Studies show that revisiting old photos "mindfully" - which of course we do when we are slowly and thoughtfully creating with them - helps by allowing you to observe past struggles from a detached perspective and reinterpret them by focusing on the growth and resilience that has happened since. I definitely think that is the case for me. If it wasn't for scrapbooking there are lots of photos wouldn't look at, but creating with them allows me to revisit those painful memories with the clarity of hindsight and put them into context. Do you find that too? Rachel and I talk about this (and other creative things) in this week's midweek edition of our digiscrap 'magazine' Pixels, Paper & Paint. https://pixelspaperpaint.substack.com/p/life-in-pictures-deconstructed-no4
Sometimes. But sometimes, no. I've been trying to review photos from a couple of years back to fill in any gaps I might have in collecting pages for another photobook. But even though I took some enjoyment is reviewing those photos, I struggled to identify those I wanted to include. (For context, I was reviewing 2021 which is the year my husband died.) Maybe the next time I take that trip down 2021, I'll be more ready. But on the flip side, I love coming across those from before we were even married.
Absolutely it does. Even if I’m not writing down the journaling always on painful things the art process helps to work through or see things in a new light. Absolutely! And kits that have those hard topics help get the feeling across. A connection. A me too & I’m understood feeling.
For me it definitely does. I don’t talk about my feelings a lot, but scrapping those painful moments help me to express them and releases some of the emotional pressure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Looking at old photos, scrapping with them, it definitely helped me deal with our family loss. Not at first but after awhile it was therapeutic to look at the photos and remember but at the same time I was busy creating a LO with them, my focus was split, so it was a distracted focus, if that makes sense.
It definitely takes time. I literally went through photos in my files and moved many because it was too hard to stumble across them when looking for photos to scrap. I actually deleted one year of pics altogether (don't worry, it was still backed up in cloud - flickr and dropbox!).
Yes!...It certainly does for me...I used my whole "Grief Layouts " thing...as my own personal form of therapy here at The Lilypad for quite sometime...eventhough,I don't scrap as many now...I guess that would be my own form of growth...I never would have believed it at the time of all the overwhelming grief I was going through then...My perspective has evolved since then...I never thought I would get here in my recovery in moving forward personally through grief's journey... And,I know that showing personal sadness or sad times out in the open is not for everyone...But,as a lot of you have known me for a long time now...I was never one to shy away from these things...even before Ray passed away...with the difficult health struggles I have been through & still go through...But,I have changed internally,like an internal shift of retrospection...I can't say how it happened or when...but it has happened...I see myself differently now...With time,help & support,I have realized that I am stronger than I thought I was...and I now have more things going on in my life to keep me busy & help me feel fulfilled... I was looking through old pictures of my Mom,Nanny & Grampy,my Aunt Kay & Uncle Roy...[who are all deceased now] & me,my brother & estranged sister today with a friend...It was harder than I thought it would be to do that...It made me realize that I am very much alone now,as far as family is concerned...That made me sad to look at all the memories of happier days in the past...but I also realize that time moves on whether we like it or now...It is part of life and that I have learned the hard way...I don't know if I will ever scrap them...but they are a part of my life & they do remind me of better days left behind...I am just glad to have some of these photos to remind me that I once had happy memories with family now gone...and to appreciate it,as sometimes that is more than someone else may have......
You put this so well, and I think it is key. And I really do think that creating with the photos has helped me with that process, even if just by enabling me to NOTICE that shift. So sorry for all your losses. None of us get through life unscathed, but sometimes it seems so unfair when people are given so much grief to handle.
ive scrapped the good and the bad and everything inbetween. I often feel it helps ease the pain to get it all out there and be raw and honest
I never scrap bad happenings, but I've handled them in therapy, including trauma therapy, and my psychologist had told me to focus in here and now, and only in the good things. I include here some of the text that she has taught me (the text is from a book, thought). "The most relevant aspect to keep in mind about how to overcome a trauma is that the internal cognitive contradiction that occurs in the event is a battle that takes place in our mind, not in the environment, which implies a fight against oneself in which the model we had of ourselves and the world (what should be) vanishes, and we are suddenly forced to replace it with a new one (what is). This internal struggle is the fundamental basis of the difficulty of acceptance, since it requires a reasoning process to understand what happened and develop an appropriate response that does not lead to maladaptive behaviors." Along with her, I put in a box all the pictures with bad memories and she suggested to burn them, but I've save them in a place (out of sight, you know, so they are out of my mind and heart), and when I'm ready, I plan to destroy them.
I think so. Scrapping is a way to to move through grief for me. I've scrapped many memorial pages and while it's hard- it's a form of therapy I think.
I have found it to be very healing to scrap about difficult things. Life can be difficult, I think if I am documenting my life it should be real.
I think it does overall but also depends on how close the actual event or person is to you. For example, I haven't scrapped a lot about my grandmother in the last five years of her life the past few months as it just opens up memories since her death was only three months ago.
It definitely helps me shift perspectives, to see what I gained out of an experience. I have been able to scrap about my divorce from my kids' dad over the years. But there are photos that would be really hard for me to look at and scrap/journal about, like those of my estranged mother. There's too much stigma around daughters not talking to their mothers, so I leave that on a shelf for now.
