Storytelling in the Park

Are you ready to use storytelling to transform your life and change the future?

This workshop will give you the tools to:

• Cultivate an intention
• Conquer self-criticism
• Connect to your power source
• Meet your hero
• Dream your story to life

Each of us carries a story. It is a bit of history mixed with memory, meaning creation, rumination, regret, reinterpretation. As time passes, for better or worse, we retell our stories, edit, add or delete chapters, and reshuffle content in a way that makes more (or less) sense.

Using story and narrative to work with personal history can be an immensely healing experience, but it can also be extremely difficult. Where does our story begin? How can we be objective about events? How should we portray ourselves?

One way of working, which is simple yet extremely effective, is to remove the seriousness at the outset. We pick a random character that seems to be almost nothing like us, and we give ourselves permission to experiment.

Through the process of abstraction, we create space to play. During play, we kindle something childlike and receptive and we have a chance to heal aspects of our own history. We also notice clues about what is trying to emerge within our personal story – but it feels light, easy.

During this storytelling workshop, you will be guided through an exercise in character formulation using specially designed storytelling tools and will have a chance to create your own character, gaining inspiration from different character archetypes. Within small groups, you will explore the dimensions of your character to gain an understanding of their talents, fears, desires, and weaknesses. You will then have an opportunity to construct a story arc for your character that allows them to transcend their weaknesses, face their fears, develop their talents, and achieve both inner and outer goals.

You will walk away with...

• A way to use archetypal thinking to better understand yourself.
• A way to use storytelling to get to grips with personal and relationship conflict, and work towards deeper integration.
• An understanding of how to use storytelling for personal growth.
• An ability to construct, tell, and write down stories of various lengths.
• A way of banishing the inner critic during the writing process.

This workshop is a FREE taster for the full 'Dreaming the Self' and 'Dreaming with Wolves' storytelling experience.

Delivered as part of the St. Ethelburga's Spiritual Ecology Programme. St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace empowers the next generation of leaders to put spiritual values into action. https://stethelburgas.org/