Craft Project

This week I had the joy of making a little craft project for a sort of "class" I'm taking. It involved cutting out words and images from magazines and pasting them to the sides of a little cardboard box, with the theme of sharing 2 types of things about ourselves: 1- the things that we want other people to think about us, or that we perceive others think about us, these things were on the outside of the box, and then 2- the things that we do NOT want people to know about us, those secret things that we feel ashamed of, these things we put in the inside of the box where no one can see them, unless we choose to share it with them. One note of clarification, it is important to remember that shame is defined as feeling bad about who we are, unlike guilt, which is feeling bad for our behaviors. That said, I will now share the OUTSIDE of my completed box...

 

Side One- my interests & passions: exercise,

travel, the outdoors, the ocean, watersports, dance, among others. These were just the ones I was able to find pictures and words to illustrate.

 

Side Two- my mommy side. My kids, being a family, is huge to me. My heart is all about my two little sweeties, yet parenting is also an area where we can try so hard to maintain an image of being a perfect mom when really we're constantly berating ourselves for not being better at it. Comparing ourselves to other moms. Judging other moms on their different parenting styles or commitments. it is what it is.

 

Third side- my easy-going, friendly, silly side. The side that wants to put on a good face, be happy, please others, have a good time. Never want to rock the boat, want to keep everyone happy.

 

4th side- spiritual side. Of course my relationship with Jesus Christ is deeply personal and the most important thing in my life, yet I hope I'm not alone in saying it sometimes becomes an area where I have to put in some effort to maintain that image, as well. Put on the ol' "church face" every Sunday morning, no matter what kind of fights our family had on the way to church. But fortunately I"m in a good place, a good church where people can be themselves, and my desire to bear good "fruit" can be motivated more by my love for Christ than what others think of me.

 

5th side- the bottom of the box, my domestic side, or shall I say, my lack thereof!! That's why I chose to put it on the bottom side, where it's not totally hidden, yet it's not as visible. I am simply not gifted with a passion for housecleaning, and it shows!! I may not be the next subject on the show "Hoarders", but I seriously need to do some de-cluttering; it's embarrassing! What's most embarrassing is when I sometimes wonder if people are judging the inside of me as being as cluttered and untidy as my home environment, ouch!!

 

That brings us to the lid of the box, which is tightly closed and bears these words: don't look in this box. secret.

 

And here's the inside of the lid. Inside the box itself, I have some words which describe aspects of me that I don't readily share with others. We all have those areas. What causes us to feel so horrible about them is when we have been shamed by someone else in our past about them, or by what our culture dictates of how we should be, or our own inner critics that tell us we're bad because of them. No one is immune from the feeling of shame, yet we can all learn to develop shame resilience. But that's another blog post, another day. or not.

thanks for letting me share my little project with you. it was fun.

 

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