Prompt #7 - Your Emotional Landscape

Drawing what we can't describe

Describing how we feel is often difficult, especially if we have to do it only with words. Is the knot we're feeling in our stomach excitement or anxiety? Are we feeling tired, a little sad, extremely lonely, or downright depressed? Are we angry, or just hangry? Are we truly happy or just ok?

Today, we'll get rid of the words and express our emotions visually, through colours and shapes and textures.

The Activity: Your emotional landscape

Use any medium and size you like.

Step 1: Reflect

Take a few minutes to sit and listen in. Close your eyes and scan through your body. How are you feeling? How are your head and face feeling? Your stomach, your lungs, your arms, your legs? Which physical sensations are standing out? Which emotions are coming up?

Try not to control anything, but simply observe and note what is going on in your mind and body.

Step 2: Sketch your landscape

Try and translate what you felt into a scenery. If your emotions were a landscape, what would it look like? Soft, hard? Would there be plants, mountains, or water? What would the weather be like? Which season is it? Are there animals and people?

Sketch the rough outlines of your landscape onto your paper.

Step 3: Add colour

Now add colours to your landscape. This does not have to be a realistic drawing. Instead of focusing on giving your landscape a realistic colour palette, you can do like the great Expressionists and use colours that reflect your emotions.

Try not to think too much about which colours to use, go with what you feel. Realistic or not.

Step 4: Reflect some more

Admire your drawing. What have you learned about your emotional landscape? How does it feel looking at it? Are there any elements that surprised you? Anything you want to lean into?

You can repeat this exercise as often as you want. No two days feel the same.

My Example

My landscape reflects how I feel most days. Joyful, sunny skies, bright colours, rainbows. Solid and persistent mountains. And the sea - beautiful, powerful, but potentially unsettling depending on how rough it gets.

I'm not sure if I could put that into words…