Using techniques based on Nonviolent Communication and Body Therapy, Kirsten Kristensen invites us to work with our feelings of guilt and shame, welcoming them as important feedback about what is going on for us at a deep level.
Our purpose is to heal old pain, change limiting beliefs and expand our access to our own power and joy for living the lives we want to. This workshop offers the opportunity to get to know more about how guilt, shame and freedom live in you and to explore ways to live from inner truth.
The starting point
Many of us grew up in family systems where guilt and shame was passed on to us, without our parents being conscious of what they were handing down. Strong expressions of blame include being told “Shame on you”, or “How dare you behave like that?”. But subtler questions like: “What are you doing it like that for?” if asked in a blaming tone of voice already imply that you “should” be doing it in a different way. Even without these direct expressions of shame, many of us have in one way or another received the message that there is something wrong with us, or that we are a burden to our family.
In our work together we will explore the good reasons we always had behind whatever we did or said. Our intention is to acknowledge that we did our best, that we are OK as we are, and at the same time that there is room for improvement. In this understanding, we truly welcome our whole being as we currently are, growing in freedom and self-acceptance. At the same time, we are empowered to learn and grow in particular areas that we want to change.
Guilt and shame often lives a rather subtle life in us, because we try to avoid those feeling and this leads to us withdrawing and closing down in situations where it would serve us better to open up and go towards connection. Guilt and shame often shows up in how we parent, and there is much to learn as we understand the valuable functions of these feelings, and move towards freedom to hand on a different legacy to our children.
Guilt and shame can be used as a key to our core qualities and allow our potential to enrich our communities and thereby ourselves. So there is nothing to get rid of, only to understand and integrate.
How will we work?
Nonviolent Communication is a powerful process that supports healing and liberation from limiting beliefs, and at the same time, it is a wonderful path to our own resources. Again and again contacting our own needs and feeling them in our bodies is pivotal. From this source, clarity, joy and creativity can grow. From it I can live more and more the life that wants to live through me.
By becoming aware of the situations in our lives where guilt and shame influence our choices, we can discover the creative force that is always in us and give it more space. And little by little we can grow into more openness and being able to enjoy more living in community.
In the safety of the warm supportive community in our group, we will explore our inner freedom, try out new responses to our surroundings, and allow ourselves to relax and enjoy the result. We will seek a balance between structured exercises and process oriented work. “Process oriented” means we let ourselves be guided by what is alive in the participants and in the group.
We will:
Weave together demonstrations, individual work, time for reflection, meditation, small group and whole group work.
Seek a balance between intensity and playful ease, tears and laughter, mourning and celebration.
Explore what freedom looks like individually and in community.
Come to understand more about how connection between body, feeling, thought and need serves as the foundation for sustainable change.
Dance with our inner jackals as a source of love and self empowerment
Explore how freedom can support connection.
Give space for healing processes.
Contribute to a playful and supportive exchange between our inner team with the many aspects of who we are, to open a wealth of possibilities for how we live our lives today.