return to the innocence of the INNER child
This workshop uses therapeutic meditation techniques to release the energy of the inner child within you: joyfulness, innocence, vulnerability, spontaneity, creativity...
It is comprised of four main stages:
• LAUGHTER FOR NO REASON
The effect creates the cause : you start by laughing voluntarily and the source of joy wells up from within. Everything becomes a cause for laughter, even your "favorite" problems. Instead of laughing at something, you experience the laughter for no reason of the child expressing their pleasure at play. This first stage of the workshop uses many techniques of "laughter yoga" the same as in the "Laugh for no reason" workshop.
• PURIFYING TEARS
Crying expresses our vulnerability and this is the space in which love can grow. Crying expresses not only sadness, it also intensifies joy. Whether we cry from sadness, from gratitude or from joy, tears are the language of the overflowing heart, a form of prayer. In this stage of the workshop, gentle music helps us to contact our feelings and to bring forth the tears.
• PLAYFULNESS
Wonder, innocence, spontaneity, the joy of being alive : playfulness is the quality of the young at heart. In this stage of the workshop, participants meet in child's play exploring their potential for pure fun.
• healing
After laughing, crying and playing together, we are already on fairly intimate terms. What better way than a warm hug to express this closeness! And hugging satisfies a deep need of the child within us for human contact. The last part of the workshop allows us to experience the deeply relaxing and healing process of exchanging hugs.
In this process you go from joyous laughter to tears of sadness,
passing through tears of gratitude and joy, to come back to a deeper laughter. This is the circle of the seasons of the heart, that cleans and heals old wounds. Then you can experience playing in complete innocence with others, in a game where laughter is not a way of escaping sadness, but a deeper laughter born
out of accepting periods of sadness.
Khalil GIBRAN - The Prophet
Speaks to us of joy and sorrow.
He answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your
being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very
cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs mustyour joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
The above painting, Prières chaleureuses (Heartfelt prayers)", is by Neila Ben Ayed. It reflects the state of prayer that we reach when laughter and tears mix freely.
