Many people ask me where they can learn art journaling for beginners

My honest answer is that it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or advanced in my special journaling method- SoulPages journaling.

If You want to developpe your inner world and learn fun, joyful art techniques on the way, you should learn the SoulPages method with the seven elements.

The seven elements are like tools that help you developpe your inner strength and learn easily how to manifest abundance and joy in your life.

The seven elements are Intention, Magical coincidence, background, color, image, line, and text.

In my book “Layers of meaning- elements of visual journaling,” I’ve written about all the elements. 

In this short article, I want to talk about the importance of a daily practice of just 10 minutes.

I call this practice “7 elements in 10 minutes.”

Its very good to do this exercise in the evening

• We start with color and background– we draw a shape with watercolors on our journal.-this should take 2 minutes.
• then we write around the shape of whatever comes to our mind- We give it two minutes. This is the Intention element.
• We add a collage image to the shape- 1 minute
• We create lines and mark making- 2 minutes
• We look at what we did and think of what surprised us. this is the magical coincidence– 2 minutes
• We write one or a maximum of two words we gained from this process inside the shape-the text element 1 minute.

Recently I have been going through a challenging time in my life, and I’ve decided to start a daily artistic journal practice.

I call it “10 minutes SoulPages practice a day”

Every day I create for ten  minutes only

I work quickly without thinking about anything. 

I try to activate my subconscious and let it send me important words.

Words and images that can transform me!

My artistic journal receipt:

I work small

I use the seven elements

I use the energy of one word to create change.

I write and doodle around the image until I understand its significance to my life.

I feel that my life became so much reacher since I started this practice

I hope you will join me and start creating with me!

I aim to spread this practice everywhere because I believe it can heal us individually and as a global community.

Years ago, I started meditation class, and I discovered that I couldn’t meditate!

It was hard for me to close my eyes and think of nothing

I found it boring just to repeat one word or sound or concentrate on my breath.

Finally, I decided to give up, and then I found the most amazing thing!

I meditate when I’m creating in my visual journal.

Meditation art is a special art practice that activates parts of our brain that are activated when we meditate.

When we create in our journals, some concepts are very important.

If you keep them, you will practice meditation art:

• Before you start breathing, close your eyes and breath slowly for at least 3 minutes
• Try to empty your mind
• Invite any word or sentence that wants to enter your consciousness to sink in
• Write it down
• Write about this word or sentence for 7 minutes. 
• Use two colors that you feel drawn to and cover your writing.
• Let your hand pick one image you are drawn to from your stash of images.
• Use repetitive patterns in white and black marker, and let your hand guide you.
• When you finish, gaze at what you did for two minutes and then close your eyes again and let one , a message comes to you.
• Write it on your spread in big, bold letters.

When you practice meditation art, you will start experiencing true miracles..

I believe that creating with our hands in a special meditative mode, is no less therapeutic then any other form of meditation.

Like many people around me, I also experienced traumatic events in my childhood and adolescence.

It took me years to realize that I’m not different or special; we all experience traumatic moments in our childhood, some more than others. but still, we all have our share of sad and difficult events that are part of us.

When I was 40 after I lost my pregnancy in week 17, I sank into 18 months of depression, and I started to feel obsessed with discovering how can I heal my inner wounds.

I understood that my depression was connected to these past traumatic experiences.

 I knew that I had to befriend all my inner “Demons”

I learned that the trauma is what happened to me and what brought me so far, and the fact that I overcame it shows the resilience and abilities that I possess.

I began my healing when I started to create mindful art pieces, small spreads in my visual journal that captured something of my childhood.

I decided to let the trauma that I experienced be the background of my paintings and writing.

For months I would write on the page and then cover it with my favorite colors and beautiful images.

In that way, I didn’t hide or ignore the trauma, I accepted it as an important part of my growth as a person.

Allowing myself these mindful art moments helped me connect with the healthy parts of my soul, these lighter, happy, joyous, strong, and resilient parts.

I can’t change the past, but I believe that each of us can extract the “gold” out of his/hers childhood experiences and pass it on to others.

This is why I decided to create the SoulCircle community- so we can all learn from each other and we could acknowledge each other’s wounds, not from a pitiful point of you, but instead from an admiring, respectful gaze that says- you are so brave!! 

When I started visual journaling, I didn’t know what I was doing, I simply enjoyed discovering mixed media techniques on youtube!

I loved the vibrancy, energy, and freedom of these techniques.

I called my first journal- mixed media art journal.

I felt that I wanted to explore materials and techniques without getting into healing and all the deep ideas I incorporated later in my method.

I started with gelly prints, it blew my mind to create all these beautiful patterned paper so easily.

The beauty of the combination of color and pattern was addictive, and I would just sit and practice with the gelly plate for hours.

Then I discovered linoleum prints and produced many patterns of lino cut..

After every sleepless night, I would take what I created and use it in my mixed media art journal. I would cut parts of my lino prints plus a piece of gelly plate print, add an image, use different kinds of colors, and whoops…. something new was created!!

This was when I realized there are different layers to creating meaningful visual journaling.

 I noticed the freedom and happiness I felt when I could use endless possibilities.

I felt like a child in an enormous candy store!

And of course, I bought so many materials! I had to try them all!

Mixed media means you can combine lots of materials and techniques in one piece of art in a meaningful way.

The outcome is not as important as the process you felt when you created it.

In time, I felt more and more the need to use special mixed media materials and techniques to allow for inner growth, and this was the beginning of my path to creating the SoulPages method.

Since I was thirteen, I have written a diary almost daily.

Writing to myself helped me upload some of the difficult feelings I felt, It helped me feel less lonely when my parents divorced.

 It also helped me realize how important self-exploration is.

I continued to write in notebooks and later on my computer, but I stopped around my late thirties.

I lost the magic of writing to myself, the words were not enough to express what I felt.

And then, at the age of 45, I discovered the visual journal, and I felt that my life changed in ways I couldn’t even begin to realize.

I met with one of my friends, and she showed me a notebook that looked like a diary.

This is a visual art diary, she said.

I was hooked!

Inside her visual art diary I saw amazing doodling, images, words,

I felt she could take all the content of her subconscious and just poor it into this amazing notbook.

This was the day that changed my life- I went home and made my first visual journal; this was the name that I decided to give this amazing practice.

I never stopped creating since and I wish I never will!