After Five Years of Humanitarian Work, How to Start Again as an Art Therapist?

 

In recent weeks I have been distanced from the networks, focused on my own things, on my world. In this stage of new beginnings, the first thing I have done is give myself some time to do nothing, except enjoy my own company again, going for a walk every day in a huge park near my house. The first few days it has been a little difficult to overcome laziness, but after a week you get into a habit, a routine that becomes easy to maintain, because you can feel the benefits immediately and you enjoy it. I walk in my own time, my breathing is calm and my thoughts dissipate little by little and only the valuable ones remain, those that arise from the observation of the nature that surrounds me, from the songs of the birds, from the wind that blows and sometimes hits my face, from the small and soft waves of the river, from the dry leaves that fall from the trees, etc. Once a week I attend group art therapy sessions, this time I'm another participant. One day the therapist begins with a beautiful poem “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost, I had read and recited it before for the participants in my sessions, but this time it was different, someone read it for me. After a long time I was not the one who took care of others, this time someone took care of me. Early in the morning my first activity is my yoga classes, but this time it is different, I'm not interested in performing or reaching the perfect posture, the first thing I do is sit, breathe deeply and listen to my body, I let it lead the session. My breathing and my body become one and every movement is a relief, I feel like a seed that is opening little by little, I'm ready to start the day. I read about art therapy again, I sign up for some courses and the motivation along with the inspiration are arriving again. Despite the distance, I talk to my family often, especially my niece, she is responsible for reminding me how one should laugh, and make smiling a constant habit. I wake up one day, and all my friends come to my mind, those who are always with me, and that I have not written to them because I was absorbed by work. Then I start doing it, one by one. All of them are in Peru. I connect with my roots again, with my birthplace and then that relief, and the feeling that I'm alive comes back  again. I talk to a friend, she listens to me but she doesn't understand, it's not possible, you can't stop working, she tells me. I'm going to work again, I'm already starting, but I needed that time first. I have turned 45, it is a good age, the wind may be strong but the roots of your tree are more solid and strong, so you can follow your intuition without fear of making mistakes, because the only thing that really matters is you, without being selfish. I'm ready to start again with what I like so much, art therapy, I honor and take care of the learnings I have experienced in recent years, now it is time to open the door again because my curiosity has returned.