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PrintThe Art of Self-Healing
How Rita Loyd learned to love herself through the process of creating art
Artwork by Rita Loyd. Copyright ©2011.
One of the toughest challenges that any budding artist faces is the challenge of getting past his or her inner critic—an inner voice tries to convince the artist that their work is not good enough or that they have no business claiming to be an artist. Huntsville author and watercolorist, Rita Loyd battled with her inner critic for years but then one day was able to dismantle its influence with a single epiphany. The ephiphany—the revelation—came to Rita in a pointed question that she put to herself. She asked herself:
"Since I have the temperament of a sensitive artist with my anxiety, panic attacks and depression, do I not also have somewhere inside of me, the talent of a sensitive artist? Why should I only suffer the negative aspects of being sensitive without experiencing some of the positive aspects of being sensitive such as having the ability to create beautiful art?"
The logic of this made sense to her and it released the block that stood in her way of creating art.
With the release of Rita’s inner critic she began painting in 1996 as a way to cope with chronic illness. Rita suffered from stomach and immune related issues. Her inspiration to paint was to find healing for her life. Each painting was a message of encouragement for her spirit. But before she could paint images that were encouraging to her spirit, she had to look at her life and see where encouragement was most needed. This meant looking inward in order to honestly examine her pain and fears. But honesty can be difficult to achieve because it can trigger self-defensiveness and self-defensiveness can shut a person down. To overcome this barrier, Rita learned to create a safe space of observation before looking inward; a space in which it felt safe to be honest with herself. This safe space of observation was created when she would promise herself to look inward with only kindness and understanding and not be critical or judgmental of herself or of her choices.
Rita continued to paint in this way for years. Her art and creative process became her healer, teacher and friend. Rita experienced much healing through her art but the most profound lesson her art and creative process taught her was how to love herself. It did this by creating in her life a setting and a reason to look inward, to search for answers, to be kind to herself, to be patient with herself, to be positive and forgiving with herself, to allow herself a voice and the freedom to speak.
When Rita realized that she had learned to love herself at least within the boundaries of creating art, it encouraged her to learn to love herself in all areas of her life. And to accomplish this goal, she did a personal study on self-love and writes about her journey in her new book entitled Unconditional Self-Love: What It Is, Why It's Important, and How to Nurture It in Your Life.
In Rita’s new book she defines for the reader the true meaning of self-love. She explains that there are two kinds of self-love—ego-based and spirit-based self-love. Ego-based self-love is conditional love and its main concern is to boost the ego. Spirit-based self-love is unconditional love and its main concern is to love and heal the whole person—spirit, mind and body.
Rita also describes self-love as the relationship that we have with ourselves and says that since all relationships are based on how we speak, treat and see one another, self-love is about speaking to ourselves, treating ourselves and seeing ourselves with love and with all aspects of love.
“Self-love” Rita adds, “is also about paying attention to what we need spiritually, physically and emotionally rather than avoiding, ignoring, neglecting or post-poning those needs.”
In Rita’s book you will also find her artwork and affirmations, healing exercises and steps to nurture unconditional self-love in your everyday life.
“Love yourself,” Rita encourages, “And as you allow unconditional self-love to grow inside of you, you are accepting the love that God and Life want for you. You are experiencing the love that God and Life have for you. And as you do, you merge with the source of Life and Love itself.”
—View Rita’s artwork or purchase her new book at NurturingArt.com and visit her blog at NurturingArt.com/blog. Email: RitaLoyd@bellsouth.net.
