Expressive Arts Therapy & Original Art
by Dr. Lorena Fernandez
LF Maturity Card Game
This Maturity Card game was created by Dr. Lorena Fernandez to explore day to day concerns. By looking at the art and using the layouts suggested, the game allows players to think in new ways about any problem. New perspectives and surprising solutions can also come to light by pulling a card and making artwork inspired by the card.
Cards 1-15 deal with The Self.
Cards 16-27 deal with The Emotions.
Cards 28-40 deal with Relationships.
Cards 41-47 deal with The World.
Cards 48-54 deal with Creativity.
Get your deck in this link:
The Self Domain 1-15
THE SELF DOMAIN
1 OPENNESS
You like to have experiences and enjoy trying new things. You are imaginative, curious, and open-minded. If you rather not try new things, consider making an exception soon.
2 CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
You are careful, and diligent. You want to do a task well, and to take obligations to others seriously. If you prefer to be easy going and disorderly, consider making an exception soon.
3 EXTROVERSION
You gain energy from being with others and expressing your true self. If you prefer being alone, consider telling your truth instead of seeking approval next time you are with others.
4 AGREEABLENESS
You are kind, and like to help people. If you feel taken advantage of by others, consider thinking of yourself as the first person you must look after among all humanity.
5 NEUROTICISM
You experience feelings of anxiety, worry, fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness. Try to find the positive in all areas of life. Eat well, exercise, sleep well. Look after your health with care, dance, meditate and choose positive perspectives.
6 CRONE WISDOM
You know yourself to be a well-tested trustworthy organism. You have lived through love, sorrow, hope, and fear, coming out of it all a wise and confident spirit, keep trusting your wisdom and your own perspectives. Know that others also have that right.
7 INTUITION
Turn your focus towards the qualities of unconditional love, compassion, wisdom, beauty, gentleness, patience, accepting, forgiving, nurturing, welcoming, accessible, kind, intuitive. Apply those towards yourself first.
8 THE BODY
Look after your body by noticing what makes you feel good, what you like, what you enjoy. Value your direct experience over advice from others. “The body is the instrument of our hold on the world.” ― Simone de Beauvoir. Care, respect and sense awareness of one's own body.
9 HEROINE'S JOURNEYS
Appreciate your adventures or journeys in which you have ventured out to get what you needed, to face conflicts, solve challenges and ultimately triumph over adversity. You have done this in the past and will continue to do it in the future.
10 BEING PRESENT
Be fully present, that means fully enjoying the moment that you are in. You are focused on what you're doing without thinking about anything else. That's when life is more real.
11 INNER EXPLORATION
Always try to know yourself better. Observe your own reactions. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Aristotle “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” C.G. Jung
12 FACING FEARS
Cultivate your courage. “Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.” —Helen Keller “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, knowing what must be done does away with fear.” —Rosa Parks
13 CARING FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE
Reconnect with your inner self. With all the time you spend plugged in or online, it's easy to get disconnected from yourself. Try to find some time each day to think about who you are and want to be in the world. Figuring out what's really important to you can make daily stresses feel like less of a burden.
14 HONORING YOUR BOUNDARIES
Respect your own boundaries. Learn to communicate what you really think in a firm way that could be polite as well. The more you respect yourself, the easier your life will be because others will respect you too.
15 VALUES
Choose your top five values and then see to it that your daily activities honor each one of those values. Authenticity Autonomy Balance Beauty Boldness Competency Contribution Creativity Curiosity Fun Growth Happiness Health Learning Meaningful Work Openness Optimism Peace Pleasure Self-Respect Spirituality Wealth Wisdom etc.
The Emotions Domain 16-27
THE EMOTIONS DOMAIN
16 INFANCY
Reflect on your vulnerability and gratefulness even without perfection. By being born you face your own vulnerability. Pain is part of having a body and of being alive. This card is about infancy and the milk of life flowing. It is also about MOTHER. Also, Mother Earth, who gave you your body, and your mother's body.
17 CHILDHOOD
Reflect on your childhood or the starting stages of any project. Childhood is a time in which one discovers personal capability and strength. This often involves a lot of frustration, exploration of physical strength, and also strength of character and boundaries.
18 PUBERTY
Reflect on the transition towards adulthood. The growing pains of turning into an adult. It is a time of self-discovery, of falling backwards, of tears, and of great strength to keep on living and fixing mistakes and overcoming challenges.
19 MATURITY
Reflect on finding your tribe, and finding ways to serve them. The cave painting oError! Hyperlink reference not valid.f ‘The Sorcerer’ is an amalgamation of various animals and a human. Putting him/her in this painting felt like being linked personally to the beginning of humanity in the mature time of service to the tribe.
20 OLD AGE & DEATH
Reflect on what you want to leave others once you are gone. Happy memories and good teachings. To me this work is about my own very last days on Earth and after. I felt that once I complete my time here as a human, I will rejoin the larger picture, the universe. So, it is a time to move on to larger things. Dust to star dust.
21 FULL SELF EXPRESSION
Find ways to express yourself fully, the good, the bad, the ugly, the nice. Use art, writing, dance, music, sports, whatever it takes. The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting through to the outside world.” ~Fay Weldon.
22 FINDING BALANCE
Strive to find a good balance for your life. “Moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.” – Epicurus “Balance your thoughts with action. If you spend too much time thinking Ta thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee
23 ALONENESS VS ALIENATION
Loneliness is a psychological mechanism which motivates you to seek social connections and intimacy. Aloneness is being apart from others without pain. As a subjective emotion, loneliness can be felt even when you are surrounded by other people.
24 SPIRITUALITY TO MATERIALISM
Following a spiritual path does not mean that you reject material things and leading a materialistic life does not disqualify you from the spiritual. They are interconnected. Find your balance.
25 COLLECTIVE & PERSONAL UNCONSCI0US
Personal unconscious consists of things that have been repressed or rejected from your own consciousness. Collective unconscious is an inheritance to all human beings from the repetitive structures of human life, beyond cultural barriers.
26 DENIAL WILLFUL BLINDNESS
Be aware of what you don't want to see. The mechanisms by which we choose, maybe unconsciously, for something to remain unseeing in situations where “we could know, and should know, but don’t know because it makes us feel better not to know.”
27 NEW WAYS TO SEE THE PAST
Finding new and better ways to look at the past in order to be well in the present and future.
Relationships Domain 28-40
RELATIONSHIPS DOMAIN
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28 INDIVIDUALISM VS COLLECTIVISM
Collective identity refers to your sense of belonging to a group. The identity of the group, or the 'collective,' becomes a part of your individual identity. Your Individual identity is the concept you develop about yourself that evolves over the course of your life due to choices you make.
29 COOPERATION VS COMPETITION
If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative. Find the right balance. Achievement. Cooperation vs Competition.
30 BEING VS DOING
When you feel a heightened sense of “being”, there is a greater awareness of the present moment, and you feel anchored in the now. Doing is also highly satisfying. It is important to find your own balance.
31 EXPRESSIVENESS
In affective cultures you express your emotions quite spontaneously, and in neutral cultures you make great efforts to control, or even hide, your emotions. Find your own balance.
32 COMMUNICATION
Direct communication is when you clearly relay your thoughts and opinion in your verbal message”. While indirect communication is defined as gathering information from more than the words spoken by the communicator. Find your own balance.
33 UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE
High uncertainty avoidance means that you have a low tolerance for ambiguity and vagueness in most day-to-day situations. High UA requires laws, rules, regulations and control mechanisms. Low uncertainty avoidance means that you prefer spontaneity, improvisation and facing the unknown.
34 POWER DISTANCE
How is power distributed in your life? Power distance refers to the relationship between those in power and the subordinates. In societies with a low power distance, individuals aim to distribute power equally.
35 RULES
Universalism means that everybody is treated as subject to the same rules. Particularism, on the contrary, means that some people are treated better than others. What do you think is better? How does that affect your life?
36 SOCIAL NORMS
Are you tight or loose? Tight: have many strong norms and low tolerance of deviant behavior. Loose: have weak social norms and a high tolerance of deviant behavior. How does your way of affecting your life?
37 SCHEDULES VS NATURAL FLOW
How do you schedule your life? “Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force.” Lao Tzu Punctuality is a quality the need of which is bound up with social co-operation. It has nothing to do with the relation of the soul to God.” Bertrand Russell
38 LOVE AND COUPLING
How do you create interdependence? How do you still keep your personal power and authority? Universe of all life, help us to work together. Look with favor on your people, gather us in your loving arms and bring us with in cooperation.
39 EXPLORING WITH OTHERS VS ALONE
Sometimes you can go alone and other times you can go with others. “The man who goes alone can start today but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau. To go fast, go alone, to go far, go together. Ancient proverb.
40 TAKING ACTION VS RUMINATION
Dwelling and obsessing over your past mistakes, losses or failures can cause you to feel worse about yourself and your life. This is known as rumination. It is an obstacle to positive action. Positive Action is preferable.