The Drama Of Life by Mark Wentworth

In today’s busy world it’s sometimes difficult to take time out and remember who we really are, and also what does it mean to remember who we really are, isn’t it enough that we are able to function and enjoy day to day life?

For the majority maybe but for others it’s a mere impossibility. Do you remember what career you dreamed of doing when you were a child, do you remember how you used sit and imagine for what seemed forever how it would be when you lived that dream and became the famous pop star or the most known footballer, ok so maybe not everyone dreams of this but we all hold somewhere the memory of what we wanted to be. It’s not always about being famous or known throughout the world; maybe it’s just following your dreams. In today’s world of logic and rational thinking we learn early on that to imagine or daydream as it’s sometimes known is a bad thing, how many times do we hear teachers or parents telling children to stop daydreaming or it’s just your imagination.

In traditional psychology imagination is not recognised as part of the psychological function – if you want to study imagination you have to look to study something like literature. Thankfully we now have more open-minded psychology approaches and can explore imagination in such ways as psychodynamic psychotherapy. Carl Jung was one of the first psychologists to seriously work with imagination, he recognised the importance of a client’s images, followed by the sensations they created in the body, he coined the phrase that emotion was indeed a thought in motion. Change the thought and the feeling and body will change also, at times reading something like this sounds simple in theory but completely different in practice.

Once we start to understand that we are indeed director of our own life, we then move on further to realise we are also the scriptwriter, producer and importantly the star as well, you can create the life you want, it’s all down to what you imagine life to be like. Equally don’t let your biography become your biology. If you imagine life to be a struggle, so be it – I remember when I first moved to Portugal I was told by some people that dealing with bureaucracy here in Portugal was a nightmare and if going to places to get car tax, telephone service be prepared to wait for hours, someone even suggested taking sandwiches. I honestly have to say in the four years of living in Portugal I have never had that experience and have always found people to be most helpful – the people who told me these things looked at me almost in shock when I relayed my own experiences. That’s what they expected to happen and it did, I’ve just learnt to listen to other people’s experience and imagine a positive successful outcome – it’s the basic laws of physics like attracts like.

“On the day of judgement you will be called to account for all the wonderful things God placed upon your pathway that you refused to enjoy”

Always having had a love of theatre and drama I looked for many years of ways of being able to show people their thoughts and beliefs in action, whilst I might have read or learnt about positive thinking I want to experience how it works in practice, does it mean I have to be aware of absolutely every thought I’m thinking, if so I would spend so much time thinking I wouldn’t have time to live.

A few years ago I came across an ancient form of tribal theatre that is used to help solve the problems of day to day village life; it’s also used as way for ancestors to relay their unfinished business to the living. It’s an amazing sensation to sit and watch your whole family drama being played out in front of you, and yet these complete strangers know nothing of your family history. Some people know of this work as Family Constellations introduced by Bert Hellinger from Germany, who, as a missionary in West Africa learnt this from tribal people, he saw the benefits of this process and developed it to fit a western way of living, his work has received both praise and criticism in the world of therapy. Personally I find some of the adapted methods too rigid and the outcomes already predicted by the practitioner, but equally a lot of people have been helped with Family Constellations.

Using tribal and ancient theatre ritual I created a new form of drama, which for me is much more free-flowing and helps a person really see right before their own eyes what is happening with whatever the presenting issue is.
We have a relationship with everything and everyone we come into contact with, these relationships can be easygoing or cause us continuous problems, by playing out through dynamic theatre we can begin to understand what is the underlying issue we have with a situation or with a person. A recent client called Maria wanted to see and understand how her new business idea would unfold, and so we created a small circle with her chosen friends and colleagues to play out her business idea. The reason we bring in others is because it evokes our instinctual sense of community and helping another human being on their journey through life, if one person is assisted, on some level mankind as a whole is moved on.

“When a butterfly flaps its wings in Japan, expect a hurricane in New York”
Chaos Theory

Dynamic theatre works with the unconscious energy we all give out, the thing about theatre work is, it never ever lies; it can never be manipulated by anyone, for some, drama can be too revealing to even consider attempting to do it. In Maria’s drama we had her business idea, her relationship to success and to money; the most revealing part for her was when money and success tried to stand next to Maria she found it too uncomfortable to stay and left the circle, which gave her the insight she needed to realise that to start her business now would ultimately lead to it’s failure as she didn’t believe on an unconscious level that she could achieve it.

As Maria told me later in another session, the family beliefs about money and success were that it only happens to other people, to have been successful would have been to go against the family and break the family belief pattern, which in most cases is not always easy to do. With imagination and feeling she is changing her relationship to money and success, she is feeling her way into her new business which is taking her into areas she didn’t imagine possible some time ago. Anything and everything can be experienced through Dynamic Theatre; it allows the players of the drama to have a sense of spontaneity, everyone receives something, even as a player you will consider your part in the drama and see what it mirrors back to you in your own life drama, no one is left untouched.

Another lady learnt her inability to become pregnant was due to the fact that she didn’t really love her husband. One man discovered his soul mate was indeed his gay best friend, something he had been denying in himself for many years. Dynamic theatre brings us back to our centre and shows us who we really are; it gives us back our sense of connectedness and reminds us of all that we can be.

In this age of everyman/woman for themselves and always seeing the other as competition or a possible threat in the workplace, it’s a reassuring thing to know that ancient wisdom from seemingly primitive people by western standards is actually emerging here in the West to help save us from doing untold damage to ourselves and each other. I can think of no better way of watching the beauty of life’s dramas unfold before my very eyes, and experiencing the immense love that the universe holds for each and everyone of us.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”
Ghandi

Visit Mark’s website www.colourforlife.com. Mark Wentworth uses colour psychotherapy and drama as tools for personal development and group/business transformation. He lives in Lisbon, Portugal and also travels extensively throughout the world sharing and teaching this knowledge.

©Mark Wentworth 2006