current month to get your APPENDIX.
Mapping Your Inner Landscape
TOPIC: Visualize the inner dialogue as a map, charting the territories of your Voices of Security and Insecurity.
APPENDIX:
Materials: Suggest including different colored pens/markers for each voice.
Techniques: Encourage the use of shapes, symbols, and paths to represent emotions, strengths, and weaknesses that each voice represents.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Large sheet of paper, colored pens/markers (at least two), optional: ruler, stencils for shapes.
Instructions:
Divide the paper into two main areas: “Territory of the Voice of Security” and “Territory of the Voice of Insecurity.”
Use different colors, line styles, or shapes to represent areas within each territory that reflect specific emotions, strengths, weaknesses, recurring thoughts, or triggers associated with each voice.
Feel free to create “paths” or “boundaries” connecting these areas to illustrate how they influence one another.
Reflection Questions:
Is one territory larger than the other? Does this surprise you?
Are there areas where the territories overlap or blend? What does this tell you?
What symbols or images best represent the core feelings associated with each territory?
Dialogue With Your Voices
TOPIC: Create a storyboard or comic strip depicting a conversation between your two voices.
APPENDIX:
Writing Prompts: Focus on questions/statements your voices might use, as well as compassionate replies you can give to both.
Focus: Emphasize humor, understanding the motivations of each voice, and offering a neutral perspective.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Paper for a comic/storyboard (can be divided into panels), drawing or writing tools.
Writing Prompts:
Voice of Insecurity: What’s a typical fear, doubt, or self-criticism you hear often?
Voice of Security: What’s a compassionate, encouraging response you’d like to have towards the first voice?
Your Neutral Perspective: What can you as an observer say to both voices with kindness and understanding?
Visualization: Imagine yourself stepping into the comic as a third character, offering understanding to both of your inner voices. How does the interaction change?
Nurturing Your Inner Child
TOPIC: Build a collage representing your inner child, their needs, and how your voices interact with that part of yourself.
APPENDIX:
Materials: Suggest old photos, textured paper, comforting images
Visualization: Guide a meditation where your adult self offers comfort and reassurance to the visualized inner child.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Photos of yourself as a child (if available), magazines, textured papers, fabrics, glue, tape, and anything visually comforting.
Instructions:
Central Image: Choose a photo or create a simple drawing of yourself at a young age.
Surround this image with symbols of what that child needed/needs – love, play, safety, etc.
Include images or words that represent how your inner voices might have interacted with this younger version of you.
Guided Visualization:
Imagine your adult self sitting with your inner child, offering words of comfort, reassurance, and validation.
After the visualization, reflect on what you said, how it felt, and what this reveals about your current inner dialogue.
Harmony Through Sound
TOPIC: Create a playlist reflecting your inner voices, assigning songs for each. Then, select a piece of music that symbolizes their desired balance.
APPENDIX:
Instructions: Encourage writing reflections after listening – what emotions do the songs evoke? How does the ‘balance’ song make you feel?
Emphasis: On choosing music based on feeling, not just lyrics.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Access to a music streaming service or collection. Notebook for reflection.
Instructions:
Make three playlists: “Voice of Insecurity”, “Voice of Security”, and “Desired Balance”.
Choose songs instinctively based on the emotions and energy they evoke, not necessarily specific lyrics.
After listening to each playlist, write down the feelings that arose and what the music made you think about.
How does the “Desired Balance” playlist evoke a different sense of self?
The Body as a Guide
TOPIC: Body Mapping – drawing an outline of your body and marking where you feel different emotions associated with each voice.
APPENDIX:
Techniques: Use colors, textures, even words to show where insecurity, joy, confidence, etc. physically manifest.
Focus: Encourage mindful breathing and self-awareness during this exercise.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Large sheet
of paper, markers, crayons, or colored pencils.
Instructions:
Trace an outline of your body on the paper or draw a simple figure.
Think of emotions associated with your Voice of Insecurity (anger, anxiety, shame). Choose colors and symbols to represent them, marking where you feel them in your body.
Repeat the process for feelings associated with your Voice of Security (joy, confidence, peace).
Mindful Breathing: Sit with the drawing. Breathe slowly, noticing what parts of the body feel ‘activated’ looking at different areas. Journal about what you observe.
Befriending Your Shadows
TOPIC: Shadow work collage – using dark colors, cut-outs, or abstract shapes to represent parts you perceive as negative within yourself.
APPENDIX:
Emphasis: This is NOT about negativity, but about acknowledging and integrating less visible aspects of the self.
Reframing: Guide them to find hidden strengths or motivations within the ‘shadowy’ representations
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Dark-colored paper, magazines for cutting images, textured materials, optional: black/grey paint.
Instructions:
Focus on parts of yourself you consider “negative” or often try to hide – anger, envy, etc.
Use images, textures, abstract shapes, or even words to express this ‘shadow’ side.
Reframing Exercise
Reflect on each element of your collage – is there a hidden positive aspect to that trait? (Anger can fuel action, envy can point to desires).
Are these parts of you asking for acceptance, rather than needing to be eradicated?
Your Inner Ecosystem
TOPIC: Illustrate both voices as creatures/characters coexisting in an environment. What does this habitat look like? How do they interact?
APPENDIX:
Visualization: Imagine ways to modify the environment to foster better cooperation between the creatures.
Reflection: What do the creatures and landscape symbolize about your inner world?
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Drawing or sketching supplies, or materials for a collage.
Instructions
Imagine your Voice of Insecurity and Security as creatures, animals, or natural forces inhabiting a shared environment.
What does this environment look like? (stormy, peaceful, overgrown, etc.). How do your creatures interact within it?
Visualization:
Close your eyes and envision changes you could make to this landscape to foster better cooperation. Add a path between them, introduce a source of light, etc.
Reflection: How do the changes to the environment symbolize shifts you could make in your own internal dialogue?
Words of Acceptance
TOPIC: Calligraphy or lettering focused on positive affirmations of acceptance for both voices. Focus on neutral, compassionate language.
APPENDIX:
Materials: Beautiful papers, decorative inks, or embellishments
Suggestions: Phrases like “I hear you”, “You are a part of me”, “We can work together”
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: High-quality paper or cardstock, pens for calligraphy or lettering, optional: paints, inks, or embellishments.
Phrases to Use:
* “I hear both of you.” * “You are both a part of me.” * “We can learn to work together.” * “I am striving for balance, not perfection.” * “My thoughts do not define me.”
Focus: Focus on the beauty and flow of the lettering; it’s a meditative process.
Inner Voice Roles
TOPIC: Create a “movie poster” where your inner voices are cast as characters with clear roles (protector, saboteur, motivator, etc.).
APPENDIX:
Humor: Encourage silliness and exaggeration with how the characters are depicted.
Reflection: Do these roles serve you? Would you ‘recast’ any?
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Paper for designing a poster, drawing/painting supplies, or collage materials.
Instructions:
Title your poster something like, “The Inner Critic vs. The Cheerleader” (or personalize further)
Depict each voice visually as a character, exaggerating features for humor. Include a tagline for each, summarizing their typical role.
Reflection:
Are these roles helpful? Are there aspects of either you’d like to change or emphasize less?
Could you imagine creating a more collaborative “cast of characters” for your inner world?
Journaling Dialogue
TOPIC: Write a week’s worth of diary entries from the perspective of each voice, alternating days.
APPENDIX:
Prompts: Specific situations for entries (a challenge, a success, a neutral event) to see how each voice responds differently.
Emphasis: On trying to inhabit the mindset fully; no judgment, just observation.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: A notebook or journal.
Prompts:
Day 1 (Voice of Insecurity): Describe a recent challenging situation.
Day 2 (Voice of Security): How would you encourage a friend facing this same challenge?
Day 3: Write about a time you felt successful or accomplished.
Day 4: What negative thoughts tend to come up around your successes?
Days 5 & 6: Write about a neutral event (meal, errand, etc.) from each voice’s perspective.
Analysis: Look for patterns in how each voice reacts to different situations and emotions. Is there a surprising degree of compassion or harshness from either?
Finding Neutrality
TOPIC: Abstract art expressing the feeling of balance between voices; focus on color, texture, and movement.
APPENDIX:
Non-judgment: No analyzing the result aesthetically, merely as the outward expression of a feeling.
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Paints (finger paints are ideal), large canvas or heavy paper.
Instructions:
Select colors that intuitively represent a feeling of balance or calm for you.
Focus on the movement of your hands, the blending of colors, and the texture of the paint rather than trying to create a recognizable image.
Mindful Observation: Allow the painting to dry. Once finished, sit with it, noticing
how it makes you feel without trying to analyze its form.
Integrated Self-Portrait
TOPIC: A portrait combining elements associated with each voice into a cohesive whole.
APPENDIX:
Symbolism: How can strength and vulnerability be shown together in the portrait?
Reflection: Final review of the year’s journey, how has the perception of the inner voices changed?
APPENDIX 2:
Materials: Drawing/painting supplies, collage materials, or a combination.
Instructions:
Start with a simple sketch or outline of your portrait.
Incorporate symbols, colors, or textures that represent elements typically attributed to each voice – strength, vulnerability, rationality, emotion, etc.
The goal is to combine these aspects in a way that feels cohesive and representative of your whole self.
Reflection:
How has your understanding of your inner voices shifted over the course of the year?
Does this portrait represent a sense of acceptance or integration of these voices?
Are there further steps you’d like to take to continue building a harmonious inner dialogue?
