Blend & Balance: Working with ‘opposite’ dynamics

BLEND & BALANCE is actually a fairly simple, yet extremely powerful way of approaching the important ‘things’ in people’s lives; grief and loss, hopes and dreams, hardship and joy. It is also an approach which is perhaps not always embraced because it is risky. And it is indeed risky to deliberately enlist laughter as a way of managing grief, to see challenge as an ally in helping a vulnerable person flourish, to look towards fantasy as a way of embracing reality. Yet this is both the nature of life and the approach of this workshop. Laughter may not be the first thing to consider when a person has experienced a tough moment in life; and it may never fit for some people in such times. But for others, approached carefully and sensitively, or perhaps even outrageously, laughter brings relief. And it is working with powerful and risky dynamics such as this which is at the core of this workshop.

Dynamics of opposite create an atmosphere of the unusual; of juxtaposition, of paradox, of contrast and comparison; which bring into sharp relief what is and what could be; what is being noticed, and what overlooked. The ‘softer’ ‘lighter’ aspects of these dynamics create relationship and connection; and an openness to experience the new, the fresh, the adventurous; both within ourselves and with the world around us. And standing next to the more ‘challenging’ aspects, they together create ‘Readiness’ and ‘Receptivity’ in hearts and minds – the chance to review self and life and embrace fully what is, or to explore what might be. Sounds a bit fanciful. It’s also true.