It was 27 kids. Not even mine. 27 kids who gave me one of the best lessons in my life.
When I worked in a school, I got introduced to drama therapy as a method for group facilitation. A separate post on the method itself is coming soon!
But the gem came out out of the kids themselves: taking a pause to let emotions fly freely.
But what if we don’t have the courage to say the truth, as it is? What if sometimes there are no words to describe our human experience? There are other languages, such as languages of art. After seeing how creative exercises unlock the kids’s expression, I got curious to try it out myself.
Drama Diary
What can I learn from my emotional experiences? I got myself a diary. I called it “a drama diary”. I went an extra step into pausing and tapping into the moment when my body is experiencing a feeling of something (like fear, judgment, guilt or hurt – yes I went deep straight with 4 explorations so far!)
The diary filled with messy drawings-like-whatever-expressions. I still keep it as an artifact for my creative projects haha. But it also made me feel calmer. “Oh, what if emotions are like a language the body is using to reach my sometimes overrational mind?” I noted a question popping in my mind.
Overall, as I reflect more, the body seems to be my private lighthouse, a sensor, in the journey of creativity. So I keep on playing with my emotions since. I have to say, some of my hmm moments birth during a drama inside this same diary. There’s something magical about openess to face all sides of life, inquiring into the body feeling before the question or “problem statement” is there. And to me is this space of unknown (which is often scary) is what sets the exploration path!
So, I’ll keep on exploring! I’m so curious where the body exploration is going to lead me.