Recovery Art Journals

I'm sure that all of you have heard of "Smash books" Well, I am very righ brained and lean towards art and music so creating an recovery "art jouranal" as I call it was something that gave meaning to recovery.  

I thought I would share a coping mechanism that I use.  It's an outlet that I turn to when I'm really stressed out or even if I am feeling crafty that day.  It also enables me to express myself in positive ways through art.  Personally speaking, art has helped me with my recovery process.  When I was inpatient I know that "Art Therapy" helped me the most when I was unable to put words with what I was feeling.  I have now learned how to deal with those emotions in a healthy way and can be assertive about them.  I am currently working on a second "art journal" at the moment.  When you have finished an "art journal" and need some inspiraton you can always go back and look at your work.  It also helps when you're having an off day...we all have those days.

You must always keep moving forward in recovery!  Find things that inspire you that you can use towards your recovery.  As Jenni Schaefer says, recovery is not an option.  That is so true...so, start using your creating side and explore things you can use as coping mechanisms.  Art just happens to be a HUGE coping mechanism for me.  I could literally open up my own art store in my home

It's not possible to take pictures of my entire art journal and post it, but let me say it's completely filled, every page...every single spot.

What you need to do is go to your local craft store and purchase a smash book (there are many different themes of smash books from girly to vintage), a book with even card stock, or if you prefer a regular sketch book that would also work well.  It all depends on what you prefer.  There are a variety of project life products if you choose to purchase them.  I didn't go that route since they were pretty pricy and to be honest I'm not into project life.

Supplies:

• A smash book, regular journal, sketch book, or a cardstock book.  The average cost is $12-20
• You can purchase inspirational messages at your local craft store.  I just printed recovery related images and quotes from the internet.  I have a huge collection of recovery images and quotes on my computer
• Glue...I used regular elmer's glue stick's...the other elmer's glue is too messy and doesn't work well. Craft glue's were also hard to use with art journals
• Regular scissors or crafty scissors.  You can purchase craft scissors that have zig zag lines. That's what I did.
• Recovery related quotes...you can hand write them or I printed them from the computer and used crafty scissors to cut them out.
• Glitter or shaped hole punches...not entirely necessary.  It dependss how you want to go about it.
• Stickers
• Markers or craft pens

I hope you find this inspiring and something you can use towards recovery.  Remember that recovery is ALWAYS possible!