Soulbooking for Survivors Made Easy

1. Get an old sketch book, journal or loose leaf notebook.
2. Collect images. Maybe you’ll use the front of greeting cards, cut words or images from your monthly magazines or pictures from favorite calendars. If you don’t get much mail you can print out photos or download images from the computer.
3. Find glue or tape or your favorite adhesive.
4. Add images to the cover and pages.
5. If you wish add words, glitter or anything to embellish the images.

Done! It’s really that simple.

You can be fancy and detailed and make works of art. I made my first soul book with a sketch book I had never used. Soulbooking came after writing and before sea glass in my list of passions bordering obsessions. No one has ever told me to pursue a career in art. I don’t consider myself artistic but I’ve enjoyed making soulbooks for my own pleasure and healing since the 1990’s.

I used magazine images and greeting cards and added poetry in magic magic and layered images on top of each other and sometimes folded the paper on top so underneath you’d discover an image.

I added photographs of people in my life or of myself. Sometimes I’d add in favorite quotes, song lyrics and book passages or write on the images with magic marker.

You could add paint or crayon. You could add glitter or translucent paper. You could use scrap booking tools or go to an art store and get endlessly creative. You can buy stickers or do origami folds. You can find Photoshop images if you like and have that software.

The most healing aspect for me is getting tactile. Usually I spread my images on the floor or table. I sort and spread them out and see which ones call to me. I savor them and study them at times or glance quickly til I find the one I love.

Then I take or glue them on to a page. Sometimes it is a page of my diary and other times one piece of poster paper. You can make individual pieces or do it in a book.

I usually do this alone but not always. You can have friends over and sip wine while talking. Children love to do this as well and it makes for hours of fun.

For me, who can get stuck in my brain, the sifting through paper, cutting and sticking down images is wonderful. It puts me in a daydreaming place, reminds me that there are cities and countries I have never visited, insects and animals and natural landscapes that I have never seen. It draws my eye to colors such as orange which I never wear but seem to love on paper. It pulls me into scenes with horses which I love but in real life are really big and a little scary.

Usually I find images to remind me of the beauty in the world or that allow me to put difficult feelings on the page. I find both satisfying.

Some people, like my daughter and friend

Kathy delight in being exact, not spilling glue or shredding images. They spend a good deal of time on placing images and applying them specifically. I like to rip, slap on and feel more spontaneous and random. I rarely think a lot about the images but just grab the ones calling on me the moment I’m creating.

Sometimes I am into all black and white images and then write a red quote over them. Other times I collect images of the Buddha and Kwan Yin and let them hang out together on a page and am reminded if not to meditate to at least breath.

The beautiful thing is there are no rules. You can’t do it wrong. This is a no pressure event. Your artistic talent is irrelevant because the magic is in playing and being with texture, color and imagery.

What you do when you are done is up to you.Sometimes I display a poster or page for a while, hanging it by my desk or bed. Other times I send what I’ve made to the recycle bin. My friend Michele will look back at her images and finds a lot of the time they predict what color furniture she might get, what places she’ll go to travel and whether her visual mind knows first what she wants and needs or collecting images reveals a psychic ability – it’s fun to review later for her.

Sometimes I make a page or poster of images and am done. They don’t linger with me and I don’t want to hold onto them so into the recycle bin they go.

What is essential is getting lost in beauty and imagery and playfulness and being reminded that it is always there to find more of and come back to. Agh. I feel happy just writing about the topic and looking at images. Send in your images if you try this. Have fun!