Getting Unstuck
When you are stuck in your story, your mind spirals round the same thoughts, the same patterns, the same habits, the same relentless dialogue.
Unless you wade in with a liberal dose of brain shape-shifting you’re going to stay stuck.
And so how to do you annex your story and reclaim it for the good of your future?
Well, one of the ways is good old-fashioned journaling, where all you need is a pen, a notebook and a regular brain dump of words on the page. It’s effective. and it affects change.
The act of letting your thoughts run rampant across the page like a frenzied spider on speed, tricks your brain out of its stuckness, and releases your mind into a free-flow of better outcomes.
But there is another way too. And this goes deep into ungluing why you are stuck in the first place. It chisels aways the cement around old trauma and unhelpful thinking.
The tools, like journaling, are basic. A pair of scissors, a glue-stick and a pile of old magazines.
You rip or cut out images and words that feel meaningful to you, or make you feel uncomfortable. And you stick them on a piece of paper or in a scrap book.
This is not what you might of heard of as vision boarding, which is future focussed. This is about unravelling all the things that are holding you back right now.
It’s devised as The Coaching Collage Technique, by this week’s Brave New Girl podcast guest Andrea Watts, who founded her company Unglue You to help you get unstuck in your life.
UNGLUE YOU
Who would have thought that cutting and sticking could radically change your story for the better.
Andrea Watts is the author of Collage as a Creative Coaching Tool and creator of The Collage Coaching Technique™ an arts-based approach to coaching that reconnects you to your inner wisdom and is a powerful way to get unstuck as you explore and express the hidden experiences and mindsets that influence how you feel, think, and behave.
From a work perspective, Covid meant she had to take her coaching practice and training online, this caused her to find a creative way to transition the Collage Coaching Technique online.
It's not surprising she ended up with a creative business. She was a child who enjoyed making things and playing a lot. She was always very curious and wanted to know how things worked. She’s one of 4 children, and the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica. She was brought up in a Christian home and her faith and spirituality remain important to her.
Motherhood was her biggest adventure in her early adulthood. Teaching and learning from her daughter, playing and being creative with her. She loved it. She stayed at home with her for 2 years before getting employment.
Her last paid job was where she experienced the biggest challenge, because she was becoming more aware of what she found fulfilling. Being unable to do this affected her wellbeing and identity, so she went to see a careers coach.
Following working with the coach she decided to start her own business, which evolved into coaching with collage. She’s developed this into a 3-stage technique names the Collage Coaching Technique. It's very different from vision barding. Instead of being future focused it looks at where you are stuck now and helping you transition to a better state of wellbeing.
Her vision is to see it being used as a creative coaching tool for releasing people’s potential globally. Her coaching practice positively impacts her clients and helps to create the changes they want to see. She trains other coaches so am making an impact by introducing a new tool to the coaching profession. While not intentionally, she’s aware that her work inspires others and encourages them to use creative approaches in coaching.
Thanks so much Andrea for sharing this creative collage technique that anyone can use to gain real insights into where they’re stuck and what they really want from life. Thanks also for showing us how to use found images to create a better life for ourselves and our futures.
You can find you more about Andrea’s work on https://unglueyou.co.uk/ and follow her on Linkedin @andreawatts
Your story matters
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