The VICTUS Method merges the THINK-DO-BE practice with Art Therapy:

You Might’ve Forgotten the Artist Inside of You, But the Child in You Has Not.

The VICTUS Method combines the THINK-DO-BE Practice with Art Therapy, to demonstrate that, even when we forget the Artist that lives inside of us, the child in us has not. The Limiting Belief “I am not creative” is simply not true. Indeed, when we DO a 5-day Art Exercise, we can PROVE that we are, in fact, highly creative. And, the more we engage in regular creative activities, the more we can actively BE creative, until we can SEE ourselves clearly, as the resilient, Creative people that we are.

My friend, the Artist? She doesn’t think so, but somewhere inside, I believe the child in her is.

The other day, my friend who’s an Accountant came over and asked me if I had a black marker she could use.

I reached into the cabinet and pulled out a Huggies wet nap bin. You know, the kind that has the button that pops up so you can dispense wet naps for your kids without drying out the whole pack.

Now that my young kids are done with diapers and they don’t need to have a pack in Every. Single. Room. of the house anymore (hooray!), I decided to repurpose the Huggies wet nap bin to store loose things like pens, so I pulled it out, and handed her a Sharpie.

My friend’s eyes widened and, as she arched her eyebrows in surprise, she said, “Oh! What a great idea! We threw away all of our wetnap bins. You’re so creative to reuse them like that. We have so many pens and nicknacks everywhere, it makes our drawers messy. I should’ve done that with our bins, too — but I’m not creative. I’m just not creative at all.”

It seemed like such a small thing to say, but it wasn’t.

She said it so matter-of-factly, like it was a given. An obvious, certifiable fact.

It broke my heart.

I mean, just think for a moment: When have you seen a child say that?

Have you ever heard a little boy or girl say “I’m not creative” about themselves?

No, the vast majority of children are born with a sense of pure joy and fearlessness, not only about who they are, but in what they create. They’re born confident in their creativity.

They pick up their crayons and colored pencils and attack the page, drawing all the images they can imagine. Their fingers move with abandon. Their eyes gaze down at the paper, without any sense of self-consciousness or embarrassment. And they smile and show-off their creativity, with a great sense of accomplishment and pride.

Comparison — the thief of joy — comes later.

Children — in all of their purity — simply don’t start out like that.

They have to be told by someone — perhaps a judgmental parent or teacher or other authority figure — that they’re NOT creative, or their work has to be picked apart and criticized, to think something like that.

It hurt to hear my friend say that about herself.

How could someone who seemed confident lose her sense of self like that?

And the look on her face, as she sighed and forced a grin. She looked unhappy, but sure. She’d meant what she’d said. She looked at me straight in the eye and said it — twice.

I’m just not creative.

It shows you how far we can lose our sense of Self.

I’d venture to say, we all feel it in some way or another. That disconnection from who we used to be as children. From who we’re meant to become as adults.

I refuse to accept that this is how we have to live: without the spark in our eyes!

Whoever planted that false belief in her head should be ashamed of themselves.

And if you have something similar floating around in the nooks and crannies of your noggin’, there’s hope. All we have to do is tune in, to repair that.

You Can Begin An Art Practice to Build a Secure Attachment with Yourself: Repair  Your Fractured Self

If we want to be happy, if we want to transform ourselves from who we are to who we’re meant to be, we have to be willing to ask ourselves tough questions — like “Who hurt me?” And, “Whose thoughts am I thinking?”

The THINK-DO-BE practice is a great way to point our Inner Compass in the right direction, to correct the disempowering thoughts that keep us from seeing who we actually are.

1) THINK. Then, Re-Think.

Original Thought: I’m not creative.

Re-Think: Is that really true?

Sometimes, it only takes a willingness to experiment, to look and try again, with an open mind.

2) DO. Commit to this 5-day Art Exercise.

Begin with a simple piece of artwork.

If you’d like, you can print the black and white coloring page I used above.

As you follow the following 5-day exercise, take notes:

• Notice the way it feels for you, to use some colors more than others.

• Notice the way the imagery feels — serene or severe — as you vary the thickness or pressure of each line.

• Notice the emotions that arise. Depending on the guidelines that are listed for each day, how do you feel? Do you feel resistance or a sense of expansion and excitement? How do your feelings shift each day?

DAY 1:

• Put all of the colors out in front of you.

• Use just the grays, browns, and blacks, to vary the thickness of each line and highlight certain parts of the scene, based on your preferences.

• Notice any urge you might have to use the colors, but don’t. Which colors are you drawn to? What’s the color you can’t wait to use?

DAY 2:

• Color the same image, using only the blues.

DAY 3:

• Color the same image, using only the reds.

DAY 4:

• Color the same image in a rainbow gradient, from reds on the left, through the oranges and yellows, to the greens, blues, and violets on the right.

• Did you decide to make each band of color equal? Or, are some bands of color wider than others?

• Did you make the image look realistic?

• Or, are flowers multi-colored, mixed like a rainbow, with blue or purple leaves? Perhaps, you colored in a bright pink or maybe green sky?

DAY 5:

• Use the full color spectrum.

• Use every possible color variation you can use from your crayon, pencil, or marker set.

• Did you choose to make the image look realistic this time?

• Did you color inside or outside the lines?

• Did you add any geometric shapes or patterns?

• Did you have the urge to make your own drawing, unburdened by any boundaries, using a blank, white page?

3) BE. Be willing to create art, again and again, and one day you will SEE the Artist inside of you.

Look at all 5 of your colored pages, side by side.

What did you learn about yourself?

Did your expectations match your results?

Did you surprise yourself in any way?

In less than a week, you probably discovered that you are far more creative than you originally thought.

Take the time, to appreciate the knowledge, the Self-Awareness, that you’ve gained.

What this simple 5-day exercise demonstrates is that we have to put ourselves out there, to try new experiences or re-try familiar things, if we truly want to challenge our Limiting Beliefs.

Here, the coloring page and instructions were “forcing functions” that required you to make artistic choices.

As those choices changed from day to day, you could see how your creativity impacted the look and feel of each piece.

At the end of 5 days, you had 5 distinct works of art — quantifiable proof that you are, in fact, creative.

There is no “wrong way” to be an artist. Just follow the spark of creativity that’s inside of you.

Don’t underestimate yourself.

Be willing to try. Be willing to see. Be willing to go where inspiration strikes.

Join us, for more artistic fun.

If you enjoyed this exercise and would like to explore more of your creative Self, signup for my free Substack Newsletter, where I’ll be hosting new art activities, to bring more creativity, self-care, and meditation to my Subscribers’ lives.

There will be free flowing, open-ended opportunities to draw/paint based on a theme/subject, as well as downloadable coloring pages, so we can see the color and design choices we make, as a community.

What will the child in you create?

Vita est pro victus.

Life is for living.

The child in me honors and respects the child in each of you,

Marisa