How to Uncover Your Inner Symbol: a Jungian Art Therapy Exercise

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

The process to finding your symbol is also available as a free guidebook here: www.iabet.fi/uncoveryoursymbol Let me know how you found this exercise and if you try it, I'd love to hear what kind of discoveries you made!

[@Shmyrk]

“The hands will often solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”

[@sweetsugarjones]

There’s a process called “Soul Collage” that’s similar to this. It became a bit too regimental and monetized for my taste over time, but it has this same art therapy / symbol orientation. Those who are inspired by this exercise might also enjoy searching KZbin for some of the striking examples it produced. I do my own simplified version of it because I like that the collages are made as a smaller uniform size that can be easily kept, stored, and utilized in an ongoing oracle card type of way.

[@dianemarie9d9]

Since I saw this, I've been noticing my symbol in almost all of my abstract paintings

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

That's a really great observation and certainly an important synchronicity for you!

[@akilasultana2368]

I just want to say, I’m really grateful for the exercises you post. You’re my favourite art therapist youtuber on the platform, your exercises are so intentional and have helped me so many times processing emotions. I’ve even shown my therapist some paintings I’ve done using your exercises and we’ve used it to talk about my feelings and thoughts more deeply and they’ve provided deep insight and support. Thank you

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thank you for your kind words and I'm so happy to hear you found new insights about yourself from my exercises, and that they helped you go deeper in your healing process. I wish all the best for you!

[@elberethreviewer5558]

As soon as I saw your symbol was a cloak, I had a feeling about where yours was going. I didn't think you would share your feelings about your interpretation, but I'm delighted you did. I would suggest this for confidence behind the camera: only you know when you messed up, and editing is your friend. That's the great thing about video; you can repeat yourself as often as you'd like until you get it right. I would love to see more videos on these types of techniques.

[@noctembra]

Perhaps a guided video on these concepts is exactly what I've been needing to creatively dive into practical applications of Jung's work in my life, so I'm glad KZbin recommended this to me. Thank you for creating and uploading this, and I'm looking forward to watching more!

[@pcs1120]

I love having a creative connection to Jungian ways. Thank you for this

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad you enjoyed this- and that is what my work is about, experiencing with hands-on methods, not just thinking about things through theory.

[@kelbelle8133]

This is just the most amazing content I have watched recently and I supect this will become one of my favourite new channels! After watching this, I couldnt hit the subscribe button fast enough! I have only just started delving into Jung (a few days ago) which is how your content appeared on my feed. Your explanation of this art process was so clear, raw and unfiltered and I loved that!. I am going to try this exercise and binge watch your other posts. Thankyou for taking the time to share your amazing, insightful wisdom. I have no doubt you will help many people explore the depths of their unconcious. I now need to buy myself an art journal to follow along!

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thank you for your kind words, and glad you found the video inspiring! I really recommend getting an art journal for this kind of work, because it keeps everything in place and helps you see patterns over time.

[@Rop3nop3]

Same

[@Sorayaraqs]

I agree. Incredible.

[@frithbarbat]

What a fun way to explore your inner world. I'm looking forward to doing this.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad you enjoyed this!

[@StudiousPiglet]

I have been having a really tough time personally recently, and doing this exercise really gave me some time to meditate on my behavior and my desires in a way that was really non threatening to my ego 😂 thanks so much for sharing, it was a great way to calm down and explore my feelings today!

[@PossumLover1111]

This was an excellent exercise not only in discovering one's inner symbol, but to use it in creating one's art in a deeper level beyond the beyond. Thank you. New subscriber here.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Happy to hear this! And yes, I think its one of the most beautiful things that happens through the process - art making start to have more depth and meaning and you can also start to feel that depth and sense of meaning within. ❤️

[@Sorayaraqs]

Thank you for being a guide, a teacher to us. 🙏 Thank you for choosing to be seen even with the internal struggle. 🌹

[@stephena.s.1026]

Great video, I appreciate your bravery. The exercise you've shared is very valuable to me.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Happy that you found this valuable!

[@uamiable]

I am so happy this popped up on my feed, thank you 🙏

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

🙏🙏🙏

[@acanbelina]

Thank you for showing this! I discovered my symbols were open glass bottles (as well as red paired with blue and sweets). Pinterest has a collage feature I used instead of magazines and i doodled on a phone app

[@helenlockwood1354]

Thank you for this video. You are really calming to watch and articulated such an abstract concept in a beautifully accessible way. I really related to your brainstorming of the hood symbol. ❤

[@kristm_555]

I really like this! First time here, and I love it

[@briettasonlen1208]

OMG, what a wonderful exercise. I love it! Good to meet you!

[@deepestviolet108]

Thank you for sharing these art exercises! I love your videos 😊

[@joskun]

Thank you so much for this video Yasmine, as it came at an important time for me. I absolutely enjoyed the way you guided us through this exercise 🙂

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thanks for your comment, so glad you liked it!

[@findingzero2222]

Grateful to be here. Thank you. Sharing! Love ♾️🫂

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it!

[@philnasmith9755]

Very interesting exercise - thank you for sharing and explaining. The suggestion for an ongoing deep-dive on the relevant symbol is exciting.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Yes, I think it's always an on-going, evolving process - I think the magic and mystery of the uncoscious starts to uncover only through time, as you track the symbols and you start to see patterns.

[@jazminkathrin]

thank you Im gonna do it now

[@diogenesstudent5585]

You are so wise.

[@camillaalldredge1218]

What a great video that truly speaks to spirituality and the personal work and intuition that goes into it. I love Jung and am fascinated by his journey. For sure going do this today and have my kids join me. Thank you and subscribed:)

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad to hear you liked this video, and would love to hear how you and your kids experienced the exercise if you try it out!

[@lone-welf]

I was literally looking for examples for Jung art projects yesterday.

[@LailaLivsdatter]

Thank you❤

[@judehayashi5892]

So happy I found you!

[@Nothingbuttruth0]

Ohh my God!!! Thank you so much!!! ❤ i had such an illuminated experience. Thank you.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

So happy to hear you had some great insights form this!

[@brittanyroyce6797]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thanks for watching!

[@papyrophliac]

This was beautiful. thank you so much for sharing this exercise.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@victorialukens5632]

This probably sounds odd, but can't bring myself to cut up magazines. I have a large collection of postcards and will choose some, just lay them on the table, no paste, and will try selecting something for my symbol this way.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

I can see how it might be difficult to cut up magazines and let them go... Yes, you could just collect images and not paste them or you could do this digitally too.

[@elinamakela8435]

Thank you for this video! I don't know how it popped into my feed and I didn’t know that I needed it, but this was great! I do meditation and get lots of symbolism but I'm often left wondering about the meaning. With drawing & writing I could go deeper with their personal meaning. Also I noticed the Finnish magazines - torilla tavataan! 😁

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Piirtämisen ja kirjoittamisen kautta tosiaan asiat konkretisoituu ja sitä ymmärtää asiat yllättäen ihan uudella tavalla. Kerro miten meni jos kokeilet! Ja joo nähdään torilla! :D

[@ddlang2514]

Thank you for this❤

[@savanahmuses]

Beautiful! Thank you

[@floresformaria]

Wow I have animals just like that all over, specially horses, wolves and birds. They’ve always been my strongest passion, especially the realism and body anatomy of animals. Those 3 specifically as well as deer.

[@clerou8781]

White grizzly bear 😮 amazing ty

[@Infinitenumberofzachs]

This is amazing , you are amazing

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@Jasminejupiterjuice]

Great message.

[@kimsherlock8969]

I will prepare Next time Then I can start the collage of colour 😊

[@abbie5212]

Thank you - your video is an amazing gift.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@OMG_ItsDrJennie]

Thanks very much. This video appeared for me at just the right time ❤

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Awesome! I love it when life runs synchronistically, that always a good sign!

[@OMG_ItsDrJennie]

I love the Jung quote about trusting the wisdom of our hands - it really spoke to where I am at the moment xx​@@iabet-consciousnessthroughart

[@irismuddyhehe]

this is really great!

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Bhlisse]

THANK YOU ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@ClaireKin115]

Thank you ❤

[@MariaLuiza-jc1ph]

Boa noite você poderia ensinar um exercício para intuição

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

I have a video called ”Creating with the Divine - Art Journaling Method”. The technique has very much to do with intuition, so you might find it helpful.

[@WVgrl59]

Does anyone have magazines nowadays

[@lindag3650]

Crossword puzzle books & sudoku books. My symbol must be a checkerboard lol

[@katebuvogue]

Очень интересуют ритуалы

[@aislynnmari]

My word ended up being cattails (like the plant near water not the animal tail)

[@boscorner]

How bout finding one's own Freudian symbol? Hint- it's a phallus. Everyone's Freudian symbol is a phallus. Ok real talk though just the other night I had a crazy dream where someone was making strange noises and it was producing visual symbols in front of their mouth. So it's wild this was recommended to me. I've searched nothing about dreams or symbols lately. (I mean presumably it's just Google reading my texts telling my friends about my dreams so..)

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Those kinds of synchroncities really bring you in touch with the mystery of this world.

[@seanjustg5425]

💓

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

🙏

[@11HEKA11]

Your picture took a dark turn 😅

[@aceshigh5157]

re the active imagination exercise, do you know of an alternative for people who are mind blind (aphantasia)? i can't draw from my imagination because it doesn't exist - i can only draw by copying/putting together images that i see in photos.... aphantasia also impacts my memories and emotions/i have a lot of difficulty associating words. maybe this exercise just isn't for me.

[@catalystcomet]

Hey, I also have a form of aphantasia and I've got some ideas but it will depend on your unique thought process. I'm wondering if you have any of your other senses more prominent in your mind when you go through memories. Do you have an internal monologue or dialogue or anything? Personally I don't, it's more like bits of information or something, but my sense of smell in my mind is really strong. I also think you might not need to do something like this in your mind completely. Are you out in the country or near a city? When it comes to needing the kinds of thoughts and images that she's talking about, I've had incredible luck with putting my headphones on and listening to meaningful music and then either taking a walk or maybe going to an art museum. Sometimes, and I know this is going to sound really weird, but sometimes the music seems to sync up perfectly with wherever my eyes seem to land on certain things. It's like thinking in a way, it's like how I imagine thoughts come to people's minds. I'm not controlling my eyes I'm not choosing I just kind of let them wander and let them vibe with the music and where are they land is usually something of significance, and it repeats. Are you into music or anything like that?

[@aceshigh5157]

@@catalystcomet Thanks for sharing your experience. It's really fascinating how different everyone's mental processes are. It's really cool that you're able to experience music like that! I have multisensory aphantasia (no senses at all). I do have an inner monologue I guess? It used to mostly criticise me, but since working on it my mind is mostly quiet, empty, unless I'm retelling a story or actively problem solving. I have high spatial visualization that I use to "imagine" (synesthesia) but it's very fleeting and I can't hold onto it in any capacity. That's how I experience life - dust in the wind. I don't have enough time to absorb anything. I have to use photos to inspire, but they don't help me remember. I have very poor autobiographical memory.

[@catalystcomet]

@@aceshigh5157 spatial visualization, meaning you can visualize things in that regard? That's super interesting, I know that it comes on a spectrum and that's actually the area that I am the most deficient in. I can look at a box that I need to fill with things, leave the room, and not understand how an object is meant to fit in that box. It's very difficult to explain but I cannot hold memories of specifically the spatial dimensions of things. I'd love to learn more about that, are there any articles or videos here on KZbin that you can recommend? That's so fascinating to me. Did you figure something out to help this video work for you?

[@aceshigh5157]

@@catalystcomet spatial visualization is very intuitive for me. I don't remember dimensions, i'm just able to tell if something will fit or what will happen if something is flipped around. I don't think too deeply on it. I took an aptitude test years ago, that's why I know. I decided not to stress myself out and found another art therapy channel that I connect with. It's annoying having multisensory aphantasia, because I run into issues like this pretty often.

[@mammadingo9165]

The unknown known ?

[@diogenesstudent5585]

Theres a sort of library that humans can take from.

[@drumheartbeat]

It's difficult to hear or understand the audio. I used closed captions.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@MichaelWesselCreative]

Cool idea and great concept but not sure who all has big piles of old magazines lying around anymore.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Yes, it may be true not many people have them. They are quite easy to find though either for free or at a very low price in places like libraries, thrift shops and recycling centers - depends on your area of course. You can make many different collage projects from just a few!

[@sweetsugarjones]

It’s me. I have all the piles of magazines.

[@rohavic]

You’re getting stuck up on the details, I don’t have magazines either but I use procreate and Pinterest to do this activity.

[@ginalibrizzi5204]

Me too. Many piles of magazines.

[@sweetsugarjones]

Maybe magazines are a generational thing? I’m a fan of both collage and card making so I sometimes even cut up junk mailers and product packaging for images I’m drawn to. There’s a lot of art languishing in marketing.

[@redinabloogs8477]

Sooooooo, it's just me then. Who sees what this symbol is...???

[@4kassis]

Enlighten us please

[@cyn3858]

It's a personal quest, key to gain confidence and understanding of your forces, limitations, unicity. A time to connect with your inconscient and put a little more consciousness, for your own personal growth

[@swirlinember1974]

Yes I see it too, um.. fruedian slip lol!

[@redinabloogs8477]

@@swirlinember1974 Exactly LOL

[@victorialukens5632]

I saw a ghost, but since you mentioned it, cough cough, hard to unsee that.

[@kimstelly9480]

Appreciate your intentions here. You might want to reread The Red Book, review its images, and delineate the basic symbols of the collective unconscious for your viewers. It will give them a real foundation for the practice. You could also explain Jung’s own “method” for reaching the collective, but I doubt you want to encourage people to reach drug-induced psychosis. (Just joking on the last part, but definitely review The Red Book - it was newly republished around ten years ago, if I remember correctly.) 😉😉💖💖

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thank you for your perspective. The Red Book offers an inspiring example of a personal descent into the unsconscious, describing the way Jung experiences first hand what later became the central pillars of his own theories. For Jung, this was a journey which required a lot of courage and persistence (and as a clarification for other viewers was initiated solely by the depth of his psyche and his readiness to face it through dreamwork and active imagination). In my work, I want to emphasize methods which are rooted in the experience of coming into contact with the unconscious rather than with the theories. Although both emotional and intellectual understanding are important, there are so many sources which go through the theories, but in my opinion not enough that walk you through the hands-on methods. Because of this, my work is largely rooted in a hands- on perspective. Although theory can support this, I attempt to keep it concise.

[@petalthorn8778]

@@iabet-consciousnessthroughart I really appreciate your hands-on approach and look forward to more videos! Thank you so so much for your courage in allowing yourself to be seen and come out of hiding a bit to share this wisdom with others. Grateful for this work and your service to the world 🙏🏼

[@krystlebatt2211]

I love how Carl Jung because he was a man and studied "science" he didn't get burned at the steak or drowned. When symbology and intuition and a knowing was labelled as evil witch craft giving permission to involuntary death....

[@TeAsEnToRmEnT]

How would I go about this exercise as I have Aphantasia and I can't visualise in pictorial way.. its just darkness

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

I can't really recommend a path for you without knowing how you personally experience the aphantasia, and what your personal goal is from this kind of work. It's not my area of expertise but, from what I know, there are ways to improve imagery abilities even with aphantasia. However I also think that when we lack a skill in one area we have a heightened skill in another area. So perhaps there is not always a reason to swim against the current, but rather finding and utilizing those areas of yourself where your strength lies.

[@nikkireigns]

Maybe your symbol is invisible?

[@Shmyrk]

Are you INFJ?

[@annewatkis5824]

I am an infj, but not the person who made the earlier comment

[@fjolliff6308]

What is with the zooming in and out? It's making my chronic dizziness worse. Just a tip so that your videos are more accessible... The zooming is a bad thing. If you care.

[@iabet-consciousnessthroughart]

Thank you for the feedback!

[@akela1797]

Hey! Your videos are so cool, i AM so glad You started posting again!!! Thank You for this interesting session! 🩷