OUR MULTIPLE SELVES

This prompt is based on an exercise from a teacher of mine, Rebecca McClanahan.  She writes about it in detail in her great book, Write Your Heart Out.  Eloise Klein Healy also uses a form of this exercise in her poetry workshops.

If you can, please do this exercise by hand.

Take a few minutes to list your selves, your roles.  You could do this as a list or as a brainstorming drawing with bubbles and sticks.  Write down whatever you can think of and get specific.  For example, what could start out as “mom” could subdivide into PTA volunteer, soccer coach, math tutor.

A few brainstorming possibilities could include…

• Your relationships (walk through your family tree)
• Organizations you belong to or products, causes, or people you support with your time, money or energy
  • What’s in your fridge, closet, driveway?
• Your different careers
• Places you’ve lived
• Hobbies, avocations, such as Journal Writing!
• Things you’re good at
• Rituals, ethnicity, religion, practices
• If you can’t think of anything in the present, perhaps mine your past or future identities or even your wished identities.
  • Walk through life (infant through elderly)
  • I always wanted to be a…

Come up with at least 5 selves.

Then, review the list and either

a)      Write about what it feels like to look at this list.

b)     Compare and contrast your different selves.  Maybe have one self write to the other.  “Dear Worker Bee, you are totally cramping my style.  And you’re a time hog too.  Signed, The Artist.”

or

c)      Explore your multiple selves with the 10 questions below.  Every self doesn’t have to answer all of these questions during this session.  You can go deep with one self or skim across all of yourselves with one or two questions.  Just keep writing.  These questions are just appetizers, warm ups.  Chances are as you do this part of the exercise, you’ll break off onto a tangent.  Go with it!

10 Questions for Our Multiple Selves

1)      What does she want?

2)      What’s her secret?  (Be it desire, wish, ability, shame…)

3)      What’s her secret?  Secret desire?  Secret wish?  Secret ability?  Secret shame?

4)      What does she care about?

5)      What does she worry about?

6)      What does she want you to know right now?

7)      What is she good at?

8)      Who does she love?

9)      What do you want her to know?  Maybe give her a compliment or some constructive feedback.

10)   What’s her favorite piece of advice for others?

I’ll post next month’s prompt on Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 12 p.m. (Pacific).

Feel free to send me some feedback through the comment feature below.  I’d love to hear about your experience with this exercise.

I’m often asked, “What’s your five year plan?”  I don’t know.  I am so busy, I don’t have time to dream, I only have time to execute.

Last month, I facilitated a one hour journal writing workshop for some of my friends (artists and non-artists) as a break from the busy holidays.  So, together, my friends and I carved out this hour and started to dream.

The experience of writing in silence surprised many of them.  They walked away feeling focused and refreshed.  One of them said it was so nice to have a few moments where no one asked anything of her.  We decided to meet once a month  and I’d like to open up this free class to my faraway friends.

This experience is about panning for our inner gold, sorting, exploring, asking, wishing, wondering, wandering, changing, creating, cultivating, learning, discovering, being.

This experience is not about making to do lists, planning, doing, right answers, expectations, fixing for others, standards, metrics, performance, supposed tos, shoulds.

I will post a prompt once a month (the first one is on Wednesday at noon, Pacific time) and invite you to set a timer and write for 40 minutes or at least three pages.  Or write until you feel like giving up, then go for another 20 minutes.  (Excellent advice from the writer Ron Carlson.)

Please join us online.  I’d love to hear your feedback.