In my Basic Skills in Adlerian Psychology course, my class was asked to compile all of the artwork that we created individually during class this Spring 2014 semester, and then use the images to inspire a Lifestyle Self Assessment.

While the instructor played soft music in the background, we were encouraged to start thinking of how we would analyze our lives using diving board phrases such as:

• I am...
• In my family I am/I was the...
• I found my place/made my place by...
• I decided...
• The values in my family emphasized...

I selected "I am" and started using objects within my collage of images to stimulate the discussion of how I would assess myself. All of the images were made with the purpose of representing my feelings, interactions, and how I perceived my environment in that moment. So I looked at the images and sought consistent symbols that revealed something about myself.

This is what I wrote within the 3 minutes that I had in class:

"I am in a disguise through hats, shadows, and silhouettes. My hands are open and reaching towards the right direction, because this is where I should be. There are elements of time and movement, because these things wait for no one, time is always constant and movement is a constant progression. If I were to hop off this moving train of life then I would miss the opportunity. So, I will not lose focus and I will not remove my gaze. Others cannot see where I am looking, but I know, which creates the areas of misunderstanding because they do not know. It may appear selfish at times but this is a time for investment so that my crop will be overflowing in harvest season so that I have plenty to provide for others who depend on me."

The following are the images within the collage of this semester's drawings that I used to inspire the previous passage:

#Hats

#Shadows #Silhouettes

#OpenHands #RightDirection #WhereIShouldBe

#Time #TrainOfLife

#Movement

#Gaze

I certainly encourage anyone to engage in this activity and see what they come up with for their own Lifestyle Self Assessment. I will be writing a more extensive self assessment for the course, but this was a fun way to start.

We were also asked to take one of the drawings and create a changed version of it. I went back to my horse drawing that was based on a horse in my dream, I will call the horse David.

David is now more radiant, physically stronger, wiser, more masculine, and his gaze has shifted direction....I will reveal in more detail at a later time. So make sure you continue checking the blog!

It is beautiful to take the time to observe the natural things that God has blessed this Earth with because there are so many inanimate things that people can relate to, it also makes life a lot more enjoyable. This is why art is so important. Art takes nature, universal themes, human expression, and world history to make it relatable and valuable to our own unique existence.

The Pomegranate is a unique fruit that has a multitude of small delicious seeds protected within barriers of a hard outer shell. Today, I had the opportunity to cut into a pomegranate and absorb the beauty and flavor of it and contemplate how I believe it can be applied to people’s lives.

Like Psalm 1:3 says in the Bible, we are “like a tree planted firmly by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and whose leaves do not wither; and in whatever we do will prosper.” By each of us being trees that bear fruit, we contain countless seeds (creative ideas and gifts) within us that serve as opportunities to generate prosperity and value to our lives, our homes, our relationships, our communities, and our world.

In Art and Mythology, the pomegranate has been represented as a symbol of fullness, prosperity, overflowing generosity, and fertility because of the countless seeds within it.

Here are a few representations of the pomegranate in Italian Renaissance art:

The pomegranate also serves as a great metaphor of explaining how a personality can be so fruitful in carrying many seeds. Defining personality from a psychological perspective, personality is the set of enduring behavioral and mental traits that distinguish human beings. Each of us people are born into a solid shell, like a pomegranate, but within our human spirit we are composed of so many different elements, complexities, values, cultures, talents, gifts, humors, goals, professions, and experiences that make us unique people.