Week 4: Preparation & Initiation
Class recording:
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Exploration and Initiation.
We're moving through Initiation and into Nurturance.
Initiations are experiences that make us a little uncomfortable as we head into new and expansive territory. They are thresholds of growth, at best marked by ceremony, at least marked by a heightened awareness that This is different.
The discomfort of an initiation is the feeling of being stretched open (hopefully in a good way). Examples of initiations are a child being dropped off at school for the first time, or (on the negative side) hazing at a fraternity or sorority. Other examples are indigenous practices such as aboriginal tribes that remove boys from their mothers at puberty to be initiated as men. They learn the masculine dances, ceremonies, and songs of the tribe and their bodies are painted, their clothes changed. Girls are taken in the same way when they bleed, given new hair designs, clothing, and entry into the ways of womanhood. Whatever the initiation, the shock of an abrupt and new context jolts the system into knowing that things will be very different from now onward.
Energetically, the discomfort of an initiation forces you to face an inner hurdle or blockage that once kept you in living in a certain concept of your identity. As you move through the initiation, new possibilities become available to you because you're A) aware of them and newly available to them, and B) you've overcome some block that once kept you from accessing them.
This week your task is also your initiation. Don't worry. It's gentle.
Practice treating each experience like the experience itself is a collaborator. You can look at it a few ways. A collaborator is anyone/anything that you're co-creating with. It could be a partner in business, a colleague, a romantic partner or lover, a friend r or playmate. What others can you think of? Let both yourself and this Other have a personality in the context that you pick.
The initiation is for the aspects of you that don't get a lot of air time. These are the parts of your personality that feel awkward, embarrassed, shy or otherwise reluctant to come out and express in relationships. Choose at least one aspect that is comfortable for you, maybe the child-self, and one aspect that may feel a little edgy, maybe the boss or the lover. Play.
Experiences and people will all have a personality of their own. We think and feel so often about how we are in relation to others. Now it's time to consider how others (even inanimate others) may feel in relation to us. Make-believe time!!
As you play, let your inner child come into the game. Let your inner lover begin to express. Let your inner boss take the room. Let your whoever you are conspire with whatever is in front of you. Bring everything to life and see what games and make-believe conversations emerge.
What you're doing is amplifying your expressions of RELATIONSHIP as we enter the Nurture and Connection stages next week.
Have the fun y'all, and happy creating!
We're moving through Initiation and into Nurturance.
Initiations are experiences that make us a little uncomfortable as we head into new and expansive territory. They are thresholds of growth, at best marked by ceremony, at least marked by a heightened awareness that This is different.
The discomfort of an initiation is the feeling of being stretched open (hopefully in a good way). Examples of initiations are a child being dropped off at school for the first time, or (on the negative side) hazing at a fraternity or sorority. Other examples are indigenous practices such as aboriginal tribes that remove boys from their mothers at puberty to be initiated as men. They learn the masculine dances, ceremonies, and songs of the tribe and their bodies are painted, their clothes changed. Girls are taken in the same way when they bleed, given new hair designs, clothing, and entry into the ways of womanhood. Whatever the initiation, the shock of an abrupt and new context jolts the system into knowing that things will be very different from now onward.
Energetically, the discomfort of an initiation forces you to face an inner hurdle or blockage that once kept you in living in a certain concept of your identity. As you move through the initiation, new possibilities become available to you because you're A) aware of them and newly available to them, and B) you've overcome some block that once kept you from accessing them.
This week your task is also your initiation. Don't worry. It's gentle.
Practice treating each experience like the experience itself is a collaborator. You can look at it a few ways. A collaborator is anyone/anything that you're co-creating with. It could be a partner in business, a colleague, a romantic partner or lover, a friend r or playmate. What others can you think of? Let both yourself and this Other have a personality in the context that you pick.
The initiation is for the aspects of you that don't get a lot of air time. These are the parts of your personality that feel awkward, embarrassed, shy or otherwise reluctant to come out and express in relationships. Choose at least one aspect that is comfortable for you, maybe the child-self, and one aspect that may feel a little edgy, maybe the boss or the lover. Play.
Experiences and people will all have a personality of their own. We think and feel so often about how we are in relation to others. Now it's time to consider how others (even inanimate others) may feel in relation to us. Make-believe time!!
- How does the grocery store feel when you enter?
- What does your meal need before you eat it?
- If it had a name what would it be? (I name all of my roast chickens Ferdinand.)
- Does it have a way it would prefer to be consumed? (like a lover? yum! Like a child? Food fight!)
- If you were to acknowledge your meal, what might it want you to say to it or for it? What would it say back?
- How would your pencil feel about being held that way? (Consent is a thing!)
- When you hop in your car, what if your car were a playmate or copilot instead of a tool?
- What if they had a personality?
- If it had a secret power, what would it be? (I'm not proud of this, but my car's imaginary super power is a secret arm that extends from the hood with a giant bat. When the car in front of me can't even go the speed limit the arm slowly extends and then erupts into violently beating the slow car on all sides until it is sufficiently dented. Then the bat thwaps it off the road. It's a very rewarding experience... Road rage takes many forms. Mine is a cartoon robot arm with a bat.)
As you play, let your inner child come into the game. Let your inner lover begin to express. Let your inner boss take the room. Let your whoever you are conspire with whatever is in front of you. Bring everything to life and see what games and make-believe conversations emerge.
What you're doing is amplifying your expressions of RELATIONSHIP as we enter the Nurture and Connection stages next week.
Have the fun y'all, and happy creating!