The GHOSTBUSTERS workshop

HOW TO CALL UP YOUR OWN POWER

A four act play about Power and the crucial importance of shifting of old paradigms to bring about

1.     A new and radically different/creative way of thinking and behaving…
2.    A new and uniquely important way to interpret and deal with issues around power…

Taxonomy: Power (being non physical) can be understood and interpreted in many different ways.  We will use the language of archetypes to explore different experiences of power.

Archetypes are a way of describing energy.  They are templates, patterns of influence that are both universal and personal and are thus able to span the seen and the unseen, the collective and the individual.

ACT ONE ...   MONSTERS

Objective: Identifying your ghosts and ghouls. What are your fears? What keeps you hiding?  What keeps you small?  Why would you want to stay that way?  Have you been challenged?  What’s your operating strategy for neediness?

DEFINING ARCHETYPE:  THE CHILD

Old behaviour paradigm:  The creation of ROLES & MASKS

Positive intention behind this strategy – Safety…’You can’t see me’…’I’ll be safe here’…’This is the version of me that everyone will approve of and like…’ No-one will realise I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing…’etc

Issue:   FEAR & NEEDS (from the past)

Old power paradigm:   FEAR OF POWER

Conflict:

The need to be safe (to survive) overrules the requirement to be creative, take decisions and risk being unpopular.

Typical behavioural outcome:  PROCRASTINATION

SOUNDTRACK…Ray Parker Junior (obviously)

ACT TWO ...     ‘IT’S NOT MY FAULT…’

Objective: Recognising where we don’t take responsibility for our behaviour and the fears and needs behind it.  Recognising where we don’t show up and when our energy, skills and gifts are not 100% available for the benefit of the group.  Recognising the strategies we use to defend ourselves when we’re afraid.

From Fear to Blame.  Examining the overwhelming temptation to pass the buck when we’re scared or disempowered.  Identifying who we blame for the fact that things aren’t going well.  Identifying the projections on the people around us – where we create Heroes and Villains (both projections of disowned power).

DEFINING ARCHETYPE….THE VICTIM

Old behaviour paradigm :  PROJECTION - leading to self pity (around the villains) and envy (around the heroes)

Positive intention behind this strategy – I don’t have to really show up, I get to hide and manipulate behind the scenes.  Being backstage means being safe from humiliation if things go badly but it also means sweeping up after everyone else’s party and a lot of hanging around not doing very much.

Issue: BOUNDARIES & FUSION

Old power paradigm:  ABDICATION OF POWER

Conflict:

The need to be safe from humiliation overrules the requirement to be creative

Typical behavioural outcome:  POOR COMMUNICATION(misleading/manipulative/aggressive/weak communications)

SOUNDTRACK Five for Fighting – Superman

ACT THREE ...   THE CUNNING PLAN

Objective: Clarifying the vision for your highest potential.  Finding your own personal charisma and holding onto this in the face of people who you perceive have more power than you.  Plus the flip side – giving up the tendency to control people you perceive have less power than you.

DEFINING ARCHETYPE….THE PROSTITUTE

Old behaviour paradigm:  Power struggles and conflicts.  Selling yourself, your ideas, your integrity, your word, your opinions in exchange for counterfeit power.

Positive intention behind this strategy: A familiar and historic strategy to feel safe and successful.

Issue: CONTROL & LACK OF SELF WORTH

Old power paradigm:   NEGOTIATION OF POWER

Conflict:

The need to be taken care of by an external power source overrules the desire for self autonomy.

Typical behavioural outcome:  STRESS

SOUNDTRACK David Bowie – Changes

ACT FOUR...     KEEP THE FAITH

Objective: Maintaining the new vision.  Holding your ground.  Dealing with the negative force field that wants to pull you back to the old ways.

DEFINING ARCHETYPE….THE SABOTEUR

Old behaviour paradigm:  Negativity.  Fear of the Future.  Creating excuses.  Finding flaws in the new plan.  Creating drama and busyness.  Indecision.  Project paralysis.   Sabotaging others.

Positive intention – A historic strategy to avoid empowerment because of the changes that would bring about.  A way of dealing with the fear of change.

Issue:  SELF DOUBT

Old power paradigm: LOSS OF POWER (via LEAKS & LOOPHOLES)

Conflict:

The familiar pull of the old overrules the passion for the new.

Typical behavioural outcome:  COMPETITION AND BLAME

SOUNDTRACK Huey Lewis – The Power of Love

THE SEQUEL...   THE FIFTH ELEMENT

Feedback and progress reports…

DEFINING ARCHETYPE:   THE HERO
The new hero i.e.  Taking responsibility for the things we create.  Greater consciousness.  Less John Wayne, more Zen master.  Being present…what exactly does this mean?

NEW POWER PARADIGM:  OWNERSHIP OF POWER…SELF EMPOWERMENT…EMPOWERING OTHERS

SOUNDTRACK John Lee Hooker – Things gonna change

 

 

The DEFY GRAVITY workshop

A one day workshop for young performers

Premise:

The world is changing.  The collapse of the banking system, and the subsequent cuts to public services and the arts have added fear to an already unstable world.

The traditional advice in these circumstances is to ‘up our game’, to compete, to rise above the circumstances.  But those who have embarked on a career in the arts are already pushing themselves to the limit.  It is a difficult field to enter and a highly competitive environment in which to survive, let alone thrive.

The traditional mindset of the young performer is a precarious mix of self belief and self doubt.  Add this to the mindset of the average young person, brilliantly described here by Terri Apter.

“Adolescents swing from euphoric self-confidence and a kind of narcissistic strength in which they feel invulnerable and even immortal, to despair, self-emptiness, self-deprecation. At the same time they seem to see an emerging self that is unique and wonderful, they suffer an intense envy which tears narcissism into shreds, and makes other people's qualities hit them like an attack of lasers”.

The good news is that change always clears the way for new possibilities.  We’ve gone as far as we can go in the ‘pushing’ mode.  The average young person’s CV is now an exhausting read…academic excellence, extra curricular activities, even holidays have been turned into travel adventures that ‘broaden the mind’.  We are raising a nation of children that seem to be a mile wide and an inch deep.

Defy Gravity is a workshop aimed at this issue of depth.  It aspires to plant the seed of confidence so deep that it grounds the performer in a totally different way.  This is a confidence that bypasses the ego with its agenda for elation and despair, arrogance and self doubt.

 

WORKSHOP OUTLINE

The workshop is broken down into a four parts over one day or two half days.  Each aspect is designed to create new confidence via a shared experience and practical outcomes.

1. Objective: Identifying patterns of behaviour, both positive and negative.  Gaining insight into motivations and needs.  Uncovering fears and beliefs.

1. Objective: Awareness of each individual’s natural style of relating.  Discovering the different paths to success and ways to establish clear boundaries en route.

1. Objective: Building assertiveness and self-confidence.  Finding the authentic voice.

1. Objective: Maintaining the new vision. Tools and techniques for dealing with resistance, the force that challenges growth or change.

Each Module is made up of rich and important exercises together with role-play. Each phase and theme is worked in teams and explored using archetypes.  Each archetype and its meaning is explained fully at the outset of each part of the program.

These archetypes include the survival roles of:-

Child

Victim

Prostitute

Saboteur

By becoming aware of and challenging these universal core patterns we can transform them into allies rather than adversaries.

We then identify the individual archetypes that become apparent through the role plays:-

Artiste

Detective

Warrior

King/Queen

Alchemist

Healer

Clown

Hero/Heroine

In this way we can explore, at an unconscious level, new ways in which we can show up fully with our energy and individual talent.  This helps to overcome the default pattern of ruthless competition that education and society seem to promote and reward.  A strategy of ‘I’m better than you’ can create the energy and drive for success, but it comes at the cost of alienating and separating us from others, leaving us feeling vulnerable and unsupported.

Summary of skills

We recognise the strategies we use to defend ourselves when we feel threatened or humiliated.

We create better strategies that honour our boundaries and integrity.

We identify our own personal charisma rather than competing with another’s formula for success.

We clarify the vision for our highest creative potential.

We discern the difference between the core strength of inner knowing and the fragile confidence of the ego.

We learn how to tap into the high altitudes of intuition while being fully grounded in the body – this is the Defy Gravity experience.