“Creativity is harnessing universality and making it flow through your eyes”

                                                                        - Peter Koestenbaum

Creating Stories for Self-Healing, Empowerment, Entertainment

“Why should we all use our creative power....?  Because there is nothing that makes people so        

generous, joyful, lively, bold, and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.                           

                                          -Brenda Ueland

An Abundant Life

 

 

The Self-Healing Process of Creativity and Creating Stories - the process and the product  

Allegory  (noun): 

1. symbolic work: a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning

  

2. symbolic expression of meaning or representation in story: the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a story or scene acted out by human, animal, or mythical characters

  

3. genre: allegories considered as a literary or artistic genre

Creativity is a powerful medium of not only self-expression, but self validation and self healing 

 

The creative process is in fact a process.   It is a process that to engage in it, requires reaching in to express out   It is self-connecting, bringing together sensory, emotional, and intellectual processes in alignment with the physical in order to express.   This, as opposed to distancing in the mind-body-spirit self.

  

There is a tri-ality (my word) processing that goes on, inside for a person to create. 

It is first a connection to and integration of where the person is, in totality, up to the moment of time, even though the subject of the creative process may only be an sliver of aspect of the person's focus.  That is because who we are at any given moment is a totality of all our past, our current, our perceptions, thoughts, history, filters, even wounds and baggage, and successes.   You cannot separate that as much as we sometime try.   Thus to express even an aspect is an integration of all of that totality of that given moment.

Second, in order to process that integration into outward expression, we must synthesize and distill down are given thoughts and perceptions, feelings in order to give direction to the creative focus.

It then becomes awareness, as opposed to confusion.   This is true even in the actual process of creating, the journey.   The creative product journey becomes a product "in process".   Out of chaos comes order.

Lastly, the externalization of that in the journey of creating.   Universalism seen through the eyes and experiences of the person.  Sometimes is is just release that allows more growth.   But at all times, it is also self expression of that universalism that because of the first two processes, becomes self validating, as it is indeed a representation of the person's realty and experience.  

And that is self-validating as opposed to running away inside as self validation is not about being right or wrong, but that this is what, in fact, I am experiencing. 

It gives voice.   And it validates meaning of Significance.   And with that, then the individual is more free to examine, grow, learn. Re-shape, re-affirm. propel   into further creativity and building.   Empowerment.

 

And in the end, it is the story of what we want to share, whether   it be entertainment, self-expression, exploration.  It is the story    of us, the person ~  the person, in the world.  How we connect with our self, each other, world.

Workshop:  Creating Stories to Empower, Heal and Entertain

 

Workshop Purpose:

Stories through folklore, fairy tales, song, narrative have long been used to entertain, teach and comfort.  Stories pass along the values, traditions, beliefs and experiences about a particular culture, community, family, individual. 

The creation of stories brings together sensory, emotional and intellectual processes, which provides release, gives meaning and validation and empowers us through the messages communicated. 

This will be an interactive workshop that uses a creative, process to experientially educate participants in the amazing art of creating and sharing stories to empower, heal and entertain

 

 

Objectives:

  *Participants will experience a story and its messages

  *Participants will learn simple tasks in building a story

  *Participants will learn about metaphor building

  *Participants will create simple stories

  *Participants will learn and experience how creating  ' 

     stories heals, empowers and validates and is tool that  

     manifests this as the unfolds

  *Participants will share stories from  experience, lives

  *Participants will have fun while learnin

 

Outline:

           

            Progressive Relaxation and The Story of Sealskin,

                Soulskin, What Sealskin, Soulskin teaches us  

            Free Association, Story Ideas

            Elements of Story / The magic of Metaphors

            Round Robin on story creation, free association 

            Writing from and Empowered free-flow

            How stories empower, heals  

            Story-telling participation  -

            

 

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A selection of Mary Ellen's

 The excitement of harmonic surrender

The way universe circles and spirals... the water, free and wild, but yet formed and also released by the boundaries of the wild land, grasses and flowers, trees... ... harmonic surrender to allow the free unbridled space and place of.... into harmonic synergy.... which then flows and grows and then those feed into...... and everything goes outward, and inward, .... but connected in wholeness, in a beauty way, light.....and touches that which..... Which in turn connects into... and eventually comes back around and touches, again,   and feeds the water, free and wild.... the grasses and flowers....         harmonic oneness...... harmonic mutuality and expansion...

*  * * * *

 

In the warm stillness, by the creek... - A  short allegorical story

Down the dirt worn path and over the hills to the north lies a small flowing creek which winds it's way down the gulley of the valley; at times gathering at some widened lull in the land where it rests for while before continuing its journey along the hillsides. In the still of the day, you can hear it's song, gently bubbling as it moves merrily along, carrying remnants of times, ages, seasons and places far away in distance but leads to this path and always drawn forward.

 

It is along this creek, by the old worn dirt path near where the meadow meets the trees that a stately old rock sits, nesting in the soft grasses that give it place. A favorite resting spot to sit on for the many travelers and explorer's that come this way, and in between weary explorer's, the rock and trees and grass and creek and sun all sit and enjoy the sun warming, the rains cleansing, the night shading... talking and sharing... and just being in enjoyment with each other.....

!!
All excited as the cold of winter has finally receded and the newness of life again springs forth and yeah! The warmer days means the kids and people come out to play again... and share.... And the rock say, yes, I am strong and meant to have many stand upon me, or lay upon me as they look up, so I may energize them... And the blades of grass, whispering to themselves, wondering what wonderful new adventures and people will come their way and put their feet upon their soft backs, so that they may make a soft cushion for their journey... knowing each foot upon them is a new and different story, and after they leave, they are all the more back alive and thriving again...

 

And soon, a young girl who came upon their way.... stopping by the boulder which spoke to her to sit and rest a spell.... the young girl sat and wept.... the blades soft green grass leaned against her, letting their softness comfort the weeping girl.... they had not seen her before..... and she dressed rather nicely for their area of the country... their voices soon rose up in a wind to ask her why she cry so much and if she was the new girl who had just moved in the house down the road. They had heard the other kids talking about the new family as the kids crossed their path.

The girl stifled her cry for a few moments... as the wind rose and the sun warmed her shoulders and the beautiful warm rock held her in a cradle... Just then a robin flew near to see what all the fuss about... It landed on the nearby branch and watched with curiosity the small girl... the robin wondered why such a child would be upset and decided it would sing to the girl. The grasses sang in the wind with the robin and the leaves added an accompaniment.

And as the chorus of nature sang, and quieted into a warm stillness, there rose up the sound of laughter and kids calling out over the hills, as if called magically in by the song. The little girl listened and slowly, the grass raised their backs and the rock lifted her up standing. The creek continued to bubble and giggle its song of movement and never tiring journey, never stop. The little girl started to head over the hill towards the laughter and calling. As she crested the hill, there in the distant she saw a group of kids, with a ball of sorts....

Part the next coming the next.....  !!

*************

 

Musing:  Cycles of Life, death, rebirth Balance for Equinox

The coming of the autumnal Equinox, a time of balance in that day hours are equal to the night hours for both hemispheres, the balance of light and dark progressing in movement with the cycles of Mother Earth, the seasons... the coming of harvest and increasing night and rest and going inward to nurture, replenish the self so that in spring, renewed, having shed off what is no longer serving or needed, we may bud spring growth outward, full of new life.

Life teaches us the importance of harvesting all our growth and accomplishments and even challenges... Takes stock and celebrate.... Let die what needs to die and then rest. Light and dark not good and bad but mirrors of growth as Universe teaches us, along path. We live in both to allow the other and back again in cycle.. Spiraling Stronger, outward, expanding... as a tree with its numerous rings and knots of growth and shedding and path. Its roots deep and embedded. It’s branches far and reaching out. It’s beauty in its wholeness. Shedding its leaves in the fall in a plethora of expansion of color and beauty… too emerge again fresh, crisp new and growing….. Its truck thicker, its roots deeper, and its branches higher…..

And every day, the sun still rises, even in the shedding, nurturing, hibernation, giving illumination and to you in the new day, and the world we are a part of, to begin again…… a new…