Chronic pain is the most dramatic and personal experience one can encounter in life. This is an experience that cannot be explained by words. Words come short when depicting the depth of emotions involved in this experience. As a result, the story of this life experience becomes captive in one’s mind and heart.
Interestingly, many pain patients find comfort in painting. They bring out what they feel and paint it as a way of expression. For some this may be the only way they can show their pain to others. For many this is a path to gain control of what is controlling them. It comes out from deep inside, where it hurts the most and where it is disturbing the flow of life.
Express your pain in color no matter who you are. |
Painting puts a face on the experience of pain and makes this unseen enemy shown to others. It is very interesting to see how unique the paintings of pain patients are. Each pain patient has a story to tell which finds a face on their paintings. By bringing this story out and making it visible to others one can share the dramatic experience and feel less isolated. There is a sense of ownership and control that comes with this practice. You don’t need to be an artist to be able to make a perfect painting. That is not the point. The point is to express yourself in a different way. Allowing your feelings and awareness to take control of the experience and bring it out by way of painting. There is no right or wrong way of doing this.
The goal is reached by doing it and there is no destination to arrive at. It is a way of opening the heart and letting the experience to come out. It is an unloading of emotions which makes the pain patient feel lighter after releasing the heavy emotions. A variety of feelings or concepts like horror, tension, disconnect or love may come out. Once it is painted, the patient has taken control of the experience and has expressed it, maybe for the first time; an expression which is totally different and personal yet interactive.
PAINTING IS A VERY PERSONAL WAY OF EXPRESSION FOR A VERY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.