Sheila Darcey - Sketch by Sketch: A Creative Path to Emotional Healing and Transformation (A SketchPoetic Book)

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This book is dedicated to my mother, Micah, and Leila, my trinity of faith, hope, and love.

And for Nanay, whose silence was so resounding it spoke toand throughme.

A chair, a desk, a light. A piece of paper and a pen.

Each of these tools represents an invitation to sit and be present with myself. Speaks to the act of mind, body, and working together to express what has yet to be spoken. In this sacred space, time passes to the rhythm of my heart. There is a regular, palpitating beat, beat, beat of anticipation, followed by a slow and steady beat beat beat of a curious mind lost in the creative process. The wordless markings created on the page give voice to all that is stirring within me. Each line develops my understanding of my past. These lines connect to my present, and it is from here I begin to create a future of endless possibilities.

These are the tools of my daily practice, a practice that helps me to articulate what is vibrating inside me. A story that is often filled with anxiety, silence, secrets, and shame. Sketching through the anxiety, I find peace. Sketching through the silence, I hear my heart and my voice. Sketching through my secrets, I see what I have always known to be true but have not had the courage to reveal. Most importantly, though, sketching through the shame, I liberate the glory inside me with humility and grace.

This way of sketching came at a time in my life when anxiety had me spinning out of control, each day was laced with fear and exasperation. Traditional meditation and journaling had not worked. Id begin and then discard them after a few weeks. They never took ahold of me. Therapy had helped, allowing me to put the puzzle pieces of my past back together and make sense of the chaos of my present. It also unlocked some happy childhood memories, all of which had something to do with art: drawing a portrait of a family member; losing track of time on my bed sketching in notebooks all day; studying the contour of still-life objects to see how realistic it could look. Each of these memories brought me to a place of peace. Revisiting them brought me respite when the anxiety was overwhelming.

With pen in hand, I found myself making marks as things processed in my mind. There was more to it than doodles. As the lines formed on the page in front of me, my soul was speaking to my unhappiness. Realizing the heaviness that was aching to release, I felt release with each sketch. Without really understanding why, I was compelled to continue. The restlessness within began to take shape. The lines and forms made were the evidence of this, and while there was an innocence to it similar to the way in which a child colors in a coloring book, something about it felt empowering. I discovered the expression of feelings within the marks made on the page. It created a container for whatever it was that needed to come out, and as it evolved the sources of my anxiety became clearer. While similar to meditation, this was not about trying to empty my mind of thoughts. Instead, mindfulness arose and so did the connections to the root source of my discomfort. Sketching allowed me to think, while giving my thoughts permission to run wild. It felt good.

This daily process of self-expression and self-reflection has become a nourishing act of healing and self-care, and a release from the daily grind. It has been both my savior and my evolutionary expander. As it continued, the exercise became SketchPoetica creative expression practice. In the pages and sketchbooks that filled in the months and years that followed, I revealed the most vulnerable parts of myself without ever feeling exposed. SketchPoetic helped to deconstruct the patterns in my life so that I could reconstruct a flourishing inner landscape infused with true happiness and joy. By utilizing the power of creativity as a path to awareness, I had found a way to act on whatever was holding me back. I feel, taste, smell, hear, and see everything in my life as inspiration for what is to come. Out of this abundance, I am sharing with you. If this resonates with you, keep reading.

Perhaps youre already thinking, But I am not an artist! If that is the case, let me assure you there is no need for training in the arts or for any artistic talent. We are all creators. We are creating when we visualize our fears and construct our futures in our minds, when we tell stories to inspire and connect with others. Each time we express and release whats inside of us. Each time we engage with the world around us and seek to define our own narrative within it, we are creating without knowing. While ideas are born from those who question, we all have the capacity to create. All that is required to unlock the full potential is your willingness to try.

The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

Artists may read this and balk, but keep in mindthis is not art. This is simply expression. It is a visual learners version of freewriting. You let your mind wander. You let experiences and thoughts collide. You keep sketching it out of you onto paper. Some of the illustrations in this book were created by me, but many are from those who have completed my workshops. The way I teach you to use sketching in this book is not about making beautiful works of art. Its about the process of creating and how that process becomes a life metaphor.

At its core, SketchPoetic is a creative expression that supports your ability to identify emotions, process experiences, and realize outcomes. It can also be a daily exercise that uses design thinking to calibrate you toward what author Dr. Carol Dweck refers to as a growth mindset. This means believing, or at least being willing to believe, that each mark will get you closer to where you want to be, with the potential to help you navigate a big evolution, and all the little evolutions that come with it. Ultimately, the sketches you produce become an expansion of your existence. You make them and they make you.

This book contains forty sketching prompts within twenty-one chapters. You may choose to do them in order, or select the one that speaks to you at that moment. You can also repeat the prompts as many times as you like. However you decide to complete this book, be sure to complete every chapter. There may be chapters you want to avoid or dont think apply to you, but, dear reader those chapters often contain the lessons you need the most. Complete them all.

In this practice, it might also get a little spiritual, but let me clarify that SketchPoetic is not religious. It also does not replace therapy and it is not an art form. I am not preaching a faith, providing counseling, or teaching art. Whatever faith you hold or do not hold, it is all a part of this practice. Whatever issues you have or dont have, they are also part of this practice. Whatever creative skill you have or dont have all of it is part of this practice.

You can begin by simply thinking of it as a healthy way to express your emotions. A way of getting anger, sadness, anxiety, or joy out of your body and onto the page, allowing you to bear witness to what youre feeling without any fear or judgment. What you will notice as you embrace this process is that youll begin to experience a shift in perspective. You will be better able to connect the shadowy workings of your inner world to the events unfolding around you. You will discover that going inward in this way is what gives us permission to be whole and to see ourselves as part of the interconnected web of creation and evolution.