Transcripts
1. Hello!: Today, we're going to be making a map of you. Hi guys, my name is Everest, also known as Cube Mama on YouTube and Instagram, better known for drawing food as cubes, but also making food out of gelatinous materials and just I don't know, random materials in general. What this map of you is, is it's kind of an attempt to kind of get to know yourself and get to know your feelings and thoughts by putting them together in a way that resembles sort of a usual map. I feel like when information is just presented and in a different way, it can create a lot of new insights about you that you didn't realize before. Through today's map of you journey, I'm going to be going through some techniques, tips, exercises to help you get out of the anxiety when presented with a blank page and you feel like we're all familiar with it, you've been put in front of a blank piece of paper or screen at some point of your life and overcome with anxiety, "Oh, my God, what do I do?" I do that all the time. I created this map project at a time when I was feeling lost and honestly, I still feel lost often. I feel like even if you feel lost, it doesn't mean that you can't accept yourself, love yourself, or just have fun with being lost. Your mind, well, it's an amazing part of you. It can be a space of planning, figuring out how to make things work. It can also be a space of self criticism, criticizing your effort, making you anxious, worried. It is the home of the planner and the inner critics, it comes with both of those. We're going to be going through those tips and exercises to help create a map of you. All right, let's get started.
2. A Life's Map: The map we use is going to have a couple of components and we're going to go through creating a safe space, creating your energetic signature, so what this is, is like a motion or energy that seems to really resonate with your life and where you're at right now. We're going to be going through some exercises to help you transform these negative thoughts into very interesting shapes with different tones and colors. I'm just going to be getting all up in that ecstatic journey because that's how I deal with my problems, it's just throw some colors on them and that's why I'm an illustrator. I hope that sharing my journey of self-acceptance and some of these exercises I've created to help facilitate cultivating self-acceptance and self-trust will help you discover and uncover your dream. I would just like you to consider the possibility that you are an amazing creator and you have the power to create your reality. I just want you to know that is true. Let's get started. For this project, I'm going to be using the drawing medium of my choice, which is digital art. I'm most comfortable with my drawing tablets, so here I have my iPad and procreate, and also what you're going to need is a notebook and a pen. Any pen, any notebook will do, but one that you enjoy using, I feel is always a good choice. But the goal here is comfort, so anything that you feel most comfortable using.
3. A Life's Movement: Today's class, we will be creating a life path. A life path is the foundation of your map. It is the line that will bring all the elements together. For this life path or this line, we'll be exploring the idea of the movement of your life, a movement that feels comfortable and familiar to you. We're going to tune in to feelings and movements in the body. Take a quiet moment to yourself to just breathe in, and out, and in, deep breaths, like you're being carried away. As you're being carried away, what is your body called to do? What motion is it asking you to go through? To move through? Just allow yourself to move through that motion, just to be carried through it. Now that we've allowed ourselves to be carried away by that motion, we're just going to put that down on paper. It doesn't have to be exact, it can just be a random approximation, but what you really want to focus on is the energy of that movement and not so much what it looked like. Here is what I drew mine as. As you were creating those movements, as you were transferring those movements to paper, or just going through this process, were there any thoughts that came up that were either comfortable or uncomfortable, were they critical or encouraging? I just want to give you permission to, I guess, observe the thoughts with space between you and yourself. You're not the thoughts so if it's being a niggy poo, I give you the permission to hit that off switch. Now that we have our life path and our foundation for our map, we can move into the next stage of really diving in and exploring some mental landscapes and adding some pieces to our map landscape. That concludes this lesson, and I'll see you in the next one.
4. Visualizing Mental Clutter: Today's lesson is visualize your mental clutter. Today we're going to be giving a little bit of a visual language to your mental thought and a visual that appeals to you to match with these thoughts. I feel having a visual language or putting these thoughts down on paper in a more visual way can almost release them like when you journal, you put the thought on paper, you get it out of your head. You put it into reality and you remove it from the mental plan, which is wobbly and you don't always know what's going on there. We're going to be giving those thoughts a visual language in today's exercise. I feel when you're going through your day, there's usually thoughts in the back of your head. They're the thoughts where you are like, ''Okay, I got to do this, I got to do that and I'm doing this right now.'' Even maybe as you're working at your computer or you're making breakfast or something like that, there are these thoughts that are at the back of your head just humming. Sometimes they're great thoughts, sometimes they're not so great thoughts, sometimes they're thoughts that you wish would just like, ''Come on, please spare me, blaze.'' In today's video, just embrace them. We're here to do some self-acceptance. By self-acceptance, I mean some radical self-acceptance. By radical self-acceptance, I mean literally anything that you're normally feeling like, ''I don't like this my about myself. Why am I thinking about this? I'm so blank because I'm blank.'' All of that just give it a big hug. This is me, sorry this my script because I need the scripts. But I'm accepting myself take all of those thoughts and we're just going to give it a big hug. This my imaginary thoughts are right there and I'm just going to hug. We're treating ourselves as if we're helping a small child with an art project. If a little kid was working on a map or an art project, you wouldn't be judging them or criticizing them or telling them that they're already did it or that their ideas are bad. If you do, don't worry, just take note of it and be aware like, ''I'm being really critical of myself or this inner child or whoever is working on this art project. I'm just being a little bit aggressive towards them.'' That's interesting. That's how I spend most of my days. Often times when we're thinking of these thoughts like maybe you're making coffee and thinking about your ex from however many years ago, you have this feeling like sometimes it's in your chest and it's a tightness or maybe your shoulder is tense up or any part of your body, like maybe your stomach clenches a little bit. Notice those feelings and try to just take a moment to breathe, close your eyes and just feel the tenseness in your stomach or if your shoulders start to scrunch up a little bit, really lean into that and really allow them to tense up. As you're tensing them up and thinking about that thought, just visualize what does that look like? Then we're going to draw that. But really tapping into your body, feel free to come back to that at any point during this class because we're going to be working a lot with getting out of our minds and into our bodies. We really want to takes talk and focus on these feelings, these tense emotions that come up. Okay, so for this exercise, just find a nice place to be at peace and grab your notebook and a favorite pen. Allow your mind to wander. There's no need here to quiet the mind. You can allow it to think whatever thoughts or feelings that come up and just have attention to them. There's no need to judge them. What are they? How do they make you feel? As we pay attention to these thoughts, were going to use the exercise of really leaning into how those thoughts and feelings feel in our body and what that feeling looks like as a drawing. Write out what that thought is. Next to it, just draw whatever comes to mind. I think draw sometimes has a connotation of whether it has to look good or be aesthetic and literally it can be squiggles. Mine are definitely squiggles because that's how they feel in my brain. Finally, we're going to place those thoughts, signatures that you made in your journal on the map. Wherever they feel they might have a home or where they might go. Now that we have brought a visual language to these thoughts, it is time to create a healing space, a safe space, if you will, to transform these thoughts.Stay tuned for the next episode. That concludes this lesson and I'll see you in the next one.
5. Mental Safe Spaces: If creating your Aesthetic Sanctuary, now I personally feel that, safe spaces can have a really wide range, like your favorite sweater could be a safe space because in it you feel held, you feel comfortable, you feel protected, and we want to recreate that feeling of protection, but more in like an aesthetic sense. So, are there certain colors that make you feel secure? Are there any sort of textures that make you feel really at ease? I really like linen, that is just personally. Linen sheets like, sign me up, though, other patterns that make you feel comfortable, color palettes that are just really get you, and if you're having trouble figuring that out or you know, you're like wondering, "What the hell is my favorite aesthetic, I don't know, there's so many colors, there's a whole rainbow." What I like to do is think of something in your life that you put a lot of energy into, so if you do put a lot of energy into your wardrobe, maybe what clothes do you wear, if you like a lot of things on Instagram, like what kind of posts do you like? What are the aesthetic of those posts if you maybe, I don't know, you really care about your toenails, what color did you paint them? So, on your map, what we're going to do is, in-fission, that space that you feel really at ease when you think of comfort and peace and tranquility. What materials come to mind? We're just going to add it to our map, and on my map, I'm just going to put it at the bottom, kind of like a little ocean, but feel free to add in these sanctuaries wherever you feel that they go in your map. For instance, maybe there's one at a bend and your road, or maybe a road doesn't have bends and it's a straight line, but wherever you feel that you might need one of these safe spaces, feel free to add that to the map, and if it's the whole map, awesome, go ahead, jump right in it. I think when starting to draw food cubes, I finally realized I really am attracted to food packaging, yeah, I know it's kind of weird I used to wash out candy wrappers and like Ramen packets and just kind of hoard them, I don't know it's kind of weird. Now that we have created and added safe aesthetic sanctuaries, if you will, to our map, we are going to be using them to transform these negative thoughts. That concludes this lesson, and I'll see you in the next one.
6. Drawing Empowerment : Your Inner Power. In this episode or lesson, we're going to be using the Aesthetic Sanctuary that we have created, and mixing that with the negative thoughts that we have turned into a visual, language or signature and we're going to transform them. Now, how are we going to transform them? Stay tuned. What I hope you guys can keep in mind in this lesson is self-empowerment. I know that life presents a lot of different situations and circumstances that aren't exactly ideal and maybe we're not exactly enjoying them at the moment. You can't really make it go away physically. But you have the amazing power to transform how the situation might feel in your mind. I feel like that has been one of the most empowering things for me, because in a lot of situations growing up, I would give up. I would tell myself, I'm here because I'm a do-do head or I am in this situation because this, this, and this. I would have a lot of stories that I would tell myself about why I was in different circumstances or situations. But you have the power to transform those stories that you're telling yourself. I want to be honest. It wasn't necessarily easy for me, but I think I found a lot of power in using art to transform these feelings, and anchor them in physical reality. Because I think that when they're in your head, it can turn to soup. But having them in a visual place, they're more anchored to a tangible thing. I don't know why, but for some reason, it being tangible and I can look at it with my eyeballs, it seems easier to deal with. We're going to find a nice place where we can feel at peace, feel at ease. Remember the exercise from a couple sessions ago, actually it was just last session. But we're going to use the tuning into [inaudible] Close your eyes, visualize these visual signatures of these negative thoughts being dipped into or coded with the material that is your aesthetic sanctuary. I know that sounds kind of woo woo and a little weird, but trust me, just trust in the process everyone. Just go with it. Okay? You're in this lesson, you're already at lesson six. Just trust in me a little bit further and trust yourself. If our safe space was a material, transformed your negative thoughts, what would they come out looking like afterwards? After they go through this transformation process, what did they look like? Again, we're just going to place those on the map wherever they feel like they belong. Now that we've uncovered your secret power to transform thoughts, we're going to build, and maybe burns some bridges in the self-conscious. That concludes this lesson, and I'll see you in the next one.
7. Bridge Trolls and Self - Sabotage : In today's lesson, we're going to be talking about bridge trolls and now they're not exactly all going to look like trolls. Some might look like an open flame. What I mean by this, we'll get to in a moment. Pro tips for this is really trusting yourself. We're often told to trust our teachers, trust our parents, trust our friends, trust anyone but ourselves. But in this exercise, in this moment, I want you to have full permission to trust yourself. What trust is for everyone is honestly really different. I'm going to share what it looks like for me, so maybe it can help you. As I said before, everyone's different and we're all going to have our own ways of trusting ourselves. For me, trusting myself looks like, when I close my eyes, anything that pops up that I've dismissed in the past as not being real. Just go with the thought that you've been dismissing your whole life. In this lesson, we're gonna be going over bridging your own mental barriers. We all have self-sabotage. It's true, but in this exercise we're going to be uncovering what that self-sabotage might be, because I think that usually the issue with self-sabotage that is the most difficult, is that you don't realize that you're self-sabotaging. That is literally the hardest part about self-sabotage is it feels normal. I know. Wild, right? For me a lot of the times in the past it felt normal to think, oh, I want to draw a cube and it felt normal to be like nervous, that's stupid, don't draw that. Then I wouldn't draw that. That was my normal pattern for a really long time, and that was my self-sabotage. The hardest part of overcoming that self-sabotage was I didn't realize it was self-sabotage until I realized it was self-sabotage. That sounds so confusing, but it'll make sense. In this lesson, we are going to be creating bridges between the different signs and symbols on your map. Now, when we create these bridges, the other question is, what are they being bridged over? What are we crossing? Why would we need a bridge? This question is really for you to answer. Again, just whatever pops into your mind, no matter how silly it may seem. Trust it. If your bridge is going over water, maybe you're afraid of your emotions or that you'll just drown in your emotions if you let yourself feel them. Perhaps it's a cliff, and you're afraid of fear of failure, fear of falling. These are of course examples, but maybe help you to get in the zone. Whatever these examples are, it depends what a river means to you. It depends what a cliff means to you. When these visual images come up, don't listen to what I just said they are. What they really are is when you ask yourself, what does a cliff mean to me? Any thoughts, memories, voices, images that pop up. That is its meaning. Literally whatever I have just said, does not matter. It's what you are thinking. That is what matters the most. Okay, on looking at your map, we're going to choose two points. Whichever two points on your map, they don't have to actually be marked by anything. They could just be empty spaces, but just look at your map, pick two points and in your mind, connect those two points with a bridge. Now, between those two points, what is under that bridge? What visual image pops up? What does your bridge look like? Is your bridge made of stone? Is it metal? Is it made of wood? I don't know. Plants grow and it's super rickety and old. What does your bridge look like? What if I just went to bar, hey baby, what is your self-sabotage? Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I can't believe everyone's watching this. Knowledge is power and knowing yourself is so powerful. Knowing your own inner landscape is just amazingly powerful and transforming it. Simply by knowing about it or being aware of it at any capacity, and even just having the desire to want to know your own self-sabotage is powerful enough to undo it or bring it to awareness. Because honestly, sometimes all the answers are not available right now. But maybe later, when you're in the shower or maybe later when you're taking a poop, suddenly you'll remember and suddenly the insight will be there. Just get to have patience and trust in the process. Now that we have built and burnt some of these bridges of self-sabotage or not self-sabotage, maybe something else. Are you going to create a character for your map? That concludes this lesson, and I'll see you in the next one.
8. Map Character : Creating your aesthetic sanctuary. Now I personally feel that safe spaces have a really wide range. Like your favorite sweater could be a safe space because in it, you feel held, you feel comfortable, you feel protected and we want to recreate that feeling of protection, but more in like an aesthetic sense. So are there certain colors that make you feel secure? Are there any sort of textures that make you feel really at ease? I really like linen that is just personally, linen sheets sign me up. Are there patterns that make you feel comfortable, color palettes that just really get you? If you're having trouble figuring that out or you're wondering, "What the hell is my favorite aesthetic. I don't know, there's so many colors, there's a whole rainbow." What I like to do is think of something in your life that you put a lot of energy into. If you do put a lot of energy into your wardrobe, maybe what kind of clothes do you wear? If you like a lot of things on Instagram. Like what kind of post do you like? What are the aesthetic of those posts? If you maybe, I don't know. You really care about your toenails. What color did you paint them? On your map, what we're going to do is envision that space that you feel really at ease when you think of comfort and peace and tranquility. What materials come to mind? We're just going to add it to our map and on my map, I'm just going to put it at the bottom, like a little ocean. But feel free to add in these sanctuaries wherever you feel that they go in your map. For instance, maybe there's one at a bend in your road or maybe a road doesn't have bend and that's a straight line. But wherever you feel that you might need one of these safe spaces, feel free to add that to the map and if it's the whole map, awesome, go ahead, jump right in it. I think when starting to draw food cubes, I finally realized I really am attracted to food packaging. Yeah, I know it's weird. I used to wash out candy wrappers and ramen packets and just hoard them. I don't know. It's weird so now that we have created and added safe sanctuaries, aesthetic sanctuaries, if you will, to our map, we are going to be using them to transform these negative thoughts. That concludes this lesson, and I'll see you in the next one.
9. Starting Point and Intention : Wow, you are almost there, this is amazing. Thank you for coming so far. Welcome to starting point, and called it starting point because in this lesson we're going to be creating a starting point for your character. Where are they come in from? Where are they going? What is the trajectory? One of my favorite things about plans, or intentions, or purposes, it's only to get the energy moving. It's simply depress start if you will. Whether your goal is the moon, or whatever, it doesn't really matter, but it's just to get the energy and motion to move you towards, just to move you, that's all. Whether your purpose is to discover some of your deep set self-sabotage, or just to create some entertainment because you're bored right now, both are extremely valid, and both are extremely valuable starting points. Again, radical self-acceptance. No matter what your starting point is, no matter how silly, go with it. Alright guys, you may know the grill at this point, but we're just going to take some time again to find a space where we're comfortable, and can feel peaceful, and just relax and allow whatever kind of starting point to come forth. Again, it's whatever pops into your mind. The starting point that I'm making here is, I have an obsession with vellum as a material, and I don't really know why, but I have a lot of it lying around the house. I just created a tower with it, and drew a pit on it, a big pit. Again, I don't even really know why, but that's okay. The answer could be deep in your heart, so deep your mind doesn't even know what it is. Again, your starting point can be whatever you would like it to be, but whatever has meaning for you is perfect. Even if it doesn't have meaning, that's also cool. But if you would like to use kind of template that I was using here, I took a vellum bag and I cut off the top and bottom and then folded the two sides to the center, that way would stand up. Your starting point doesn't have to stand up, but this one just happens to. Now that we have our starting point, we can start using our map. Oh my God! I can't believe we are officially completed with our map, and now we can start using it for whatever purposes you would like. I think that this map can make a gray and of divination board, or self-discovery board, throw that character down, throw that starting point down, wherever it seems to fit, and just let it speak to you, let it talk to you. What is it telling you? The fact that you put it there mean something. What does it mean? What are you being asked to pay attention to at this moment? You know the answer, I know you do.
10. Congratulations!: Congratulations everyone. Welcome to the finish. I am so proud of all of you, and I'm just so happy that you have joined me for this entire journey. I'm assuming if you've gotten this far, you've enjoyed the exercises I've created and I'm just so happy that you have come this far. I just want you to know that it is amazing that you're taking time for yourself to discover parts of yourself or just tune into your intuition and self trust and self-acceptance. Literally, these are so valuable and they will spread to all parts of your life literally, when I started drawing food cubes, just different parts of my life began to unravel and I began to have self-acceptance for myself in places that before I would have never even dreamed of. You're really doing amazing. Thank you for joining me. This has been wonderful. I can't wait to see what you guys have created and if you don't want to share, that's also cool. But just thank you so much. I'm sure it's amazing. You can always come back to this exercise because your maps will always change. Because as beings we're just always evolving and changing, so will always be different. But you're always welcome back and you're always welcome to watch this again. Thank you so much and have a wonderful day, a wonderful life. You've got this, you're doing great.
Everest, Cube Enthusiast
