Releasing Your Inner Genius

Some years ago I was running a group with people I had never met before, so had never worked with them. I had often noticed that movement often opens the person to a new experiences of themselves. It was also obvious that many people cannot escape from thinking – and usually we think with things we have already experienced or learnt, so you cannot let your creative or intuitive nature express. I also noticed that when we are moving it is difficult to think. So I proposed doing something none of the group members had previously done. It led to every person in the group finding a creative response to the life situation or question they wanted to explore.

1 – To start with we need to loosen our body and feelings in a space with plenty of room to move.

2 – The group were then instructed to walk or mill around making animal type noises. This exercise breaks away from thinking and planning and needs to be done until the group are obviously enjoying what they are doing and making a hell of a noise.

3 – I then shouted for the group to carry on with the noises but to now jog on a circle. When the circle was moving well I asked to now stop making animal noises and start speaking any words or rubbish that arose without trying to edit it or stop it.

4 – As this was working well I asked them to ask for help with any question or problem they faced.

I left them jogging for several minutes and then asked them to rest and say anything that had happened for them.

Each of them had a story to tell that was so different to each other. The answers had come to them with the power almost like dreams but with complete understanding. Unfortunately I cannot remember them all, but one I can quote fairly accurately.

A young woman who was a nurse said that she was constantly faced by patients who were suffering and she had felt she had nothing to give them, and this had made her question whether to continue as a nurse. She found that as she ran around the circle she began to experience herself from a different viewpoint, not as a nurse but as patients. She saw that she was giving the patients something they needed, her warmth, attention and her skill as a nurse. It completely wiped away her previous feeling about her work.

Each of the others said that the experience had produced a change or a new idea.