Therapeutic Scrapbooking

by Nicole Humphrey | More from this Blogger

13 Jan 2008 09:31 PM

Do you ever wonder if you would benefit from some honest to goodness therapy? We all hit rough spots in our lives, it is part of normal living. However, if you pick up the average scrapbookers albums and start flipping through, you might come to the conclusion that they have the perfect life. Why is this? Because we tend to only scrapbook the positive, happy memories.

We want our albums to reflect happy times and not dwell on problems we have had in the past. Except those events in your life that were less than wonderful, help shape who you are, or who your family is as a whole. You don't have to only scrapbook the depressing side, try looking at whatever situation it was in a happier more positive light. Try finding the lesson that was gained at the end and scrapbook the event around that defining moment.

Many years ago there was a scrapbooking site that was called Unscrappables, and their main goal was to highlight the many things that would not normally make the cut for a typical scrapbook album. These things included but were certainly not limited to "What's in the fridge?", "Looking Through the Junk drawer", and "My Five Tattoo's". There were also dozens of layouts of people who documented their divorces, there was one where a woman documented her child's bad report card and other extremely uncommon events that you would never see in my scrapbook album. Back then you wouldn't, but now you would.

Why? Because scrapbooking is like therapy. If you use it to heal through the hard times, and sometimes you have to wait for awhile so the wounds aren't so fresh, it can give you a whole new perspective on the trying times you've been through. Therapy is designed to give you a fresh outlook on life, and help you heal from your past trials and tribulations or sometimes just to help you discover who you are, when you cannot quite find yourself. Why not work on a scrapbook album and create layouts on those less than perfect, sometimes downright humiliating, embarrassing or even tragic events that have occurred in your life? The healing process can be amazing.

Have you scrapbooked an Unscrappable event?

Nicole Humphrey writes articles for the Scrapbooking Blog and for the Frugal Blog. She also guest blogs on a variety of topics. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

Related Articles:

Dispelling Scrapbook Misconceptions

Five Ways to Have Friends Scrapbook With You

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My Scrapbooking Mess: a Personal Saga

Learn more about Nicole Humphrey

Nicole Humphrey is a freelance writer, consultant for CTMH and a Sr. Blogger for families.com. She resides in St. Charles, Missouri with Mike and their five children and two furbabies.

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