Body, Mind, Joy!
A workshop with Pedro de Alcantara
April 28 & 29, 2018
Nothing is more fun than to be completely alert to your own lively wholeness. From head to toe, with body, mind, heart, and soul, you do everything in your life by using the whole of yourself. In this workshop we'll play a series of clever games to help you realize and fulfill your talents.
What: Two separate but linked days of creative games designed to open your mind and free your creativity.
When: Saturday & Sunday, April 28 & 29, 2018. From 2 to 7 PM, with a tea break. Bonus: on Monday, April 30 from 10 AM to 1 PM: optional Practice Lab. At no extra fee, come play with your new creative tools in the company of your new friends!
Where? Studio Bleu, 7/9 rue des Petites Ecuries, 75010 Paris. Métros Château d'eau (line 4) or Strasbourg-Saint Denis (lines 4, 8 and 9). The Studio Bleu is on the first floor of the building sandwiched between the Franprix supermarket and the New Morning jazz club.
For Whom: Anyone interested in skills of observation, creativity, mindfulness, and adaptability. Limited to 12 participants. Past participants have included artists, musicians, singers, writers, health professionals, public speakers, and creative individuals. No previous experience needed.
How Much: Each day costs €120. Take both days and receive a discount: €200 instead of €240. Payment ensures your registration. Cancellations are cost-free up to April 22 when payments become non-refundable unless someone else takes your place. Please email me for more information or to register.
Program
1. Reaction (Hand Game). We’ll study a simple children’s game that triggers interesting patterns of over-reaction, strong emotions, and bodily disconnection. This allows you to understand that nothing is ever purely physical or purely mental, and that body and mind are indeed inseparable.
2. Decision (Balance Game). We’ll follow it with a somewhat less simple game that triggers even more interesting patterns. The games involve losing your balance without losing your head, or, to put it differently, letting go of uncontrollable elements and directing those elements that you can, indeed, control. The games give you practical ways of considering the body-mind connection and the choices you have at your disposal when you react to any situation.
3. Actor, Receptor, Witness (Twirl Game). We all play three roles in every moment of our lives. As actors (that is, agents of action) we move, speak, push and pull, make decisions, and otherwise engage in any number of activities animated by our goals and desires. As receptors we use our senses to listen, smell, touch, get pushed and pulled, and react emotionally to other people. As witnesses we observe everything going on around us, analyzing, synthesizing, describing, explaining, and understanding the world in which we live. In this workshop we’ll study these three roles in practice.
4. Work on Yourself (“Here, Now” Game). In everything that you do, there exists a goal or task seemingly outside yourself (a sink full of dirty dishes for you to wash, for instance) and thoughts and energies seemingly inside yourself (your awareness of your own intentions, gestures, feelings, emotions, and sensations as you wash the dishes). It’s possible for you to be task-oriented or self-oriented, or to place yourself in a flexible point in between the two. In this workshop we’ll study the back-and-forth travel from task to self, using a variety of exercises and activities.
