EMDR and Sugar Skull
EMDR is a technique used by therapists to help people feel less intimidated by life, less dwarfed or freaked out, traumatized if you will, by things that have happened to them. A calavera (Spanish – pronounced [kalaˈβeɾa] for "skull"), in the context of the Day of the Dead, is a representation of a human skull or skeleton. In it's own way, creating a calavera, is similar, in that it is allowing a living person to make a certain peace with the fact that we are all mortal, we all die, and that we have already lost loved ones to death, and that's okay. The term is often applied to edible or decorative skulls made (usually with molds) from either sugar (called alfeñiques) or clay, used in the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Los Muertos) and the Roman Catholic holiday All Souls' Day. Calavera can also refer to any artistic representations of skulls or skeletons, such as those in the prints of José Guadalupe Posada, or to gifts or treats in relation to the Day of the Dead.[1] Some widely known calaveras are created with cane sugar, decorated with items such as colored foil, icing, beads, and sometimes objects such as feathers. They range in multiple colors.[2]
Do you have something besides death that has intimidated you? Does an event or memory haunt you at times, and make you wonder who you are and what you are really about? Maybe you could create something like a sugar skull for yourself, through drawing or clay or some other art form, that allows you to symbolize, and create some psychological space, from something in your life that up until now has felt too much for you to handle. Gaining perspective on your troubles, through some creative medium that is new, can be a way to reconfigure trauma, just like EMDR does. Making some kind of object that you can look at and reflect on is a brilliant way to desensitize you to life's horrors, and make them smaller and less horrifying.
So this Halloween, consider making, buying and even wearing a costume that will allow you to own your power over something frightening or depressing to you even now. Transform your trauma, transcend it, even celebrate the opportunity this trauma gave you for growth, and drama, and challenge, as Mexico has done with the Day of the Dead.
