Week 4 - Creative Wellness at Home
Draw a tree of resilience - plus announcing our competition!
A Tree of Resilience
What is resilience?
Resilience is about your ability to manage life’s challenges and bounce back from life’s ups and downs. We are all going through a challenging time right now, so practicing resilience is more important than ever.
You probably already have resilience skills that you use everyday. Mindfulness, empathy, gratitude, reflection, learning, and positive thinking. You have already overcome so many challenges in life that have made you a resilient person.
This week’s practice is a drawing activity that aims to bring you peace and healing while celebrating all your amazing strengths.
Draw yourself as a Tree of Resilience
This simple drawing activity uses a tree as a metaphor for your life. It’s a way to express your sense of self and identity, including your strengths and all the challenges in life you have overcome.
The tree tells a story about you and your life.
Thanks to Art Therapist, Sara Mitchell for this week’s wonderful activity.
Here are the instructions
1. Lay your hand face down on paper and trace around it. Don’t fill in finger tips, as this is where branches and leaves can be drawn in to expand the tree.
If you don’t have any paper at home, you can use an old paper bag, old cardboard packaging, or any surface you can draw on.
2. Continue to expand this drawing into a tree and start drawing big leaves on the branches. Add roots at the bottom of your tree.
3. Imagine your tree, do you have lots of patterns in your bark? Fill in your tree however you want to. Examples are spirals, cross hatches, lines, scribbles, dots.
4. Now put words in the leaves of things that make you feel strong. For example: gratitude, family, health, laughter, friends, nature, pets, fun.
5. What about your roots? Maybe you share your shade with animals, plants and grasses that live there too. Draw what represents your origins, your history, your essence amongst the roots. Or write words, poems, or things that inspire you.
Now you’ve got a beautiful tree that represents you. The tree tells a story about your life. Admire it. Be proud of who you are and what you’ve overcome.
Announcing our competition!
We are very excited to announce that we’ll be running a small competition for creative entries over the next few weeks.
This competition is open to anyone who lives, works, or visits in the Inner West Council local government area.
You may enter as many creative entries as you like.
Entries are open from 13 September 2021 to 31st October 2021.
Winners will be announced 16 November 2021.
The entries will be judged by our panel of consulting artists and art therapists.
Guidelines for entries:
Entries can be submitted in any creative format: photo, video, audio, multimedia, text (creative writing or poetry), drawing, craft, painting, or other art. Photos of artworks are acceptable. Entries should be accompanied by a short (1-2 sentence/s) statement. We welcome submissions in languages other than English.
Entries should respond to any one of the weekly prompts from the Creative Wellness at Home project.
Entries will be judged on their capacity to address any of the following themes: resilience, mindfulness, creativity, cultural connection.
Entries are open to anyone who lives, works, or visits in the Inner West Council local government area.
The prizes:
First prize: $50 Coles Myer gift card
Second prize: $30 Coles Myer gift card
Third prize: $20 Coles Myer gift card
How to enter:
Email your entry to creativeresilienceinnerwest@gmail.com. Include your full name, age (optional), and suburb. We will respond to confirm your entry.
For assistance with entering the competition, please contact Susan Chen 0470 593 207.
Reflections from our community
Last week we asked you to share your favourite music and how it has helped you during lockdown. Here is what some of our lovely community members wanted to share with everyone.
To share your own creative works and reflections, email them to creativeresilienceinnerwest@gmail.com.
From Bich Thuy - Bèo Dạt Mây Trôi
Tôi yêu thích nhạc trử tình dân ca. Bài hát mang dến nhiều cảm sút nhất là bài “Bèo Dạt Mây Trôi”. Khi tôi hát bài này, tôi đỡ nhớ đến gia đình ở xa, tôi quên đi thực tế khó khan của cuộc sống trong giây lát để hướng về cái đẹp, cái hay của quê hương.
Bich Thuy: I love folk music. The song that brings the most emotions is the song "Beo Dat May Troi" When I sing this song, I don't miss my extended family too much, I forget the difficult reality of life for a moment to look towards the beauty of my majestic homeland.
From Mai - Khóc Mẹ
I like old music . I often sing "Crying Mother" to remember my mother. There are two girls in my family. My mother worked hard all day at the local market, and in the evening she often asked my sister and I to sit next to her and sing to her. My mother passed away a long time ago.
From Băng
I love hymn music above all of the genres/music. I find peace for my soul and peace in my life and especially in a time when people are isolated and are separated from family and friends like now.
We would love your feedback
Please let us know what you think via this feedback form or send us an email creativeresilienceinnerwest@gmail.com
The Creative Wellness at Home project is brought to you by Community and Cultural Connections Inc (CCCi) and funded with support from Inner West Council.