Introduction

I BELIEVE THAT WORLD PEACE starts with happy people. When I look at the world and the violence I witness, I can’t help but see deep emotional wounds being played out. It’s clear to me that a happier world starts by healing the wounds within. I often say, “Happy people do happy things; unhappy people do unhappy things.” I truly believe that.

I believe deeply that self-aware people who truly love themselves unconditionally are healthier and happier. They radiate light into the world. The unburdened person is free to be of service to others and live an inspired, productive life.

Ignoring old wounds and allowing them to fester can negatively affect our health, relationships, and quality of life.

To love oneself and to pursue happiness and contentment is not selfish. To love oneself is doing the world a favor.

This is why I do the work that I do, and it’s what my book is about: It is my deepest wish to help ease the suffering in the world. I do this by helping people heal and love themselves through the creative process.

The intention of this book is to share several creative exercises combined with personal development exercises that foster self-love, personal growth, healing, and self-esteem improvement.

I hope this book helps and supports you on your creative and personal development journey. I hope it helps you love the glorious, amazing, wonderful person that you are and that it helps you see your power, see your worth, see the shining star that you are, and spread your light to make this world that much better. Thank you for opening this book; it gives me hope that you did.

Life Book was first born in 2011 as a yearlong, online mixed-media art course with a personal development and healing focus. I created it to help people grow both creatively and personally through a wide variety of artistic and personal explorations. It has always been my deepest wish to help people find more self-love and self-worth so that we may collectively feel better and do better—for ourselves, our families, our friends, and the world.

Each week during the Life Book course, students receive uplifting and inspiring mixed-media lessons exploring topics such as self-love, the inner critic, creative block, and transforming limiting beliefs. Each year, between sixteen and twenty-two contributing guest teachers share their creative techniques as well as their insights on a healing theme. The pages created throughout the course end up bound into one big, beautiful book by the end of the year: A Life Book. This book serves as a keepsake and honoring of the journey the person has gone through. Thousands of Life Books have been created all over the world since it all started.

More than 16,000 people have joined Life Book worldwide since its inception. People find it life-enriching, enlightening, and eye-opening. It’s often described as a lifeline by people who are going through difficult times in their lives.

For this book, I’ve hand-picked some of the most popular and life-transforming projects from the first six years of Life Book. I hope they will help you grow your creative and self-love wings.

The Life Book projects in this book can be done as stand-alone activities, or you can do them as a group and eventually bind them into a book (see here). This is an optional step. If you do want to bind your pages into a book at some point, be sure to create your projects on single sheets and do not work on the backs.

A Life Book project can be started at any point in one’s life. There are no rules, shoulds, or musts; it’s a safe space for you to explore your creative self and gently tend to the tender bits of you.

“all children are born artists. the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”

—Pablo Picasso

Our creative selves are our magical selves. Creativity, to me, is at its essence self-connection and communication. It’s a gateway to intimate conversations with parts of myself I may not have access to through other means.

I have found that when people engage in the creative process, they enter a safe space in which they can be more freely themselves and feel less inhibited. They get more intimately acquainted with their inner vulnerable selves and become more deeply aware of their thoughts, feelings, and needs.

This awareness frequently serves to help people grow personally and heal unresolved pain.

The creative process is accessible to anyone, so long as a playful, nonjudgmental approach to creating is taken. No talent or previous experience is needed—just a willingness to play and be open to fluidly responding to your inner world, colors, brushstrokes, layers, and mark-making. It’s fun and joyful too!

Although the creative process on its own can be meditative, cathartic, and healing, this book also includes some very intentional personal development exercises that focus on specific issues. They are woven into the creative process while providing an opportunity to find a deeper understanding and compassion for ourselves.

Art is a vehicle for discovery, for exploration. It’s a path to letting go, allowing, and surrendering. Creativity is a tool for finding courage, being brave, and facing your demons. It’s a mirror and a friend. It’s a way to tend to your tender heart, to find yourself, and to shower yourself with the unconditional love you deserve.

A word of care: The projects in this book are intended as supplemental to any therapy you may already be undergoing. Please do not consider them a replacement for therapy. For the purposes of protection and safety, work with issues that have a minor emotional charge. Once you feel familiar with the exercises and if you found them beneficial, you can work on more intense issues, but only do so within the boundaries of your own limitations, and be sure to have a support network around you in the form of family, friends, and/or a medical professional such as a therapist.