SPIRIT IN PRACTICE
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 7: SOUL PRACTICES
BY ERIK WALKER WIKSTROM
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 8:52:44 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Our creative souls need nurturing and understanding. How do we remain creatively open? Where does our inspiration come from? How can we embrace our negative selves? What can we say to our internal judges and critics? How can we best share our creativity? I believe that we are each highly creative with important gifts to share, words to speak and write, lights to shine on ourselves and others. In order to do this work we need tending, planting, weeding, nourishing. This is all work we must do in our interior gardens.
—Sark, Living Juicy: Daily Morsels for Your Creative Soul (Celestial Arts, 1994)
"Soul practices" are those spiritual practices that engage our creative selves. As the quote above claims, each of us is a creative person; but as adults fulfilling various roles in society, many of us don't often feel creative. When it comes to creating art, we feel even less so. Long ago too many of us accepted the notion that "I can't draw" or "I don't have an artistic bone in my body." At some point—often in childhood—we came to believe that other people could be artistic, but not us. It's hard for many of us to put ourselves in such company as poets, painters, photographers, authors, and dancers—our creativity doesn't seem to match up.
It might be helpful, then, to first expand our assumptions about what is creative. Think about cooking, storytelling, decorating, or gardening. All of these are creative acts; all of these bring into being something that would not naturally have emerged.
For that matter, think about starting a friendship, rearing a child, or nurturing a long-term relationship. These, too, are acts of creation—there is no blueprint to follow, no instruction book with step-by-step directions. Healthy, loving relationships require you to respond in the moment, to "make it up as you go along," to take what's in front of you and transform it. In other words, they require you to create.
So all of us are, in fact, creative. Yet even if we limit ourselves to thinking of creation in the terms with which most of us are most familiar—that is, artistic creation—we still can claim our own as creative beings. Not everyone will compose music as well as Duke Ellington, or write poetry like Nikki Giovanni, or paint like Georgia O'Keefe. But why should that be our goal?
What if we detached ourselves from the outcome and instead focused on the process? Our attachment to outcomes is a problem that hinders more than just our ability to express ourselves creatively. Over and over again in our lives, this issue is a stumbling block. It could even be said that the core of the spiritual traditions of humankind is the encouragement to become free from such attachments. Worry about how someone will respond—the outcome—keeps us from speaking up. Concern about failure keeps us from taking a risk and trying something new. Again and again we find ourselves hampered by our attachment to the outcome of a given situation.
So even if there were no other benefit, engaging in a regular practice of artistic creation provides opportunities to practice releasing our attachment to an outcome, and does so in a safe way. If at the end of a painting session you really don't like what you've done, you can always paint over it or throw it away. But you'll have had the experience of painting, and that in itself is a good thing.
This workshop encourages engagement in creative expression for the purpose of the engagement itself. Time spent immersed in clay, paint, or pencil on paper can be just as profound and powerful as time spent in prayer. Creativity can be a spiritual practice.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Sharing Names | 5 |
Activity 2: The Story of a Painter's Creative Process | 10 |
Activity 3: In What Ways Are You Creative? | 15 |
Activity 4: The Way of the Artist | 20 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Creativity Stations | 30 |
Alternate Activity 2: Art Show | 30 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Leaders are encouraged to prepare for the workshop not only by gathering supplies and reviewing the workshop's activities, but also by engaging in a soul practice—something that engages your creativity. You may wish to consult one of the resources listed in Find Out More.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, invite them to sign in, create name tags, and pick up a schedule for the workshop series if they have not already done so. Direct their attention to the agenda for this workshop.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome participants to Spirit in Practice.
Ask the group to turn to "O Spinner, Weaver, of Our Lives" by Barbara Wells, 431 in Singing the Living Tradition. You may wish to share with participants that Barbara Wells TenHove is a contemporary Unitarian Universalist minister. Invite a participant to light the chalice as the group reads together.
After the reading, ask the group to turn to "Dear Weaver of Our Lives' Design," 22 in Singing the Living Tradition. Invite the group to join in singing. If the group is largely unfamiliar with the song, you may need to teach them the tune.
Including All Participants
If your congregation has large-print and/or Braille versions of Singing the Living Tradition, make those copies available for participants who might need them. Using a microphone for this activity helps more people hear you.
ACTIVITY 1: SHARING NAMES (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Introduce yourself and your co-leader(s), and invite participants to take turns sharing their names. As participants introduce themselves, invite them to stand (if they are willing and able) and to speak loudly or use the microphone so they can be better seen and heard.
Including All Participants
Using a microphone for this activity helps more people hear one another.
ACTIVITY 2: THE STORY OF A PAINTER'S CREATIVE PROCESS (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read the story "A Painter's Creative Process" aloud. Provide copies of the story to people who prefer to read along.
After sharing the story, invite participants to take a moment to quietly center themselves, to let go of any tension or emotions that are not needed for the next hour, and to breathe deeply. You may ring a bell at the beginning and end of this silent time, or simply invite people into the silence and then gently bring them out.
After the silence, invite participants to discuss their responses to the story. Keep the discussion brief and focused, allowing time for your own concluding remarks. Ask:
Conclude by emphasizing that we all have the capacity to be creative. When we can let go of whether the finished product "measures up," we can experience the real spirituality of creating. You may wish to draw on the text from this workshop's Introduction to make your points.
Including All Participants
Be sure that all participants can hear the story, or have the story interpreted for them. Using a microphone for this activity helps more people hear the story. You may wish to print out a copy of the story in advance for participants who are hard of hearing or who prefer to read along.
ACTIVITY 3: IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU CREATIVE? (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite the group to divide into pairs and take turns answering the question, "In what way—or ways—are you creative in your life?" Each person will have three minutes to answer as deeply and fully as possible while the other person listens.
After three minutes, ring the bell and invite the pairs to switch speakers.
After another three minutes, ring the bell and bring everyone back into one group. Ask volunteers to share one way they are creative in their lives. Record these responses on newsprint.
When the group has generated a list, discuss:
Including All Participants
If you notice participants struggling to hear one another in their pairs, allow some pairs to leave the room and find a quieter space. If two participants require American Sign Language interpretation and you have only one interpreter, pair up those participants. If you have more than two participants needing ASL interpretation, find a second interpreter to help.
You may wish to pass a cordless microphone during the full-group discussion so that participants can hear one another better.
ACTIVITY 4: THE WAY OF THE ARTIST (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to close their eyes and get comfortable. Lead the meditation in Leader Resource 1: Guided Meditation on Art. Read slowly and clearly with a calm voice. Pause where indicated so that listeners can visualize each image and action you describe.
After the meditation is finished, when everyone's eyes are open, show participants the art box. Invite them to go to it and take out some materials that appeal to them. Explain that they will use the materials to create not an image of what they saw, but an impression of what they felt during the guided meditation. What did it feel like to be in that special place? What did it feel like while they were doing their art there? What did it feel like to come back to the room? The intention of this assignment is not to be representational, but rather to be impressionistic—to try to express the feelings, not the facts.
After 10-15 minutes, ask volunteers to comment on their experiences. (You can choose to bring participants back into a group or, if people are still working, to have the discussion right where they are.) Ask:
Including All Participants
Provide a variety of art materials that can be used by participants with varying physical abilities.
Offer several options for posture and positions during the guided meditation to include people of all abilities and mobility levels.
When you read the meditation, use a microphone and/or choose to stand or sit near participants who are hard of hearing so that they can hear you better. You may wish to pass a cordless microphone when participants comment on their experiences so that they can hear one another better.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants around the altar or centering table. Affirm the good work that participants have done in this workshop.
Offer an opportunity for the group to reflect back over the workshop, seeking what are sometimes called "like and wishes." Ask participants, if they wish, to briefly share something they particularly liked about their experience and one thing they wish for in the future. If the group is small or there is extra time, allow participants to speak freely. If the group is large or time is tight, limit people's sharing so that all who wish to share will have the opportunity.
Distribute your customized Taking It Home handout. Review the ideas for how to continue exploring the workshop's subject with friends and family.
If you have chosen to encourage journaling throughout the Spirit in Practice workshop series, remind participants to write in their journals. (See Workshop 1, Alternate Activity 2: Introduction to Journaling.)
Make any announcements concerning the next meeting, especially any changes to routine (such as a change in meeting time or place, a guest presenter, etc.).
Close the workshop with this ritual: The leader takes the hand of the person on his/her right while saying, "I put my hand in yours so that we might do together what we cannot do alone." That person, still holding the leader's hand, then takes the hand of the person on his/her right, saying the same thing. When this saying has gone completely around the circle and everyone is holding hands, the workshop has ended. Extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Using a microphone for this activity helps more people hear you.
Be sure to be inclusive of people with a variety of living situations—living alone, with a significant other, in a family, with housemates, etc.—in the way you explain the Taking It Home activities.
You may wish to adapt the closing ritual to make it more comfortable for people who are averse to holding hands. You can change the words to "I reach out to you so that we might do together what we cannot do alone" and change the accompanying gesture to reaching rather than holding hands.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
After the workshop, co-leaders should make a time to get together to evaluate this workshop and plan future workshops. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning:
TAKING IT HOME
As a way of continuing to explore the themes from this workshop, follow these tips for using your creativity as part of your spiritual regimen:
Take time to look at the art already around you. Often we begin to take for granted the art in our lives—in our homes, in our places of work, in public places we pass regularly. Take time—each day, each week—to really stop and look at it. If you find there isn't much art—or if you don't particularly like what you see—make a plan to do something about it.
Take an art course at a local community college or continuing education program. It could be an art appreciation course or a "how to" workshop. Either way, the experience will expose you to art in new ways.
Create! There's no substitute. If you're really hesitant, start out small and simple—finger paints, crayons, clay. Don't worry about what it looks like—focus your attention on how it feels to be doing it. Try to increase the pleasure you get from the act of creating, without regard to the finished product.
Go to museums. See some of the art that we humans have been making for millennia. And if you already know you favor the impressionists, take in a show of modern art just to stretch yourself.
Don't limit yourself to the visual arts. While this workshop has focused on the visual arts, creativity is found in music, poetry, dance, and other art forms as well. Explore them as you have visual arts, and these same tips can apply.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: CREATIVITY STATIONS (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity can be led independently, or you may wish to combine it with Activity 4 to create a 50-minute art experience. If you choose to combine the two activities, have the creativity stations set up in advance of the meditation so that participants can go directly to the station of their choice when the meditation concludes.
Invite participants to explore the creativity stations. Encourage them to let go of judgment and ideas about outcomes and to just let themselves create for the sake of creating. Let participants know that it is fine to move between stations as they create.
Approximately ten minutes before the activity concludes, invite participants to regather for discussion and sharing. Ask:
Including All Participants
Some participants might find it difficult to move between stations. Offer assistance to those who need it—either assistance with movement or assistance with carrying supplies to participants.
Some participants might be shy about letting others see their work. This is fine; do not force sharing.
You may wish to pass a cordless microphone when participants comment on their experiences so that they can hear one another better.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: ART SHOW (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to move around the "art gallery" as they wish and look at the art in silence. Let them know how many minutes they will have for this part of the activity.
At the end of the designated amount of time, ring the bell. Gather the group around one work of art. Invite everyone but the person who brought that piece to discuss it. Emphasize that the purpose is not to critique the artist or the work, but to explore what feelings or associations the art evokes in the viewer. Then ask the person who brought that work of art to discuss what it means to him/her.
Move on to the next piece and invite discussion in the same way. Continue until all the works of art have been discussed.
Including All Participants
If some participants are unable to move around the "art gallery," adapt the activity by having the group stay seated in front of an easel while you display one work of art at a time.
Using a microphone for this activity helps more people hear one another.
SPIRIT IN PRACTICE: WORKSHOP 7:
STORY: A PAINTER’S CREATIVE PROCESS
A contemporary painter named Debora Jones-Buck has what many consider an unusual approach to her work. She prepares a canvas and then paints a picture on it. Then, when the paint has dried, she paints an entirely different image on top of it. And then another, and another. Eventually she puts the canvas aside, sometimes with five or six paintings on top of one another. Then she prepares a new canvas and starts all over again.
She does not keep a record of the various images she paints and then covers up—she takes no photographs, keeps no sketches. She says she just has so many images in her head that she has to get them out, even if no one ever sees them. Having gotten the image out and onto a canvas, she no longer needs it and is free to paint another picture on top of it.
SPIRIT IN PRACTICE: WORKSHOP 7:
LEADER RESOURCE: GUIDED MEDITATION ON ART
Let yourself relax. Take in a nice, slow, deep breath. And then let it out. Breathe in. And out. Deep. Slow. Breathing in. And breathing out. (Pause)
And let your bodies relax. Let your muscles relax. Let your face relax. Let your mind relax. Whatever you’ve been carrying around with you all day that you don’t need right now, let it go. Let all of you—body, mind, and spirit—deeply and fully relax. Keep breathing. (Pause)
And now, in your mind’s eye, imagine a place that you love. A place where you feel loved. A place that is special. A place that feels safe. And happy. It might be a real place that you know from your own experiences. It might be somewhere that you’ve seen in a picture or that you’ve heard about. It might be somewhere imaginary. Wherever it is—whatever it is—call it to mind. Try to see, to feel, all the little details. (Pause)
And when you feel that you’ve noticed all there is to see about this place, imagine that next to you there is a large basket that’s full of paper, and crayons, and chalk, and paints, and clay, and every other kind of artistic media you’ve ever heard of. And imagine that in this special place you know you have the ability to create. So create. Draw a picture. Or paint. Or sculpt. Or do whatever it is that you feel called to do, but try to capture the sights, the sounds, the mood, the feel of this place. Take your time. You can do it; you have no limitations here. It’s as if the artistic expression is making itself. (Pause for at least 30 seconds.)
If you finish one piece, make another. (Pause for at least 30 seconds.)
Now bring the piece you’re working on to a close. Step back and look at it. Take in what you’ve created. And then slowly, as you’re ready, come back to this room and open your eyes.
FIND OUT MORE
Cameron, Julia. The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1992.
Sark. Sark 's New Creative Companion: Ways To Free Your Creative Spirit . Celestial Arts, 2005.
JacksonPollock (at www.jacksonpollock.org) . (at www.jacksonpollock.org) org (at www.jacksonpollock.org)—A website that lets you be Jackson Pollock on your computer screen! Move the mouse to begin "painting"; click to change colors. To erase your artwork and start over, press the space bar.