Re-versioning is learning to evolve and change, to grow with the flow (sorry, 1960s!), to move from the past into a future that you want, that you can imagine, even that you can’t imagine. It’s exploration at its most intense: the exploration of the inner, limitless world in order to function in our outer, sometimes apparently limited one.
As I go through this "re-versioning" process, you can join me in the experience -- by using my ideas, games, and efforts with what's important to you. Here's one of the first exercises you might want to try. If you like it, leave it, love it, or hate it, don't hesitate to comment or email me -- I would love to hear what you think!
Words of...
Wisdom? You tell me. Here are some of the things I discovered today, using the process below. I hope at least one of them will resonate for you, and send you forward on your re-versioning experience.
What is an experiment? A new way of seeing the familiar.
Change = Growth. Commit Today – Now.
Just feel the ride.
Passion creates Enthusiasm. Find it in what you do – today.
Act as if you have Freedom To.
It gives you Freedom From.
Trust yourself first.
Kindness (to yourself and others) > Compassion > Forgiveness > Ability to act > Peace.
Follow your heart. The rest will follow.
What is it you’re after, anyway?
This exercise is more about enabling change instead of “trying” to change and setting ourselves up for failure. It’s a process I’ve done for the past 3 years, and every time it gets more profound (for me) in terms of who I am, what I want to change or achieve, and how I can get there. Its success is in trying to let go and access the things you can’t or won’t think about most of the time, so you can anchor your next action in something that will move you forward to your new version.
The key to this is to select a method that is the polar opposite of how you usually think about “things”:
· If you write words, draw or paint with color.
· If you paint, journal or sculpt or build.
· If you use your hands most of the time, write down key words.
· If you talk all the time, be silent and do something where you don’t have to speak.
· If you are a quiet person, speak out loud into the tape recorder.
· If you aren’t physical, dance for the video recorder. Give a live commentary as you do so.
· If you talk to yourself routinely, set up an audio recorder while you do whatever it is you do.
· If you’re good with words, colors, and the physical world, do all three at once.
· If you’re detail oriented, push the limits on how messy you can be.
· If you’re messy, see how neatly you can organize this.
The purpose: Access your sub/unconscious by doing something unfamiliar.
The point: There Are No Wrong Answers, Actions, Colors, Shapes, or Forms. Sorry – you can’t do this and be wrong, bad, or unsuccessful. Whatever comes up is valuable stuff, and will tell you a lot about what’s going on in your life. Guranteed.
The How
Get started.
· Gather your materials (paper and pens or computer, paints and paper, “stuff” and glue, comfy body and videocamera, voice and audiotape recorder)
· Get into a quiet space where no one will disturb you for at least two hours.
· Start doing without thinking about what you are going to achieve, or how “good” it will be. It will be perfect.
· Paint, write, sculpt, gather, dance, whatever, and record whatever happens. Go.
The only “rule”: put things in positive terms.
· Instead of saying, “I am too fat,” transform it into “I want to eat more healthily/reasonably/creatively.”
· Instead of saying, “I never want to work again!” (who doesn’t who is re-versioning?), write, “I want to work with my real passions/what’s important to me.”
· Instead of writing, “I’m a failure,” try “I have not yet achieved/discovered what is important to me in life. I want to do that.”
Challenge yourself on this: Everything you can say negatively can be put in positive terms. Everything.
Don’t stop doing.
· Don’t do the dishes, answer the phone, judge what you’re doing, try and figure out where it’s going.
I hereby give you complete freedom for these two hours to just do without goals.
· Without judgment.
· No one else will ever see this stuff.
· This is For You, From You.
Do it...
for 2 hours minimum, longer if you have the energy.
Take a break.
Not too long, depending on how you feel: from 5 minutes to maybe an hour. Don’t let yourself “forget” what you meant by avoiding looking at what you’ve created here.
What just happened?
Now, take your product in hand/on the TV/in the tape player.
Take a deep breath and listen/look/experience without judging quality. Go for meaning.
Review what you did. Look at the content of your work.
· What did you learn?
· What did you say that you’ve never said before?
· What did you do that opened your eyes to something you want, are, was?
· What surprised you? What seemed to “come out of nowhere”?
Pretend you are a stranger looking at someone else’s work. Look at the arrangement of colors and images on the page/the order of your words or dance movements/the emphasis in your sculpture.
· What is in the center?
· What is most important to this artist?
· What is on the periphery?
· What does everything have in common?
· What is unique on the page/dance/piece?
· How would you describe this to someone who doesn’t know the artist and never saw the work?
Moving forward
What you’ve just done is take your mental and emotional “temperature” today. You’ve accessed the stuff that, sub- and unconsciously, is the most important to you. It’s where you are today. It’s what’s important now.
Now you do need a piece of paper and pen/cil. Now you’ll set goals for the future based on this self-assessment of what you want and are.
· Look at any results or goals you may have described. What’s the most important about each goal? What can you do first to achieve it? Second? Third, et al?
· Find the things you don’t want to do again, if any. Compare to your goals. Identify any contradictions or conflicts, and find a way to resolve them.
· Prioritize your top three goals that encompass most of the things important to you. And I do mean First, Second, Third. Stop at three for today. If you have more, set a date in a month or so to review your goals and add/subtract to the list.
· Congratulate yourself on all of this work, which isn’t easy but infinitely important.
· Go have some fun!
Congratulations! You've completed the first step
None of this work – the original, the meanings, the lists – needs to be shared with anyone, ever. None of this means you are a good or bad creator, or a good or bad person. I suggest you don’t destroy anything, but put it in a private place to review tomorrow, next week, next month, and/or next year. Use it as long as it feels useful to you. When it no longer means anything – feel free to repeat the whole exercise. At the least, though, do it next year on or before January 1.
Enjoy your New Year!
Laurie 2.0
LazyL@wyoming.com
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