Sea Glass & Soul Books for When You Don’t Know What TO DO with Yourself

1. Seaglassing: Hunt Sea Glass

Because there is beauty in the world.

It’s easy to forget. I walk on beaches to remember, pocketing pieces and bringing them home and putting it on dispaly in my home. I’m a collector and once shattered pieces become gems worthy of art work, decoration and jewelry. Sea glass is the ultimate survivor and symbol of triumph over nature and elements.

Though broken or abandoned, tossed or shattered it becomes a gem people hunt and seek. Sometimes, you have to look hard to find even one small piece. You may search all day and come home empty-handed. Still, even when hiding, it is there.

Maybe it will take a storm to rip at the ocean floor to be moved. Maybe it will reveal itself by an empty hand the next time you are smelling salt and sitting on top of warm sand. Keep returning. It will find you.

Walking the beach was my first body-centered practice. While hunting for treasures I’d feel the texture of rocks beneath my feet while the sun warmed my shoulders. My hair got tangled by wind and my skin wet with the drink of  mist. The salt water was aromatherapy. I’d return back home, even if I found no sea glass, refreshed. Maybe it was the Vit D or the ions in the ocean air. Who cares? Who cares? It made me fall back in love with nature, life, solitude and the planet. All you have to do is find a beach.

2. Soulbooking: Create Soul Books 

Sometimes we need to create beauty and get our hands messy grabbing images of bright orange carrots or baby elephants on a unfamiliar landscape. There are times when we need to remember the world outside our brain and carefully cutting around the colorful rose petals from an Oprah magazine can soothe.

Soul booking is one of my favorite and most grounding techniques and works during post-traumatically stressed times when I can’t find my words. It is easy and manageable for people like me who are messy, clumsy and not particularly artistic. It’s the adult version of the playing I didn’t do enough of as a kid. Here’s a simple how-to.

If these don’t speak to you, let them remind you of what your soul is itchy to do. Maybe your paints or knitting needles are getting dusty. Maybe it’s time to sign up for the photography class, start your gratitude journal or get some wet clay or colorful Sculpy.Maybe it’s allowing yourself to indulge for an afternoon with a book on your hammock. Whatever stirs your senses and quiets the mind is healing magic.