Day 1 - 30 Day Challenge: Safe Space, Happy Place
Added 2021-04-02 17:17:57 +0000 UTCI've been seeing a coach for the last month and some change - the amazing Elenna Mosoff, if you're so inclined to check her out - and she has tasked me with posting every day here for 30 days.
I thought I'd kick it off with an image she asked me to paint of my "safe space." This is a place I visualized as a harbor of peace and warmth and security for me to turn and return to when I'm feeling overwhelmed and defeated. For some reason, I visualized the outdoors. I am not an outdoors kinda guy. It was a mix of a forest-y lake with lots of pine trees, and also my childhood front lawn (weird how visuals marry together in nonsensical ways) at dusk. A slowly darkening fire filled sky, and a bluish green landscape huddled beneath it. I wax nostalgic for that pit-of-the-stomach anxiety and wonder of a Sunday night sunset. School or work is the next day. You've just completed an amazingly relaxing weekend and now the week stretches out before you. It fills you with angst and worry, but also possibility. Do you know that feeling?
She asked me to paint it so I could put it on my wall and look at it to remind myself of all these feelings, and all the value I put in my safe space. I rarely paint for these purposes these days and it was so rewarding to sit down and paint for me. Paint without worry of perfection. Paint to translate something in my head, though simple as hell, and not judge myself or my work.
I'd love to hear what your safe spaces are like and what kind of relationship you've cultivated with them? How do they heal you?
