Expressive Arts Coaching – Page 5

Creative Playground

Imagine eight vibrant, creative women spending a Sunday afternoon together drawing, playing and exploring. This colorful and expressive group scribble gives you a taste of the fun, bright energy of this gathering of my friends for our first “Creative Playground.” We’re a group of coaches, therapists and artists at heart who are called to bring a more expansive view of creativity and feminine power out into the world. The concept for this Creative Playground was born out of a “quest” that I claimed at a CTI workshop, called Quest: A Leader’s Journey, in September.

I am on a journey of discovering how to root expressive arts and creativity more deeply into coaching. The arts (visual, music, dance, drama, creative writing, and the like) have long been used by therapists for insight, recovery and healing. And, given my experience in recent Expressive Arts Therapy courses, I believe there is an opportunity to create more community and thought leadership around using the arts and creativity from a coaching perspective. Since in coaching the client is viewed as already whole and doesn’t need healing or fixing, the focus is more on using creativity as a catalyst for forward movement toward their goals and dreams. I’ve been using this for myself and in my own practice and refer to it as art visioning.

I’m excited to share that I’ll be co-leading a call on “Expressive Arts Coaching” with a fellow Quester, Kathy Loh, on November 15th to dialogue with other coaches about how they use the arts and creativity in their practice.

What does creativity mean to you? How do you express your creativity? How do you use creativity to help you move forward in your life?

[tags]art visioning, creativity, coaching, expressive arts therapy, art therapy, expressive arts coaching, creativity coaching[/tags]

Express Yourself

After Friday night’s experience in the Expressive Arts class, I had a lot to process. There was so much for me to begin to integrate. Embracing the research and theories of an established field, rather than rebelling against something that felt too “masculine,” “mental,” “problem-focused” and “intellectualized.” I had lots of judgments coming up – probably based in my own fears and insecurities. I allowed myself to open up to ways of thinking that aren’t my normal mode of operation. I was reminded of one of my new commandments: “Go where you’ve never been. Go toward the roar. What’s in the way, is the way.” With this shift, I now saw tremendous value in the research and history and became inspired to do my own researching, hypothesizing and experimenting. I don’t tend to take a logical or rigorous approach to my endeavors and I could learn from that. It’s striking a balance of masculine and feminine.

On Saturday, as we moved into experiential activities, I loosened up more. For the first exercise, I was drawn to the earthy, malleable quality of clay. My impulse was not to break it into pieces, but rather to work with the whole and see what emerged; to create from. First the instructor had us center ourselves and sense what we felt in our bodies. I noticed both a sense of grounding and also an excitement or agitation , almost like an itching or a bursting out from my skin. She played music for us to see how that might add to our experience of art making. For me, I was inspired to create lots of energy and fluid motion, like ideas radiating from the center.

I wanted to color my piece and since there was no paint, I improvised. I rubbed chalk on a scratch piece of paper and then dabbed the vibrant dust onto my sculpture. I loved the idea of repurposing this medium in an innovative way. And I ended up liking my “scratch paper” as it felt like an integral part of my overall piece.

What was so symbolic for me about this process was the idea of taking the concepts from Expressive Arts Therapy and integrating it into coaching. While we don’t analyze past issues or problems in coaching, we do look at different perspectives, tap into intuition and use our creativity to move forward. I’m borrowing ideas and approaches from one field and am finding ways to incorporate them into another, newer field. Lately I’ve found myself in conversations with other cool women who are exploring similar ideas. It’s like we’re on the verge of defining an emerging body of work. My piece represented that for me in many ways – the centering in myself, the borrowing of established wisdom and the boldness of putting myself and my ideas out there in ways I might not even understand fully yet.

We also practiced authentic movement and then drew something based on our experience. During the movement, I found myself light and airy at first and then toward the end felt an immense draw to the earth and to take up space on the floor. I just allowed myself to explore, be lost and then find my way to a grounded place. As I write that, I realize that was actually my process in the class, too. I went in to try something new and learn, I found myself being resistant and then I discovered ways to make it my own and to be inspired from it.

This experience has underscored a somewhat new dream that’s slowly forming. I am sensing that eventually I want a physical space, an inspiring and centering environment for art visioning/expressive arts coaching, workshops, yoga and community gatherings. A place for others to come and express themselves, to explore, learn and grow. I really love how the creative process allows new and exciting things to unfold!

How can you use your creative process to imagine new things for yourself? In what ways can you engage your senses? What’s something totally different you’re willing to try?

[tags]Art visioning, expressive arts therapy, expressive arts coaching, authentic movement, art therapy[/tags]

Reach for the Scarves!

Friday was the first night of another class I’ve signed up for at JFK University. This time it’s an Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapy: A Jungian-Oriented Approach. Once again I found myself to be the only non-therapist/coach in the room (besides a new friend of mine, Laura, who is a therapist training to also be a coach).

When I entered the classroom, I was excited to see colorful scarves adorning a table. I had visions of colors swirling around the room in creative, playful expression throughout the weekend!

As we settled in, I started to noticed that there was a masculine-type energy in the room – a more staid, intellectual focus. Perhaps being in a classroom setting didn’t help me? I found myself having an adverse reaction and wanting to reject the information, the lecture, the questions as they didn’t speak to my heart or feed my soul… at least on the surface they didn’t, until I looked deeper. I started to get very curious about my reaction and began to look for the gift in it. What was it I couldn’t be with and what could I learn from that?

At the end of the evening, the instructor invited us to wander over to the table in the corner and pick up an object that spoke to us. I walked over and immediately grabbed a scarf. With my hand on the fabric, I looked over and saw that everyone else was going for the solid, tangible (“real”) objects in the center of the table – the rocks, crystals, shells. I suddenly doubted my choice and mouthed to the instructor, “Does this count?” She nodded gently.

As I played with the scarf, I was flooded with so many reasons why the scarf spoke to me. It’s fluid and flowing. It’s playful and beautiful. It’s bluish-green like water, which can be emotional and expressive. It’s expansive, able to hold a lot and I could wrap myself in it so it could be nurturing and integrating. It’s malleable, it could transform into other shapes – a flower, a small ball. It’s transparent and sheer – there’s nothing to hide. It’s soft and silky. So different from the other hard, small, rigid inanimate objects. It was something that was needed in the room – a touch of flair and femininity. A different perspective.

For me this was significant as it represents a journey I’ve been on of claiming the power of my own feminine style and leadership. As I shared some of that with the group, the instructor mentioned that in all the years she’s done this exercise, no one has picked the scarf! So, even though sometimes the feminine can be dismissed or overlooked (just like some might have thought the scarves were just decoration surrounding the objects) it’s important to know and own that it’s much needed in the world. And to take a stand for it! I now have another new motto to live by, “Reach for the scarves!”

[tags]Art visioning, masculine and feminine, expressive arts therapy, expressive arts coaching[/tags]

Sparkling Sage Woman-ifesto

I’m a huge lulu lemon athletica fan. Their yoga clothes rock and I absolutely adore their manifesto. It’s inspiring, sassy, thoughtprovoking and cool. And it gave me fodder for my own creative project.

After recently reworking my life purpose statement, I also went back to update my detailed life plan. The plan is based on all facets of my life (career, health, money, relationships, etc.) and has actions and timelines for accomplishing my goals. I hadn’t looked at it in a while, so it was cool to see all the things that I could now check off. Like leaving my corporate job to go into business for myself, getting certified as a yoga instructor, and visiting Greece, Egypt and Turkey to name a few.

Reconnecting with my life plan energized me. I wanted a visual reminder of all the purpose statements I created for the different aspects of my life. The manifesto postcard proved to be the perfect medium. I did my own twist on it and am calling it a “woman”-ifesto! I’m going to put a few copies throughout my house to remind me of my vision.

What’s your “woman”-ifesto? How do you keep connected with your life purpose? What cues can you create to remind you of all the wonderful things you’re up to?

[tags]life purpose, life coaching, life plan, woman-ifesto, manifesto, art visioning[/tags]

Dream Box

My third Dream Box workshop at the It’s Yoga Teacher Training was with my biggest group there yet. There were twenty five yogis from across the country, Japan, the UK and Germany. I love how each group’s energy is so different.

I also really enjoy getting to hear about all the different dreams that people have. One participant wants to create a yoga village where yoga lovers can live, practice, commune and learn with minimal impact on the planet. What a cool idea! Another student created a very unique dream box that I wish I snapped a picture of. The top of her box had a bunch of cut out eyes layered over each other to represent her vision. Then, she decorated the entire rim of the lid with those colorful “Yes!” post-it flags from Lucky magazine. They reminded me of a feather boa – so fun and fanciful! And finally she lined the sides with pictures of shoes to symbolize the success she’ll have from her art. No doubt this creative gal will reach her dreams!

Whenever I lead this workshop at the studio, I’m reminded of how it is possible to have dreams manifest! I had wanted to lead more workshops that combine coaching and creativity, I shared that during my teacher training and lo and behold, this amazing opportunity was created!

[tags]yoga, Ashtanga yoga, creativity, art, dream box, It’s Yoga, yoga teacher training, workshops, life coaching, art visioning[/tags]

Asana A-ha’s

Ever since taking my yoga teacher training, I’ve been even more fascinated by the idea of body and breath as gateways to our inner wisdom. In my quest to discover more about these concepts, this weekend I took a continuing education course called “Yoga Asanas and the Emotions: Creative Exploration of the Body Self” at JFK University. According to the instructor, Sophia Reinders:

“Through attention to the kinesthetic experience, yoga allows emotions and feelings that have taken a silent shape in muscles, posture and movement to come to conscious awareness.”

We started off Saturday by spending a couple minutes drawing where we most live in our body. My picture came in stilted scribbles and crude caricatures. (I had to get over that the drawing resembles some sort of weird chicken.) Regardless of appearances, it represented my feeling of grounding and rooting along with expansive creativity in my heart and mind and expression through my arms. Looking back after having seen all my images together, it seems like I created this one more from my head rather than my physical experience.

Next, we sketched where we least live on our body. I can’t stand doing any kind of leg extensions that require internal rotation. They just kill me. I always feel like my torso caves in because I can’t stretch very far over and that I have no energy coming out of my feet. So, I avoid poses like the Prasarita series and Upavistha Konasana. I also depicted how my shoulders get really tense when I’m stressed out and when I don’t deal with my emotions of anger and sadness. My collapsed rib cage stifles the creative and loving energy from my heart and I’m left feeling very stuck.

Sophia had us explore different poses to see where we habitually resist and how we overcompensate to avoid going where we don’t want to go. By opening up the stuck places (in Prasarita, no less!), I felt my chest and back lengthen and my fourth chakra have room to expand. I also played with getting more energy into my lower body in poses like down-dog and Prasarita. This helped me feel more grounded and stable. By the end of the day, my drawing had evolved to something much more fluid and integrated. I tapped into a feeling of unfolding and radiating from my heart center.

My yoga teacher training taught me how powerful adjustments can be, and it was cool to now add on this new layer of shifting poses from the emotional field, too. Sophia said that yoga is such a great access point to our emotions because the variety of postures gives us the opportunity to move our body in all the different ways its capable of. That way we can find and play with our edge.

This morning, we explored shoulders (where we tend to carry the weight of the world!). I doodled this image to represent the knots I hold in my shoulders and the release of tension when I allow myself to stretch.

We also did some great guided meditations on our breath and also on exploring the different sides of our body. What a great reminder that just simply lying down for even just a few minutes to tune into my breath and body, I can feel so much more refreshed.

Then finally, through authentic movement (basically making up our own dance) we expressed the polarities of our different sides in order to learn how to integrate them better. For me it was seeing how to bring together the fluid, creative left side with the action/doing right side. So instead of having the “must do all these things” energy run me, I can ease into it and let my creative intuition allow things to manifest. The final exercise was to spend a few minutes writing a poem of our experience:

Fluid strength
Rises with creativity and action
Expansion, gathering, moving through space
Horizons widen like thick brush strokes
Coloring the canvas with bold shades
And smooth textures
A powerful force of grace and authority
Blend together in beauty and brilliance

By the end of the course I felt like I embodied both sides of me and felt much more integrated and fluid. Given how stuck I felt this past week, it was good to have a place to explore and release. I also enjoyed the change of pace with this class. In Ashtanga, I’m usually in the flow, moving fairly quickly in and out of poses. With this exploration, I can slow things down and be even more mindful. And now whenever I feel like skipping out on my yoga practice, I can notice that resistance and ask myself to just get on my mat and explore what’s there. As one of my fellow students said, “What’s in the way, is the way.” So, if I’m willing to look, there are many “ah-a’s.”

[tags]yoga, asanas, emotion, art therapy, creativity, JFK University, art visioning[/tags]

Sparkling Sage

While assisting a Process coaching course at CTI this past weekend, I got some great coaching on my life purpose statement. I had created one several years back that I have since outgrown and revised, yet something was still missing.

My coach commented on how wise I seem despite my age – something I’ve heard before as well. So we played with the combination of wisdom and playfulness. After skipping across the room, we noticed the energy seemed lighter and my coach offered up the word sparkle. At first I resisted saying it didn’t feel like me, but said that I would try it on.

By the end of the afternoon I had truly stepped into my new life purpose statement, “I am the Sparkling Sage who creates space for beauty, breath and being.” Even the participants and leaders commented on how the new statement resonated with who they saw me being.

This morning, I was inspired to paint something to help me further explore the idea of Sparkling Sage. I knew I wanted it to have green and some pink and definitely an iridescent sheen. I also knew I wanted to include the mantra “Lokha samastha sukhino bhavantu” which means in Sanskrit, “May all beings everywhere be happy and free.” I hadn’t painted something in quite some time, so it felt good to have the creative juices flowing again.

And I’m happy to have a new life purpose statement to fit how I’m showing up now and where I’m moving toward. A life purpose statement serves as an internal compass to help guide me on my path. It helps me know when I’m living my life “on purpose.” What is your life purpose? What is your impact? Who are you becoming?

[tags]painting, life coaching, The Coaches Training Institute, life purpose statement, art visioning[/tags]

Unfolding Your Life Vision

Yesterday was the “Unfolding Your Life Vision” workshop in Pleasant Hill. We had a small group which made for a nice, intimate setting to share, relate and create together. It’s always amazing to me to know how we women have many dreams and challenges in common and that we can provide each other with support to move into action!

I loved witnessing each book blossom into vibrant symbols of each woman’s life, values and vision!

[tags]life coaching, creativity, workshop, accordion book, life vision, art visioning[/tags]

It’s Yoga Part 2

Graduation day was last Friday – I am now a certified Ashtanga yoga instructor! The training was an amazing journey. Intense, exhausting, exhilarating, integrating, inspiring and feeling like coming home. I had no idea going into it how much it would align with the work I do as a coach, leader and artist. So many of the concepts and the ancient yogic philosophy resonates with much of CTI‘s coaching and leadership approach. The ideas of detaching from your inner critic, getting in touch with your inner teacher, letting go of expectations, practicing compassion, etc. are so universal. It’s another language/access point/modality for me to explore the same ideas with myself and with clients. I love that I now have a deeper appreciation for and understanding of the mind, body, heart, soul connection and how yoga helps integrate all of them.The other amazing aspect of the training was the incredible synchronicity that emerged. The third week we talked about manifesting our dreams and how yoga helps to quiet the mind so we can tap into our higher selves and access our dreams. So much of this related to what I use my wish boxes for. I ended up getting the chance to share my wish box with the circle and took them through a guided visualization. They liked it so much that they invited me to do this with future teacher trainings! I couldn’t believe it! As Larry says, “It’s Yoga!”

[tags]yoga, Ashtanga yoga, yoga teacher training, It’s Yoga, coaching, creativity, wish box, art visioning[/tags]

Dream Box Fundraiser

This weekend was the first weekend of the Cheryl’s Dreaming Big – Dreaming Big Party Fundraising weekends. I hosted a Dream Party where we visualized our heart’s desires and decoupaged collaged Dream Boxes to hold our hopes and dreams. Not only did the women have fun by sharing together and supporting each other, they also made a difference in the lives of others by donating more than $250 to support Cheryl’s Dreaming Big community outreach, leadership and mentoring programs for adults with mental illness and the general community at large.Since the leadership retreats are held in the Chicago/Michigan area, it was exciting for me to bring the inspirational gift of CDB to my local community and friends. One of the participants, Antoinette, even blogged about her experience.

[tags]life coaching, creativity, Cheryl’s Dreaming Big, non-profit, fundraising, mental health, dream box, visualization, art visioning[/tags]