The Right Mask

Sad Masks - Lidia Simeonova

Therapeutic Words

I recently went on a Creative Writing workshop. The day was intended for therapists to explore the potential of creative writing tools for use with clients. The session was attended by a variety of therapists, counsellors and other health professionals.

The course was mostly experiential and it soon became obvious that we were as interested in our own development as in the tools that were used. We had fallen under the spell of the Therapeutic Words group energy.

One of the last exercises was to respond to a poem by Brian Patten – The Right Mask. (You can read the poem online, simply google the title, or better still buy one of his books – Selected Poems ISBN: 9780141027135). In the poem there is a dialogue between a poem and the poet. The poem was read aloud twice and then the exercise introduced.

I was amazed at my response. Not only in the content but in the way it came out of me without any conscious bidding from my mind, it just appeared. I felt free to write the truth because all the others were willing to do so too. Here is my response:

The Right Mask

(inspired by the poem of the same name by Brian Patten)

How can I be honest with myself?

Every time I respond to anything

A question, a comment on TV, even a thought

I quietly, surreptitiously and subconsciously slip on a mask

Only as I remove the mask, which I sometimes wear, unknown, for hours, do I look at it

And say, “Is this me – what I think – what I would say?"

I’ve been putting on and taking off masks for so long

That never (or perhaps as a baby – once long ago)

Have I been able to look in the mirror and see the mask

That is no mask

About 10 years ago I caught a glimpse of it

The Right Mask, in a puddle in Scotland

Sometimes now, when I’m singing in the shower

I realise a mask, the wrong mask, has been washed away

But it’s generally re-grown by the time I look in the mirror again

I console myself with the happy knowledge

That at times the right mask sits comfortably

And I am so comfortable with it that I notice it more and more

Even if I can’t see it in the mirror yet

Optimistic Soul

Optimism is "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome". It is the philosophical opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best. (Wikipedia)

The Metal element which corresponds to this time of year is, for me, optimistic. But only if we can let go of what is past. Learn lessons, yes. Don't make the same mistakes, yes. But let go. Leave the past behind, where it belongs.

Here is an exercise that I learnt from Ki-Aikido. It is designed to develop our focus and decision making, bringing mind and body together with speed and clarity.

There are three basic steps. Firstly stand with one foot forward. Step forward with the front foot. Turn to face the other way (to do this, the front foot swivels and becomes the back foot - the feet stay where they are just pointing the other way). Now step forward with the front foot again. Repeat. The arms shown are not necessary for this context.

The idea is then to speed up but only to a point where you can keep clarity of where you are going not hampered by where you have been.

I gave this exercise to a client as a way of seeing through a difficulty. Factors outside her control (aren't they all) were making her feel stressed and this exercise has given her a way to remember that she is simply moving forward and when something happens to turn (metaphorically) and face forward again in her own life.

She reported enjoying the exercise and has even developed it so that the movement is not required, practising in the car to be going where she is going without thinking of where she has come from, allowing her to leave some stress behind.

Empowering clients with simple activities is vital to their wellbeing and our therapy. Facilitating health rather than fixing dis-ease.

Course Dates and News

Here is the Winter Newsletter.

I hope this quiet time of year is refreshing for you all

Course details below

New Rise and Shine courses starting in the new year in Ross on Wye and Hereford. The Ross on Wye course continues to go well and is now ongoing into 2010. Please contact me for more details:

Also there is a Foundation Shiatsu planned which will be great. Numbers are limited so that a smaller group gets a great learning experience and there is plenty of time for exploration around the subjects.

This course is excellent for self development, refreshing your Shiatsu basics or learning new techniques to add to an existing therapeutic bodywork. Even though we will be working on the floor the techniques are easily transferable to a massage table. So think about this course be it for interest, self development or CPD

Details of both these courses can be found at:

www.learn-shiatsu.org.uk/lsindex.htm and then follow the links