Multisensory self-protection: How art helps you set gentle boundaries
A soft beginning to the new year
There is something tender about this time of year. The days move slowly, as if the world is still deciding how to begin again. Maybe you’ve felt it too - that in-between feeling that lingers after the turning of the year. A sense of being a little porous, a little more open than usual. And with that openness often comes a quiet need: to protect your energy, to gather your senses, to remember where you end and the world begins. That, to me, is the essence of boundary work. Not the kind built from fear or hardness, but the kind that feels like light wrapping gently around your skin. It’s not about shutting the world out, but about staying close to yourself.
And this is where art begins to speak.
The kind of protection that doesn't harden you
As a sensitive person, I’ve always felt the world a bit more intensely - its textures, its moods, its weight. Over time, I’ve come to understand that protection isn’t about becoming less sensitive, but about becoming more rooted. For therapists, creatives, and HSPs alike, the ability to hold space for others often begins with the ability to hold space for ourselves.
But how do we practice that?
For me, the answer came slowly, through my hands. Not through research or formal training, but through quiet moments in the studio, through color and form and touch. I began creating paintings not just to be seen, but to be felt. Works that invite you to place your palm directly onto the surface. To trace textures with your fingers. To speak softly to yourself while doing so. To use your senses as a way home.
This became the beginning of my series: BUILT OF LIGHT.
Art as ritual, touch as anchor
These paintings are small - 10 by 15 centimeters - but they carry a certain weight. Not heaviness, but presence. They are designed as ritual works, meant to be touched while speaking affirmations aloud. You don’t have to do anything complicated. Just place your hand gently on the surface, and say something kind and true.
“I am allowed to stay with myself.”
“My energy is mine to keep or share.”
“It is safe to feel, and it is safe to soften.”
The textured layers, the color flows, the small pockets of earth-like material - they all exist to engage your body, not just your eyes. I’ve come to believe this tactile experience helps our systems remember what our minds sometimes forget: that we are allowed to feel safe within ourselves. That protection doesn’t need to feel like bracing, but like returning.
Why multisensory?
Our senses are doorways. And when we combine more than one at a time - touch, sight, voice - something subtle but powerful happens. You could call it grounding. You could call it nervous system regulation. I didn’t learn it in a textbook. I learned it by noticing what calmed me. What helped me re-center when I was feeling overstimulated or emotionally open. Speaking a gentle affirmation while touching texture. Following a color with the eye while feeling its movement under your palm. Letting the vibration of your voice become a companion to your breath.
This is the multisensory magic of self-protection. Not a method, but a remembering. And for those who work in therapeutic settings, or live with high sensitivity, or feel deeply connected to the world around them, this kind of embodied ritual can be a gentle tool to return to again and again.
Boundaries as art form
Sometimes we think of boundaries as strict, even cold. But I’ve come to see them as something deeply creative. They are not about cutting off, but about shaping space - about choosing what you allow in, and how. And what if your boundary didn’t have to be a wall at all? What if it could be a painting? A texture? A daily moment of touch and breath? What if your boundary was actually an invitation to meet yourself more fully? In my own practice, I’ve found that multisensory art becomes a kind of energetic container. A visual and tactile signal that says: this is your space. Even therapists have told me how helpful it is to have a physical object in the room that grounds and centers - not just for their clients, but for themselves.
A practice for this week
If this speaks to something in you, I invite you to try a small ritual this week. You don’t need one of my paintings to begin - though of course, if you feel drawn, the BUILT OF LIGHT series is waiting for you. But right now, just take a quiet moment.
Place your hand on something textured - a blanket, a stone, a canvas. Close your eyes. Breathe in gently. And speak - out loud if you can.
“My energy is sacred. I am allowed to soften and still feel safe.”
Notice what happens in your body. Notice if something begins to settle.
That’s the work of multisensory self-protection. It’s not a shield. It’s a softening into strength. It’s a reminder: you don’t have to become harder to feel safe. You just have to come closer to yourself.
Built of Light is a tactile painting series designed to support boundary rituals through touch, texture, and affirmation. Each piece is a sensory companion, handmade and energetically rooted. You can explore them here.
May they offer you a moment of stillness, a moment of return. May this year bring you the kind of protection that feels like light on your skin.
