Maybe You're Not a Puzzle to Be Solved, Maybe You're a Kaleidoscope to Be Explored
There is a tendency to feel there is an image of ourselves that we're trying to constantly stabilise or create that is kind of perfect. But life is very much showing us that everything is in flux. The only constant is really change.
It can seem like there is this puzzle that comes together at some point, and that there's a master image somewhere on the front of a box, and if we get all the right pieces together, straighten out the so-called messy edges, and snap everything together neatly, everything will be perfect.
But we don't get a box with an image of what our life is meant to look like. We're not meant to. Life on the outside is a puzzle, but we don't need a rigid blueprint because we are here to allow our masterpiece to gradually develop.
Part of that is tapping into our inner life and exploring that in order to bring change and expression to our outer life. If we only stay on the surface and only behave in a way that is outward, there is a whole life within that is never explored. That life is so rich, and there is so much inner wisdom in there that can really enrich our outer life. So we're trying to find that balance between the outer and the inner, and the bridge between it with therapy.
Many people don't explore their inner world because they don't know how to and it doesn't feel safe to. Instead, they live very much on the outside trying to put together the puzzle pieces and wonder why they don’t feel better. But what if your inner world isn't a broken puzzle at all? What if it's a kaleidoscope?
A Bottom-Up Approach
When you sit down with art materials, whether you are pressing watercolour into heavy paper, tearing up collage pieces, or dragging a Sharpie across a page, you are engaging in a bottom-up process. You are not starting with a rigid mental plan. You are starting with tactile, sensory fragments.
Transpersonal art therapy offers ways into that inner life through altered states, through guided visualisations, working with myth and story, and exploring movement instead of relying on language, like spoken language and words, to conceptualise and express our experience of being.
Working in this space is a lot like holding the body of a kaleidoscope. You are handling the physical pieces of your experience, including the bright memories, the dull aches, the mundane details, and the sharp edges. Instead of trying to force those fragments into a fixed shape, we create a safe space to turn the cylinder gently toward the light.
Seeing Patterns Clearly
Before a pattern can shift, it needs to be seen.
In a safe therapeutic space, we stop trying to immediately erase or fix the confusing arrangements in our lives. We slow down enough to look at them with curiosity.
Why did a pattern form in the first place? Often, the ways we protect ourselves, the loops we get stuck in, or the heavy feelings we carry were once necessary. They came to us for a reason. Appreciating why a pattern showed up allows us to hold it with kindness, even as we begin to recognise that it may no longer serve us.
When we allow that inner gaze, the pattern begins to loosen. The inner kaleidoscope, when it comes together, starts to point the way. It starts to help navigate our inner world, guiding us forward even without a fixed picture on the front of a box.
Holding Paradox and Putting Things in Long-Term Storage
Change doesn't always look like what we expect. Sometimes, unfortunately, it's hindsight that helps us bring together the meaning making around why certain things have happened to us in our life.
At the same time, there are some things that happen to us, particularly in our formative years, that will never have a silver lining and will never necessarily have a meaning making that is understandable. Transpersonal art therapy is not trying to feel better about things that caused us harm. Some painful experiences of losses, griefs, and distress will never have an understandable meaning or resolve. They're kind of left open, and they don't need to be wrapped up in a tidy bow.
Instead of letting those experiences run rampant in daily life, we work to place them into long-term storage—clearing the pathway so you can move forward. Often people try to skip this part and focus on goals and striving; and find themselves stuck and confused again and again.
Revealing Unexplored Landscape and Parts of Self
There is a vast space to explore within your inner world once it feels safe to enter it. Through transpersonal art therapy, we often discover fragments of yourself that felt lost, buried, or forgotten. They aren't lost, but through the therapeutic process we are revealing them.
It takes time for all those fragments to come together to build a new way or pathway for you. But every time we show up and engage in that, it sets off a bit of a healing process in our life where we might come into contact with things that offer a potential for a shift or a change, whether we like it or not. It's not always what we expect, but ultimately it can be for our greater good.
We are not trying to reach a static version of perfection. We are just holding everything so gently, shifting around the pieces to continue to find a format of ourselves that feels so incredibly like you.
Reflection
What would it be like to view your life as a shifting kaleidoscope rather than a puzzle to be solved? How does that shift change the way you see yourself today?
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