"You Can" - a StencilGirl® Project and a Message

Hi!

When have you last found yourself focusing on what you can do, instead of what you can not or no longer do?
And on which of these two opposing perspectives do you tend to focus more often and more easily?

....well,I guess I am not the only one whose recognition is - most sadly - more trained to detect all my "CANNOTS" and flaws that - if you look at it honestly - are also part of what makes us unique and loveable.
What a boring place of non-individuals our world would be if we were all equally perfect and equally skilled and how boring life would be if we could do whatever we wanted or were asked to to everyone's full satisfaction! No goals to reach, nothing to learn or teach...???

But as a teacher and mother I have learned that our society is already training our children to focus on failure instead of already made achievements - which is a very sad thing and has a massive impact on the self esteem of children at that age.
Most teachers - by having to give marks on their pupils' efforts - are forced to keep up a society that tells people what they still have to improve in and learn - instead of honouring what they have already achieved. The message is "unless you aren't really good at this, you are worthless and not as good as all those who can or do it better than you" - and that's nonsense!

But if we look at it honestly this is also the most common way we look at ourselves as grown ups too! Without consciously noticing we are making ourselves feel small, incapable and worthless on whatever occasion possible....I don't know a lot of people who have managed to get through childhood without being snatched away their self esteem and awareness of the beauty of their uniqueness and individuality.

Things get especially hard to handle when you are taken down by chronic or severe illness. Suddenly you find you aren't "functioning" properly...and with that often come feelings of being broken...of imperfection, worthlessness and incapability....and fear of being inferior. As if our worth for others were solely defined by what we can do for them and by how functional and perfect we are.

I have a dear friend who is going through a hard time at the moment and is facing all that. Even though she would never mention it, I know she is...because I have been there too and haven't forgotten what that did with me and to my self esteem. So I created a little "YOU CAN" journal for her as a gift.

It is another Wrapped Journal made from heavy grey board (and with the use of Eileen Hull's Wrapped Journal die) and some mono printed papers I have recently done on my Gelli Plate using DecoArt Americana acrylic paints and a variety of StencilGirl® stencils from my stash.
(I have a post up on the new German-language blog of Kerstin's and mine in which I am showing a collection of finished prints from that particular Gelli Plate session. If you're interested, you can find it over HERE).

And of course there's a full tutorial (including a short video) on how I have done the prints that I have used on the journal, which particular stencils I have used and how I put it all together over at the StencilGirl® Talk Blog. Simply click HERE to get taken to the full length project post with loads of images. Hope to see you over there!

And I would like to invite you to try to ask yourselves more often what it is that you really ENJOY doing and have already learned and achieved! I will try to do the same ;) 
(I wonder if it has an impact on the art we create....)

Hugs and happy crafting! 

Claudia

xxx