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Creativity as a Road to Resilience Through Life Transitions and “Detours”

20 Mar 2021
9:30 - 11:00 am.
Virtual Conference
Creativity as a Road to Resilience Through Life Transitions and “Detours”

Creativity as a Road to Resilience Through Life Transitions and “Detours”

Did life go a totally different way than you had expected?

Has that unplanned event in your life shaped who you are today?

If this sounds like you’ve been here before, then you’re a Detourist! Detours can seem like obstacles, yet can also be opportunities. Through creative expression, we reshape our identities and discover the flowers on our detoured path, gaining adaptability and a positive, empowered attitude toward obstacles, transforming life’s “detours” into everyday blessings. “Detourist workshops” aim to encourage growth and healing by sharing our stories; and to transform communities by inspiring people to open their minds and reframe their view of “detours” into a new direction for life. Through creative writing prompts, engaging discussions, improvisational activities,and art exercises, participants learn to celebrate the detours that form our identity. Using the Detour “RoadMap to Resilience” participants learn to navigate life’s messy detours through the transformative power of creativity.

Detourist workshops bring people together from all ages, professions and backgrounds, celebrating the detours that make us who we are. Using the Detour Road Map to Resilience* participants will claim their Detourist identity by discovering arrows to navigate through life’s messy detours.

This Detourist workshop interweaves engaging discussions, writing prompts, art activities, theatre games story-circles, and plenty more surprises along the way. Most importantly, this detour workshop is a journey to endless discovery – and an eagerness for the infinite detours to come!

(Further details:) The workshop will involve active movement exercises, exploratory art exercises, creative writing prompts, engaging discussions and theatre games. The “art” component will not require additional materials. This component involves drawing, doodling, and mindful artistic expression – paper and crayons will be sufficient. The goal of the workshop is for participants to discover how through creatively communicating our “detours” we are able to experience in the moment, how that detour has made us who we are. Therefore, the workshop strives to incorporate multiple disciplines to accommodate all types of “Detourists” and their various learning styles.

What:
What 3 things might your participants learn or experience as a result of your workshop?

  • You will claim three unique “flowers” on the detoured path you’ve taken, and create a gratitude ritual that enables you to keep discovering these unexpected treasures.
  • You will be able to develop three creative tools to help them navigate a “detour” in life.
  • You will be able to define two instances of a “detour” in their life, and connect how each “detour” has contributed to their identity.

So What:
What might be 3 ways that the content of your workshop changes your attendees’ perceptions, habits, ways of working, or view of the world?

  • You will be able to view unexpected events as gifts that can strengthen your own resilience and view of the world. (A “detour” doesn’t have to be a life-altering event. A detour can be as simple as an idea going in a different direction that you had anticipated. Living life as “Detourists” enables us to become empowered by surprises, and excited for unexpected events, allowing them to thrive in any sort of uncertainty. Through viewing any “curve in the road” as a detour, we as humans, in various transitional phases, are empowered to make decisions and navigate where there might not be a clear map).
  • You will learn how to embrace any detour that you may come across. (Sometimes, we can’t learn to love our detour until we spend a bit of time traveling it – we need to give that detour enough time to form a story of its own. Why should you love your detours?
    • Detours lead to endless discoveries.
    • Detours give us ways out.
    • Detours connect us.
    • Detours make our stories.
    • Detours make our meaning.
    Detours allow us to find the exotic flowers along the unexpected path. A Detourist doesn’t just take the detour, they embrace it – bumps and all – and keep traveling).
  • You will discover how creativity is a vital means for transforming an unexpected or unknown factor in life into an energy you can harness to uplift others and pull yourself forward, further into who you are.

Now What:
What are 3 ways your attendees might apply what they learn in your workshop?

  • You will be able to apply “Detourist” multidisciplinary principles to creating a compassionate and inclusive community.
  • You will be able to identify four qualities that foster resilience in times of adversity.
  • You will be able evaluate two ways communicating “Detours” through art can advance a social justice initiative or cause you care deeply about.

Example of Bio #1: Marcia Berkey

Marcia after many years of teaching at traditional universities and corporate training, now teaches full time online in the IT department for South University. She has a wonderful time living and learning and applying the many concepts learned from everywhere. She has presented a variety of e-Creativity sessions for both education and business. Marcia also consults on Word, PowerPoint, Access databases, and Excel spreadsheets.

Example of Bio #2: Jane Goldwasser

Jane Goldwasser is President of New Directions Consulting, Inc. a qualitative research company specializing in new product development. In her spare time, she is on the Board of Directors of a newly re-aligned Girl Scout Council and chairs both their Fund Development and Board Development committees. She is a CPSI alum who, having completed the Integrating Creative Leadership program, has put it to work in leading both PACE sessions and in working with CPSI Youthwise™.

Example of Bio #3: Art Emrich

Art is certified as a Master Practitioner and Trainer of NLP and Hypnosis by the 4 major hypnosis organizations in the US. His practice includes (a) medical referral clients who experience distress not relieved by traditional treatment, (b) the mental game of sports success (such as tennis, golf, and baseball), (c) academic excellence for peak performance in study and testing, and (d) enabling creative solutions for the challenges of life. Art is the HEAD Coach and Founder of U-Solutions LLC in Sarasota (the “U” stands for unconscious, where the most creative solutions reside).

 

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Example of Workshop Description #1: Christine Alexander

Join Chris for a day of exploration through improvisation and theater games…no acting experience required! In this safe, small group setting, you will have opportunities to be both on the stage and in the audience. Through the experiences, discussion, and your reflections, you will find new insights into communication, relationships, and yourself. This is a wonderful opportunity to allow your inner voices to speak to you and to discover the possibilities that come from living in the NOW.

Example of Workshop Description #2: Jane Goldwasser

This is a workshop for people who have dreamed of starting a business, solving one of society’s great problems, or pursuing any dream that has remained elusive for years. Often the biggest challenge to undertaking an audacious, wonderful goal is leaving the security of the known to go out into uncharted territory. If you have such a dream, join Jane Goldwasser for a day-long opportunity to translate this wish into a detailed plan for action. Use Jane’s D.A.R.E. model – D. (Decide), A. (Analyze), R. (Reality Check), E. (Execute).

Example of Workshop Description #3: Ann Bracken

Do you find yourself saying you don’t have enough time? You can’t squeeze in enough space for fun or creativity? What if you could make time expand or contract at will? In this workshop, based on the book Creating Time by Marney Makridakis, you will use journaling to kick-start your ideas and create an art-inspired time-tool to help you flip your day so that you and time can become partners in your creative work.

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Example of Learning Outcomes #1: Christine Alexander

  1. Participate in a variety of Improv exercises and theater games
  2. Take time to reflect and discus experiences and insights
  3. Identify strategies to improve communication
  4. Make connections between ‘play-acting’ and one’s real world POSSIBLE

Example of Learning Outcomes #2: Jane Goldwasser

  1. Translate a dream into a major goal
  2. Develop a plan to realize this goal
  3. Learn to move beyond stumbling blocks

Example of Learning Outcomes #3: Ann Bracken

  1. Identify and describe your relationship to time for creative pursuits
  2. Use a series of structured journaling and visual-arts prompts to identify problems and brainstorm solutions
  3. Pair-share solutions
  4. Create an arts-based clock-face reflect new relationship to time
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Example of Possible Applications #1: Christine Alexander

  1. Add new improv exercises and theater games to teaching, group facilitation or training
  2. Build on the insights gained in the workshop through continued reflection
  3. Discover a passion for the stage and become involved in community theater or beyond

Example of Possible Applications #2: Jane Goldwasser

  1. Implement the plan for action and achieve a major goal
  2. Apply the D.A.R.E. planning tools to other goals

Example of Possible Applications #3: Ann Bracken

  1. Make effective use of reconfiguring time to accomplish important tasks (prof/self)
  2. Use art as a means of goal-setting and track progress in achieving goals (self/prof)
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Example of Possible Applications #1: Christine Alexander

  1. Add new improv exercises and theater games to teaching, group facilitation or training
  2. Build on the insights gained in the workshop through continued reflection
  3. Discover a passion for the stage and become involved in community theater or beyond

Example of Possible Applications #2: Jane Goldwasser

  1. Implement the plan for action and achieve a major goal
  2. Apply the D.A.R.E. planning tools to other goals

Example of Possible Applications #3: Ann Bracken

  1. Make effective use of reconfiguring time to accomplish important tasks (prof/self)
  2. Use art as a means of goal-setting and track progress in achieving goals (self/prof)
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