Having previously provided a brief description on keeping a drawing journal, I want to offer a more detailed look at what is going on during the journal process.

There are many ways of connecting and each of us is invited to find our own. What I have written is meant to be a guide, not a directive. Trust that deep presence to be with you in the way that is best for you. Move out of the knowing and have faith in whatever emerges. If you connect to Great Spirit through drawing, great, if you do it some other way, great. It is the connection that is important.

Sit at a table with a blank page and multiple colored pencils.

It is important to be comfortable.

Go quiet, center yourself, and ask for Great Spirit's help in bringing balance into your life.

When centering yourself, empty out, let go of everything going on so you can be in the now, so you can be present for Spirit.

Let go of all thought, all judgment and allow Spirit to guide the healing drawing, knowing not what will appear on the page as the image emerges.

When I am drawing, I truly become immersed in Great Spirit's way of working with me. Together we create images that I myself would not have ever drawn. The process engages my whole being. It creates in me a vulnerability, an openness. It can be scary or delightful. Both ways are Spirit's way of helping me understand what my soul is yearning.

Over and over again over the years over the months, weeks and days, that lesson emerged and reemerged. I had a hard time letting go. It is truly scary not being in control. It can be scary seeing what emerges.

When the image is finished, sit in stillness, allowing the message to fully reveal itself.

In the meditation after the creation I come to understand that healing is not just a physical journey for the images engage all parts of the self; body, mind, spirit and emotions. The images often lead me to:

• Looking into the places where disharmony lives.
• Revealing (not hiding) the hurt, the things that are keeping me from harmony.
• Getting in touch with the deeper issues that are creating the imbalance in my daily life.
• An invitation to live out what the drawing is inviting me to do.
• Learn what I am lacking in my own personal/spiritual development.