Have you ever sat with someone and just told your story as they listen with you - no eye contact, no comments or questions. So the only way that they can be in your story is by dreaming with you, conjuring the pictures with you.

Have you ever been taken through an imagination exercise, meditation or a visualisation exercise where you are only allowed to listen. TWICE! Not writing anything until round 3?

Have you ever looked back on your life’s story and thought up different ways to tell it beyond the set pieces you usually do? Then have someone ELSE deliver your story back to you as THEY heard it.

Get your ticket here

People have been tapping in the wisdom of the group and the intelligence of the community and lineage for millennia. It is simply an analogue way to share information. But is it more than that? I don’t know, but in Relationship Systems Intelligence, we tap into the three levels of reality (more about this in the workshop) and in this offering we will access these through telling our stories from the past and in the future while being fully present.

Oral traditions span generations and every time a story is told and received, it changes and adjusts, and is observed and absorbed.

The receiver is altered.

The storyteller; transformed.

One of my closest friends always says there is no such thing as one-way liberation and I firmly believe there is no such thing as one-way storytelling. Upon hearing people’s stories we are are altered. We awaken to them. We have wisdom that lives in us and generations.

In Systems Coaching we talk about each voice being the voice of the system and we tap into the universal intelligence that we call Relationship Systems Intelligence.

It is with this in mind that this Visions workshop was dreamed up - as a way to tap into the wisdom of your stories told, your future intelligence - whatever that means!

And the wisdom of the people around you seeing and hearing your stories told.

I’ve used these ways the Ordinary Magic Writing Workshops; to get in touch with characters, aspects of our writerly personas and our work, on Saunter and Frolic retreats to dream up magical, beautiful and comfortable futures. It has its origins in Temple University Japan…

Ten years ago I started delivering the Lifeplanning - Take Charge of Your Life NOW workshop at Temple University Japan. During this day-long coaching programme, participants dream up their ideal workday (after first describing their worst possible day. In Systems Coaching we call this venting the system - and long before I became a System’s Coach I noticed that sometimes the leap from nothing to just your ideal day is a bit of a jump for many people, so adding in an opportunity to express the opposite of one’s ideal day first creates some traction and a backdrop against which to dream up one’s ideal day). And avoids toxic positivity. Now this comes with a risk - the risk being that during one of these workshops, a participant burst into tears and said that their worst day is their current lived experience. I mean, this activity is only about 5 minutes long, because although I want to visit their worst scenario - we don’t want to pitch a tent. They were truly upset and luckily the room atmosphere had been set in the room and the other participants were able to hold space along with me. I received a message from that person after the workshop saying they had, on the Monday following, been offered a new role in a different department, at a window with a view and a different manager - one who more closely fit their working style. They were a bit surprised by all of this. That what they had dreamed up during the workshop had come into consensus reality so soon.

Anyway - about five years ago I wondered what it might be like to take away some of the communication channels when people are engaging in dreaming up their ideal day. Usually one person talks and other listens, faces them and asks questions and makes comments. Again, through my Systems Coaching training I was more keenly aware of channels beyond verbal and vision. I wondered what it might be like to shut off the verbal and visual channel and just listen and dream up the vision of the ideal day along with the speaker. They would sit shoulder to shoulder and close their eyes together (if comfortable with that) and then after the person had described their ideal day - the partner would be asked to say what they saw and how it felt for them.

Essence.

The results were powerful and different.

Deeper.

Your visions here

It’s not woowoo - it just taps into different communication channels to the ones we usually use and is a common technique employed in Systems Coaching to access information and intelligence beyond the verbal.

We will be using these different channels of communication during our February is the New January Day of Visions.

First when mining our past for gems and stories and the events that shaped us.

Then when Dreaming up what we are ready for.

Then when reaching into our future to grab the wisdom from our future selves.

All of these done shoulder to shoulder with wise, curious and interesting souls.

RSI - Relationship System Intelligence IP of ORSC™ CRR Global

The visualisations are adapted almost beyond recognition but are based on Tara Mohr’s Inner Mentor Visualisation, who borrowed it from CTI (Co-Active® Training Institute)

Visions - Dreaming them upTogether