Turn Uncertainty into Insight

Hello,

I’m teaching another intro to my 8-week poetry and reflective writing workshop called Metaphor and Renewal tomorrow on Tuesday, June 10th from 4-5pm PT.

Did you miss the first intro but are intrigued about the program? Come join us!

In this intro, you’ll have a chance to explore a metaphor-writing practice on a theme that is relevant to you.

If there is something in your life that feels unclear or overwhelming — perhaps something that you feel in the process of redefining for yourself (like your relationship to success, to ambition, to your voice, to creativity) — metaphor can help with that.

Here’s the intro details:

When: Tuesday, June 10rd from 4-5pm PT (adjust for your timezone)
Where: Online

The full series begins on June 17th. This series is rooted in the idea that metaphor can be both a tool for personal insight and renewal, and also a seed from which a poem or journal entry can grow.

To read my initial email about this series, please go here.

How exactly can metaphor help us to move through what is unclear or overwhelming?

Let me give you an example.

When I was a kid, I was extremely shy. I remember feeling like my voice was stuck in a box. I felt able to observe the world around me, but unable to participate. I thought that in order to share my voice I needed to escape the box, break down my walls.

I’ve been teaching public speaking to kids for the last seven years and it turns out that this is not an experience that is unique to me. I’ve heard the process of sharing one’s voice compared to a maze (to speak I must first wander a maze within myself) or like a series of obstacles (to share my voice I must first break through this wall, then swim through an eel infested moat, then defeat a dragon).

In a talk author Toko-Pa Turner did with the Comox Valley C.G Jung Society last month, Turner shared that “metaphors arise from the same ground as our sensations, our instincts, even symptoms.” That metaphors “communicate our embodied experience.”

So yes, these metaphors feel wonderfully imaginative (even silly), but they’re also speaking to something true. Even now as an adult, when I feel resonance with that old metaphor and once again feel like my voice is stuck in a box, I also (at the same time) notice that my breath is constricted. I am held tight and watchful. The metaphor is giving voice to a physiological experience.

Toko-pa Turner noted in her talk that metaphors “help to affirm the realness of your situation, giving shape to what would otherwise remain just a diffuse feeling in your body.” 

She also says that metaphor “brings the unseen into form so that it can be known, felt, and then navigated.”

This is precisely what I aim to offer through this series: Offer you a chance to notice the metaphors you’re living by, so you can more clearly understand and navigate what feels undefined or difficult.

There’s another piece to this:

Metaphors can also be aspirational.

You can use them not only to name your experience as it is, but also to imagine your experience as you’d like it to be.

For example, here’s a new metaphor for voice I’ve been playing with lately: My voice is a trapeze artist.

With this new metaphor, I begin to see voice as an act of both trust and skill. It calls for bravery and a decision not to hold back, but to reach out fully. And when the other does the same, something remarkable happens: we meet each other midair. Perhaps it is in that suspended moment of trust that we are truly seen.

Testimonials

“Christine is an incredibly skilled facilitator and creates such a safe, supportive environment to be creative. I've taken several of her workshops now and always leave with new inspiration. I'm often amazed by the magic that can flow through the pen when working within an intentional container of time and with such thoughtful prompts and guidance. Highly recommend taking any of her classes!”
- Sarah Clement

Other Upcoming Classes:

• Develop a Writing Ritual + Artist’s Way Exploration — starts July 16th

• Embodied Poetry Workshop - starts September 8th.

• Speech Arts Public Speaking Classes for kids/teens - Summer term starts July 9th

with thanks,
Christine Bissonnette

Questions or comments about anything in this email? Send an email to [email protected] . I’d love to hear from you.

P.S — Know someone who would enjoy receiving this email? Pass it along! 9 Creative Lives Studio is a small business run just by me (Christine Bissonnette). Your support and referrals make a big difference.