Mandala of You

21/10/2024

Last two spaces for Speak From your Heart residential workshop @ Osho Leela Community - November 1-3

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Speak from the Heart is a workshop for people who are terrified of public speaking. It’s for people who have a hidden or unconscious block to stepping onto a stage and being themselves in front of a group of people.
Does that sound like you?
Well you’re not alone because this applies to almost everyone except a few psychopaths and narcissists.

The fear of public speaking is wired into our mammalian brain because at heart we are tribal creatures who long to feel the safety of the group. Standing alone and exposed puts us in a physiological position of risk.

Now breathe…
You were not wrong,
Your fear was grounded in reality
It is authentic and needs to be honoured, accepted and integrated

The allowing and acceptance of this fear is the cornerstone of this workshop.
We will create a gentle laboratory where- without the pressure to ‘BE’ or ‘DO’ anything- we can create the conditions for each unique individual to explore how the fear energy inside themselves can be invited to unfreeze, to become unstuck and to mutate.

Don’t take my word for it, but I have seen many times, in countless workshops how each and every individual can experience a certain degree of unfreezing when the pressure of ‘Doing’ ANYTHING is removed from the equation.

This is the core of our process and we will take as much time as it needs.
From this physiological dimension of the art of public speaking we will look at tools for our mind, heart and soul to gain more liberty in the process.

In particular, we will look at
Messaging: How to distill whatever you have to say into a singular thread that will guide you throughout any presentation or talk.
Showmanship: How to explore or activate energies inside you such as passion, presence or humour that will help you be ‘big’ in front of a group for a few moments or whenever you need it.
Authenticity: How to come back to the simple naked truth of who you are , what you feel or think, so that people can connect to your authenticity and uniqueness

The workshop is both a holistic voyage into the art and craft of public speaking as well as a powerful journey of self-discovery and wholeness. Because the fear of public speaking touches such a primal nerve, we get a direct access point to our fears, blocks, limitations AND also our gifts, talents and resources


TESTIMONIALS

“This training certainly reaches the parts other trainings have not. I am grateful for your facilitation and your earned, lived wisdom. I learned so much about opening my heart and I’m now seeking to maintain that place as often as I can.”

“The combination of archetypal work, experiential learning, playfulness and support of a group was beautifully crafted by Ailon. His uniquely structured approach to embodying ourself is transformational and truly special. Snap up a ticket, I highly recommend the workshop and will be back for more. “

"Thank you for a glorious day of being able to practise speaking and communicating from the heart. It was such a gift to play, fail, learn and be met in acceptance each step of the way.”

"The course was challenging, safe and completely engaging. It gently took me to places I need to go but resist visiting. Ailon skilfully shared his personal journey, his considerable skills, his deep knowledge and experience in a masterful way that respected our shared humanity and the personal state and experience of each of us. We were shared into his knowledge rather than 'taught at'. Highly recommended."

Link in comments below

25/09/2024

CLOWNING, HUMILITY AND FAILURE...

Many spiritual practices ask us to develop the practice of humility
But how can you actually do this when you don’t really feel it?
In other words it is fake

Clowning is a practical spiritual craft because we actually experience the natural arising of humility through the art of failure

Often when we fail we feel HUMILIATION
Through the playful repetition of failure in clown scenes, this emotional response diminishes
We discover a lighter, more proportionate response of humility

In other words “As you can see, I’m not good at everything”
and I’m OKAY with that

Which is often the opposite of what our ego wants to show the world
“ I’m fantastic” “ I’m great”
Our ego loves to boast and prove that we are not inferior in any way
Usually, because we were brought up by our caregivers ( family, religion and education) to only get praise and affirmation for “doing things well”
Not for who we actually are ( a mix of skilful and klutzy)

The continued effort of having to portray a mask or persona of greatness, accomplishment, skill can get very tiring.
Why? Because we put a lot of effort into repressing our inferior aspects psychologically
From ourselves and then the world
When they suddenly arise amidst the ups and downs of life we can be provoked into great crises of self-worth
“Oh I’m terrible...I’m no good ..I’m unloveable”

We panic because our “love-acquisition” strategy is threatened by looking bad and failing

By going through the experience of failure in a safe space in our clown therapy laboratory, we learn that
-We can survive
-Its not so bad
-I discovered something new in the process

What’s more as the clown learns to not only feel okay about failure, he or she will often embrace, reveal, share and celebrate failure with his witnesses ( the audience)

Many times a clown will fail to “do something” in the conventional sense only to then turn his accidental failure into a great discovery and a mark of complete individuality and uniqueness

At this level, clowning becomes a path to finding your authentic self- the one you are happy to be, the one you believe in from the inside out

We need to repeat the experience of failing in clowning several times and regularly in order to discover the emotional arc

You see, between the extremes of humiliation and humility are several other emotional stages
embarrassment, disappointment, denial, fleeing, distraction, covering up, retreat

As we repeat the exercise over time, we discover through our clown a whole range of emotional responses usually considered “not safe” in everyday life. In clown mode we learn to play with any of these emotional responses. Our witnesses (audience) will love our honesty and also recognise the same discomfort. And when an accomplished clown / comedian navigates this emotional underworld they do some healing for us all- we all feel released by it (if we can admit to ourselves that we sometimes feel this way too)

In a nutshell it is liberating to accept failure, because the FEAR of failure is often more damaging than the act of failure itself

Clowning teaches us to be okay with “not being okay”

Come and get a very gentle taste of this on Sunday October 6th

16/08/2024

They say that you end up teaching what you most need to learn. Well, having grown up profoundly shy and introverted , the journey out of my shell ( I mean I am a double cancer) has been a lifelong journey of self discovery and expansion into my self-expression. It seems that this workshop 'Speak from your Heart' is an attempt to touch on all the aspects of self-hiding that I have known and ways I have wriggled free. If the fee of public speaking calls you, then read on..

Official blurb:

Speak from the Heart is a workshop for people who are terrified of public speaking. It’s for people who have a hidden or unconscious block to stepping onto a stage and being themselves in front of a group of people.
Does that sound like you?
Well you’re not alone because this applies to almost everyone except a few psychopaths and narcissists.

The fear of public speaking is wired into our mammalian brain because at heart we are tribal creatures who long to feel the safety of the group. Standing alone and exposed puts us in a physiological position of risk.

Now breathe…
You were not wrong,
Your fear was grounded in reality
It is authentic and needs to be honoured, accepted and integrated

The allowing and acceptance of this fear is the cornerstone of this workshop.
We will create a gentle laboratory where- without the pressure to ‘BE’ or ‘DO’ anything- we can create the conditions for each unique individual to explore how the fear energy inside themselves can be invited to unfreeze, to become unstuck and to mutate.

Don’t take my word for it, but I have seen many times, in countless workshops how each and every individual can experience a certain degree of unfreezing when the pressure of ‘Doing’ ANYTHING is removed from the equation.

This is the core of our process and we will take as much time as it needs.
From this physiological dimension of the art of public speaking we will look at tools for our mind, heart and soul to gain more liberty in the process.

In particular, we will look at
Messaging: How to distill whatever you have to say into a singular thread that will guide you throughout any presentation or talk.
Showmanship: How to explore or activate energies inside you such as passion, presence or humour that will help you be ‘big’ in front of a group for a few moments or whenever you need it.
Authenticity: How to come back to the simple naked truth of who you are , what you feel or think, so that people can connect to your authenticity and uniqueness

The workshop is both a holistic voyage into the art and craft of public speaking as well as a powerful journey of self-discovery and wholeness. Because the fear of public speaking touches such a primal nerve, we get a direct access point to our fears, blocks, limitations AND also our gifts, talents and resources



“This training certainly reaches the parts other trainings have not. I am grateful for your facilitation and your earned, lived wisdom. I learned so much about opening my heart and I’m now seeking to maintain that place as often as I can.”

“The combination of archetypal work, experiential learning, playfulness and support of a group was beautifully crafted by Ailon. His uniquely structured approach to embodying ourself is transformational and truly special. Snap up a ticket, I highly recommend the workshop and will be back for more. “

"Thank you for a glorious day of being able to practise speaking and communicating from the heart. It was such a gift to play, fail, learn and be met in acceptance each step of the way.”

"The course was challenging, safe and completely engaging. It gently took me to places I need to go but resist visiting. Ailon skilfully shared his personal journey, his considerable skills, his deep knowledge and experience in a masterful way that respected our shared humanity and the personal state and experience of each of us. We were shared into his knowledge rather than 'taught at'. Highly recommended."

27/03/2024

A little story about how the Clown Healing method arose...

( PS one place left for our retreat next month)

Ailon tells the story how Clown Healing was born. He’ll be facilitating the process next at Osho Leela in Dorset, UK, 19-21 April 2024

31/01/2024

How is your fear of public speaking?
Do you get scared, nervous, intimidated by the thought of an audience?

Growing up, I was always ‘the shy-guy’, the introvert, the quiet bloke at the back, uncomfortable with any attention.

Weirdly, over the last 35 years, life has lead me on a path of becoming professionally expressive, a loudmouth at times, an entertainer, a teacher- someone who basically had to now be at the front of the room.

On the journey between these two extremes, I have had to traverse something like the mountain ladders across the abyss that you see in those Everest movies. ( Ok maybe a slight exaggeration 😄)

I’ve had to walk my way out of shyness, inhibition, uncertainty, dissociation, confusion, escapism. Many things helped, many techniques were good for a while only to fade away like the proverbial caterpillar skin.

Eventually- after about 20 years on this road- something just popped. A relaxation happened. I learned to speak from inside me, from the joy, happiness and silliness that lay within- yet that I also wanted to share with the audience. It was a Eureka experience.

In recent years, I’ve been able to bring together a whole host of different techniques that have helped me with the art of public speaking and gathered them in a two day course happening next weekend -February 10-11

So, if you would like some help, assistance and support on your path with this age-old craft then come and join us. There are plenty of tools here to help -all tried and tested in the field. None learned off-the-shelf.

We will be looking at a range of different archetypes and the internal qualities that we can invoke through exploring them.
We will learn about the presence of The Actor, the Stillness of the Yogi, the Passion of the Preacher, The Unifying Oneness of the Guru, the “Best-mate’ Friendliness of the Comedian, The Acceptance of the Clown and the Authenticity of the Priest. Together these inner qualities become a wobble board of support that we can lean into whenever we need a little more of that particular energy.

Above all though, we look at the Fear itself - and make sure that we learn to breathe into the fear rather than to reject it and split off from it. The same vital life-force that is in the fear can be transmuted into an authentic aliveness that your audience will be magnetically drawn to.

Come and join us - it will be safe, therapeutically held and a lot of fun !! You are also welcome to have a chat with me to see if it is a good fit

“What an amazing process.The combination of archetypal work, experiential learning, playfulness and support of a group was beautifully crafted by Ailon. His uniquely structured approach to embodying ourself is transformational and truly special. Snap up a ticket, I highly recommend the workshop and will be back for more."

Booking link in comments below

28/10/2022

😀 Man- did we have a good time last night in our playfulness session.
A group of mostly first-timers moved slowly through the gears into full blown creativity, exuberance and uninhibited self expression.

😎 A final check-in at the end revealed feelings of 'freedom.. shedding ma sh*t...cranking up my aliveness...confidence...feeling more authentic...more open to myself and others....a chance to break down fixed personas...and more laughter and group creativity than I've had in days.." ( obviously this is a mix of people, not just one overly happy dude.)

I know you're "supposed" to take pics and vids for socials these days, but literally there is never a single person anywhere near their phone throughout the whole class.
When's the last time you saw that in our modern lives???

So that's why all I got is da verbals.

🕺🏾 We're here every Tuesday from 7.45-9.15 ish in Baron's Court. Come and join us for a right laugh and as one of the lovely people said:

"This stuff is medicine."

If you're sick of seriousness and worldly BS we got just the tonic for you. ### 🤩🥳🌸❤️

A chance to explore the joy of play, free the inner child and laugh yourself silly

28/02/2022

"Like being drunk without any alcohol"

"I actually think I wet myself laughing"

"I need this every week. This is what's missing from my life."

"More like a rave or party than a workshop"

"Sort of like when you used to get really high with your friends and come up with all sorts of uncensored hilarious nonsense"

"Mate- you should call this un-fººk yourself"

It's very hard for me to describe a course that is not actually a course or a class that is more of a happening than a workshop.

Which is why I've shared the words of those who've been before.

It's basically a chance for us grown-up adults to enjoy some uninhibited free play as well as dancing and games like we did when we were about 5 years old. If needed, I facilitate- if not the amazing energy of the group takes over and we roll with the unpredictable flow of merriment, fun and joy.

Come and try ...

https://www.studysociety.org/event/the-practice-of-playfulness-2/2022-03-01/ -tickets

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22/02/2022

12/10/2021

24/03/2021

🙏❤️🙌🤞💜

12/01/2021

Looks good