emotional armor

worked on it last night! don't have the front drawing done, but it's looking good.....my H helped me. He was like, what's this for, and I said, it represents an emotional shield, it's part of my HW for therapy! He looked amused, and was like, oh, I see!

I had some other thoughts about armor......more spiritual based thoughts and I will try to be careful in presenting them so as not to be sounding overtly religious or preachy (cuz though spiritual things are important to me I don't want to push that on people), but was just thinking about verses that talk about putting on God's armor (for spiritual protection....) and one talked about putting on an armor of light. Well, I thought, armor of light sounds, well, LIGHT! Light isn't heavy, it's light.....why not think of wearing emotional armor that is light like that......like being clothed in a robe of light that isn't heavy for me to wear and yet is so strong (spiritually and emotionally....) to help keep out or deflect away things that I don't want or need in that would harm my heart or mind or soul....armor like that could be both easy to wear and strong AND beautiful!

Whatever you decide to do, which ever parts you keep or discard, however you chose to represent it, try to remember that armor of any kind actually does two things:

It keeps others out
AND
It keeps you in.

very true, ellie, it has a dual purpose and both do have value, importance for protection and safety.....
I also need to learn to let others in sometimes, and let bits of myself out sometimes instead of being all locked in inside myself....a matter of who, what, when to trust that it's safe to do so, as T said.

I love this!!!!!! Can I borrow it?

Great work Poetgirl! Keep it up!!

yes, feel free!

so, have my shield all done and ready for tomorrow's session! wow, I feel sort of oddly nervous......it does feel already like I will be laying down my emotional armor for real in using this shield as symbolic of it....
I am thinking that my habit of both intellectualizing and spiritualizing things is like a shield I use to deflect emotions(along with humor! ).....so in laying the shield down in front of T, I'm laying down those coping mechanisms I have used to hide behind, to hide from emotions, to hide from T or hide emotions from her.....I will have to face and feel the emotion itself without shielding myself from it. oh horrors......
any pocket riders???.....should be an interesting session, you could get to peek out and see T's expression when I take out the shield, that ought to be worth the ride I think!

I want to hear how you 'actually' lay down your shield. I think symbolism is quite powerful and leads us to clear actions but how to really do it seems a mystery to me. So, of course, I'm coming along.

yay, another field trip! I'm in

I hope your session goes well tomorrow, poetgirl. It sounds like it could be a really meaningful step forward.

Let us know how it goes, ok?

thanks, I will let you know! I'm feeling nervous this morning, but I know it will be all right.....it usually is!

Pgirl, I love your T's assignments!

Because being healthy involves our insides matching the outside and being fully integrated with ourselves and being present in the moment.

(Plus bringing your emotions to therapy is how healing happens).

And I agree with these things too.....I would like to be more integrated, have my inner/outer parts match more (awkward way to put it, but I just mean better balance, not such incongruity, which is a word my T often usese to describe the difference between who I am on the inside and who I am on the outside!)