C-words & the Fear of Transformation
How I brought Self-Energy to my Healing Journey
We (humans) think transformation will be too big to handle when mostly it's small. But small transformations are a big deal. My own transformations have been small, but each small change has yielded enormous results.
I work with clients who are often terrified of dealing with the things they need to deal with in order to transform their lives and free themselves from whatever burdens they carry. I have had the same fears and moved through them - I know it's not easy.
Many of us think healing will end our creativity, but I’ve found the opposite is true. Healing has increased my creativity and allowed me to do much more than I ever thought I could. As I’ve healed from trauma, I've discovered more joy in my life and new subject matter and new ways to create!
My healing really began with learning how to calm my dysregulated nervous system. I spent years living with a constant feeling of panic. It was such a habitual feeling for me, I didn’t even notice it. Noticing my nervous system was the first big step in understanding my path toward healing. You might not be living with panic; you could be suffering from overwhelm. Whether you’re feeling anxious or exhausted, finding your path back to a state of calm aliveness will be healing.
Healing, for me, has meant less anxiety in my physical body, and a sense of safety and connection. But I had to invent this for myself and then recreate it daily as a kind of make-believe until it became a real way to exist. Learning to calm my nervous system through a variety of somatic exercises changed my relationship to my body and then to my life.
Fear of transformation is real. This fear can easily end a healing process and send us back to our lonely corners to lick our unhealed wounds. I used to think my traumas could never be released. As long as we’re living in fear (or fight or flight) or overwhelm (freeze), we cannot heal. The physical body needs a sense of safety to heal.
IFS (Internal Family Systems) uses the 8Cs to begin to help us understand what it means to be Self-led with Self-Energy. When we’re Self-led, we are showing up with at least a little bit of these 8 states that start with C: calm, curiosity, confidence, clarity, connectedness, courage, creativity and compassion.
Cultivating the 8Cs can create tiny shifts that can lead to larger changes. Which of the 8Cs attracts you the most? Which do you think you could embody - even just a little bit - first? Calm, curiosity, confidence, clarity, connectedness, courage, creativity or compassion?
Any time you can shift from discomfort to any of these C-words, you increase your ability to become Self-led. Self-Energy is healing. Even a tiny drop of curiosity can open you up to a shift. Try it. Think about a difficult person in your life. Feel in your body how that person makes you feel. Then see if you can add some curiosity to the mix. If you get curious about what might make that person act that way, see if there is a tiny shift in you, just by finding a small amount of curiosity.
When we work on our own internal Parts, that curiosity can be put to transformative use! IFS is a creative modality that has empowered me to release my history of trauma and unburden my own internal system from many false beliefs. I wouldn’t be who I am today without it. If you are curious, let me know. I’m offering free private 30-minute info-sessions for anyone ready for some transformation.
artwork by Scott Sherman on insta at ScottShermanStudio
Writing Prompt: Killing or Healing?
John Patrick Bray says, "I was once told that every play is either a 'killing' or a 'healing.' This has resonated for me with each work I have written for the stage. I have two plays which, though not in direct conversation with one another, question the notion of faith – how do we deal with loss if the only thing that exists is the tangible known world? And, conversely, how do we deal with existence when there is something beyond the realm of the five senses? Whose views on the metaphysical world are correct? Does someone have to be wrong?"
Are you writing a killing or a healing? Can you go for it more/bigger/faster/stronger/deeper if you are more aware of it as a killing or a healing?
Is faith a part of your work in any way? If yes, is that faith ever challenged or is it taken for granted? What assumptions exist in your world onstage? If there is no attention to faith, is there a lack of faith, a vacuum or how do your characters grapple with life/death? Are there characters who embody faith differently? How does that provide you with drama? Humor? The impetus toward change?
Bray says, "Even when I write my plays in the genre of American Realism, I consider that characters, when arguing, are not just two people talking: rather, the audience is watching a battle of philosophies, no matter how subtle or explicit."
What are your characters' philosophies? How do they embody these? Do you have a world view about free will? Life? Death?
Bray says, "For me, the idea that we are watching world views being digested, discussed, and destabilized is the greatest gift the theatre can give. ... if we... can bring these views to life through fully realized, codified human beings... then we have succeeded... If theatre can make audience members talk after the show, and consider the sequence of events (or images, for those wonderful works which rely more on aesthetics than narrative), and contextualize the events within the parameters of their own lives and experiences, then [we] have done their jobs."
Identify world views important to you right now. Before articulating stories that question these, FIRST PLAY! Like artists - scribble, make a mess, freewrite w/o judgement, surprise yourself first! Even if you don't like it at first, if you are surprised, it's important and worth exploring!
Announcements:
Brave Space is a community that actually meets several times a week on Zoom and extends to this substack community right here. I’d love to add your announcements or events. Just let me know. Post a comment with a link or send me an email. This is read in 10 countries by almost 700 people! And please check below to see what your community members are doing! Support is important! Also I post deadlines for opportunities (mostly for playwrights).
June 27th - 30th, you can see the most wonderful Michael Lopetrone appearing in Meet You Downstairs at Hudson Guild. AEA showcase, actors get in free.
Deadline June 30th! Submit an application for IRONS IN THE FIRE, a paid opportunity for a year-round reading series of new plays in development at Fault Line Theatre
Deadline July 3rd! Experiments in Opera is looking for writers! More Here And check out their new work “Five Ways to Die,” opening June 27th at HERE.
Deadline July 16th! The Civilians’ R&D Group includes theater artists from various disciplines exploring strategies for making theater from their own creative investigations… apply here: paid opportunity
Deadline August 15th! The International Human Rights Art Festival seeks performance work. Submit Here
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For the week of 7/1 - 7/5/24 7/1 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/2 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/2 Tuesday 7pm ET Adv. Brave Group Coaching 7/3 Wednesday 11am ET Adv. Brave Group Coaching 7/3 Wednesday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans 7/4 Thursday NO Brave Space 7/5 Friday NO Brave Space For the week of 7/8 - 7/12/24 7/8 Monday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/9 Tuesday 12pm ET Brave Space 7/9 Tuesday 7pm ET Adv. Brave Group Coaching 7/10 Wednesday 11am ET Adv. Brave Group Coaching 7/11 Thursday 11am Brave Space w/workshop 7/11 Thursday 7pm ET Brave Space for All Humans 7/12 Friday 12pm ET Brave Space