Another brick in The wall🎉

Wall | Ownership | Left Brain

Last week, we celebrated Halloween and talked about our F.E.A.R.. This week, I want to celebrate people who went beyond their fears to push a whole wall down. Today, we are celebrating the 32nd anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall! 

9th November 1989. 

It is one of the dates that made history. I remember some images on TV. Not sure I really understood what was going on but I certainly remember my parents glued to the TV, mesmerised.

I want to offer this letter to my German friends, those in this growing newsletter, and beyond. Let’s celebrate with them. Not just because it is a national day but also because that wall was the symbol of 2 worlds, and a wall has always had this image of the divide. You just have to think of Donald Trump and his famous Mexico wall. 

Why do we want to build so many walls when what we need are bridges?

For the last 10 years, theatre and improv have been a big part of my life. When rehearsing, exercises are often very creative and playful, and today one exercise was particularly applicable so I decide to share it.

We had to create a wall and get on the other side. Simple, right?

Now, let’s think about it. What is this wall in front of you? What is it made of? How can you get on the other side?

Is your wall made of clouds, smoke, bricks, rock, fish, bamboo, roses, wood, glass, velvet, fur, paper, water, fire, people, car, biscuit…? The list of possibilities is endless. What is your wall made of?

Then, obviously the tool you need to get through it will be different… maybe a simple lighter if made of paper, or a diamond if made of glass, maybe a handsaw for wood, or who cares, just bazooka it!

But then what else? We can climb this wall, dig under, jump over, be catapulted, pass it, jet-pack it, using a helicopter, or maybe you are so strong that you can just break it with your fist or like a superhero slam through it.

This is a playful analogy to our own walls, and the walls that surround us, those that we see and those that are less obvious but very much real.

Like in this exercise, the first thing we want is to recognise it, to make it real, to make it come alive, to name it. How can you find a solution to a problem, a challenge, a barrier you haven’t defined, elicited, or shaped? 

Then, the work comes with the creative process or finding a solution. Unleashing this right brain into a creative exercise, a flow of options and solutions to go around, reframe, and build solutions.

We all have our own walls, it’s time to own them and bring them down!

QUESTION…

What is on your way?

• What walls are in front of you?

• How can you cross them?

• What needs to happen for you to go through them?