Hope

These days, I walk looking up at the beautiful sky instead of looking at the ground like before, avoiding people's eyes. At Heartspace, I experienced unconditional love, hope and beauty. Heartspace brought me back to life, and I continue to expand as I experience this sacred space.

Heartspace is a spacious, open and non-judgmental space that brings hope to all who come. It is here that I learned to draw from my heart. I am very grateful for the boundless inspiration I received. It is a blessing to be able to paint among the soulful people there. People come to Heartspace, open their heart, and go with the flow. It’s beautiful.

Breaking Away

My friend brought me to the group thinking that it would help in my healing. I did not know what to expect and initially I didn’t know if I would feel comfortable with strangers. I was feeling lost and lonely and being with friends who knew about my breakup reminded me constantly of it and I cried often. It was really difficult to get out of the depression.

Going to Heartspace and being among strangers helped me to not focus so much on my pain. Rather, I could externalize that pain, hold it at a distance, look at it and learn to manage it. In that way, I experienced healing.

Heartspace was a sanctuary where I could retreat to and truly get to know myself all over again. The supportive and the non-judgemental attention that each participant gave when each of us shared helped in my healing.

Revelation

Heartspace, to me is an outlet where I can express my feelings in the form of art. I get a tremendous form of satisfaction when I see the product and the process itself is very therapeutic. On top of that, there is an element of surprise as you will never know what new things you will discover about yourself.

I recalled in 2009, my children and I came to Heartspace. To my surprise, my son drew Jesus's hand receiving his heart as he escaped from the enemy.

Healing Heart

Every time we get hurt - our heart is cut and it bleeds, and we cry. But we would just cover it up with a plaster and move on. After so many years, the layers of plasters become so thick that the heart is completely covered – numb, unable to feel anymore. When God’s Grace strikes you, He slowly peels off the plasters one by one, revealing to us know that the wounds have actually healed. It is only when all the plasters are totally peeled off, that our heart is free to feel again.

The past one and a half years has been an intense journey of self-discovery into my innermost self which has led me to where I am now. I found my soul, my heart is slowly healing and my spirit is awakened to His calling. He is showing and affirming His love for me through this small community called Heartspace at the basement of Church St Mary of The Angels at Bukit Batok.

I had no idea...

A couple of years ago when I joined the "Heartspace" I had no idea where it would lead me. I simply wanted to try and see whether I could paint. Miraculously the paint, the brush and the canvas transformed me into a whole new person and it opened a door in my life which had been kept shut all these years. To date I have done about 40 paintings and I know it was not exactly my "talent" that got me where I am today.

It was the welcoming atmosphere at Heartspace, encouraging words from our Art Therapist, and the support of the other members of the art group, that helped me get through the initial fear of letting go. Non-judgemental environment at the Heartspace also helped because I knew that no one would laugh at my child-like paintings, specially during the first few weeks!

Now I am definitely more confident and try to do my best. Being able to participate in a few art exhibitions also was an added morale-booster.

In my opinion, painting is definitely a rewarding experience. If I can reach out and give happiness, comfort and healing through my paintings, to whoever who needs it, that would be my
ultimate joy.