Spirit Play Pedagogy as a Way to Rise Above Our Dark Valleys

As a person going through the grief journey, I often get caught up by the swirl and currents of my sadness, an experience that can often be disorienting. The pain of my grief during the first year after the death of my dad and my brother was intense, and like most grieving individuals in the early phases of their grief, I could not really see how I could live a life of thriving without them. It took a lot intentional work of reaching out to guides (grief counselors and grief support group groups) who helped normalize what I was going through: the continual experience of shock, as though waking up to a nightmare. What my grief sherpas did for me was to not only affirm and validate my grief experience and symptoms, but when appropriate, they invited me to see the wider landscape of my life journey. They reminded me that my brother, dad, myself - all of us - are sojourners. There is a beginning and an end to our life journey. We say hello but we also need to say goodbye. In a way, wisdom stories and mythologies provide the map if/when we need it - when we are ready to see. The moment of catching a glimpse of the wider landscape beyond our dark valleys is grace indeed: "Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, twas blind but now I see."

---

Instead of just staying in survival mode, merely running and auto-piloting, seemingly serving as a cog in the machine, wisdom stories give us the space to notice and become aware of the topography and geography of our life journey. That is, instead of simply reacting to or being blinded by the particulars of life's circumstances or day to day stresses and becoming fully identified with our thoughts and emotional reactions (example, panic or resentment), wisdom stories give us an opportunity to become conscious and curious observers of life's unfolding and adventure. We become the awareness. 

---

As the Ancient One reflects in the film Dr. Strange, "[While we may] never lose our demons, we learn to live above them."​ The key word here is "above" because when we are at a higher elevation, we have a wider visual range or perspective: at this angle the topography and geography is visible to us.

A wisdom story (parable/mythology), which contains an archetypal theme, is an effective tool to invite those in spiritual crisis to connect their disorienting human experience with a meta-narrative, allowing them a chance to access a higher level perspective and a wider perspective, thereby giving them easier access to words that give flesh to their experience, particularly, their existential struggle with isolation, mortality, freedom and meaning.

---

In a physical way, Spirit Play (or Godly Play) participants observe the geography of the story from a higher level as the story unfolds on the floor (see the illustration below). After a story is told, participants may interact with the story by pointing or touching the story pieces or characters if they wish, as they reflect on what resonated with them about the story or reflect about which parts of the story is about them. This method allows the participant to have some distance between oneself and one's thoughts, feelings and reactions. You are not just the reaction, you are also separate from it: you are the watcher.

​The observer's level or angle in relationship to the story pieces is similar to one playing chess: a metaphor often used by therapists to illustrate the skill of one becoming a conscious observer to one's experience. A parallel idea that I have used in the past is a long distance runner on an unfamiliar nature trail taking a quick break on a bench located at a higher topographical level, allowing the athlete to find their bearings in relationship to their destination point. Instead of getting blinded by the disorienting twists and turns of the trail (or to use the chess analogy in the 3rd picture: getting fully identified with an anxious chess piece that can be potentially attacked and taken away) one can just be the watcher: the awareness that observes, wonders and notices. This skill is a step forward in one's healing process in mental health.

---

​Neuroscience tells us about the good news of neuroplasticity in our brain. That is, our brain has the capacity rewire. My hope is that by accessing a wide lens perspective of our life journeys with the help of wisdom stories, we consciously create new neural pathways in our brain (analogous to creating a new footpath or nature trail illustrated in pic on right) as we make new choices and embody new actions that lead to our thriving and flourishing. ​

---

WISDOM STORIES

SESSION STRUCTURE

FACILITATOR'S GUIDE

LEARNING MODULES