Guided Encounters
For any considering joining me for some group play, here are some thoughts about the why and the how of hosting Guided Encounters in the community.
Many of us struggle to relax enough to allow our emerging natural self to unfold fluidly, especially when we are with others. A part that fears the creative wild within, as well as what others might make of it, tries to control, edit, or stifle our nature.
Suppression of our natural self hurts us and adds to our feelings of inauthenticity and disconnection from others. We may feel a deep longing to be our real natures more fully, to be seen, accepted, and known by our peers as who we really are.
Guided encounters help us connect to our inner wild, and embrace and support what flows out of that wild source in the now moment, while connecting with others. Our genuine creative emanations lead us to commune deeply and playfully with other people’s natural selves, and to experience powerful over-lighting benevolent energies that move in the group as a whole.
Group play may be conducted in a single arts channel or in a combination of arts channels (intermodally), and may have themes or focus on specific aspects of using arts to heal and tune in to the inner wild.
In their best moments, guided encounters tap us into a loving group consciousness, where we can experience the part of us that is at one with each other. Accessing the creative flow state while in (comm)Unity, feeling into our larger group nature, is restorative and exciting.
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Thumbnail image reverently appropriated from Ruth Heller's The Reason for a Flower.