Creativity Workshops

CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS : CREATE A NEW STORY, CREATE A NEW YOU!

"As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has--or ever will have--something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression." - Mister Rogers

The Creativity Workshops are based on the premise that each of us has limitless potential to be creative, often hidden as a light within, waiting to be sparked. As Michelangelo said, the sculptor's job is to chip away the excess stone so that the sculpture already existing within the rock can be revealed. You are that sculpture, and you are also the sculptor! By accessing love as the sculpting force, creativity can be expressed through the combination of one's personal story, unique purpose, innate gifts, and learned skills.

Participants are encouraged to use our workshops as an incubation space to invent something - an enterprise, a work of art, a new way of doing something (anything!), and ultimately, themselves. So, they are required to choose a real creative project, which becomes the "construction site" or "playground" for a connection with and re-creation of themselves, and for practicing the approaches and principles being explored. Although creative writing is used as a primary medium of expression, there are many other techniques and mediums at play. The collective creative energy of the group has a profound impact on the participants and their projects, and final outcomes are also showcased to an invited audience.

Read on for more on WORKSHOP ELEMENTS, WORKSHOP FORMATS and PARTICIPANT TESTIMONIALS

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

INTRO WORKSHOP ON MAY 11, 2013, 10am - 2pm at Tasveer's 8th Aaina Festival
See details below under Workshop Formats. Register now by prepaying (Deadline April 27th; Max class size 25)

SIX WEEK WORKSHOP SERIES, JUNE 2 - JULY 7, 2013 (Greater Seattle)
See details below under Workshop Formats. Register now by prepaying and emailing info@flyingchickadee.com

WORKSHOP ELEMENTS

WHAT'S YOUR STORY?
The connection with your personal story forms the foundation of the creativity workshop series. Everyone has a story! And we're always telling stories, whether we're interacting with others or wrestling with the voices in our heads. Creative writing based in personal narrative reveals your unique story, which is powerful because it represents who you are today, provides the basis for agency in the world, and touches, moves and inspires others.
INVENTING POSSIBILITY
A higher (and rarely leveraged) opportunity in such storytelling is the choice to consciously change your story, once it has been revealed. Deeper, truer power lies in transcending the past story so that a new one can be created in the present - to effect new futures! Learn how to create a blank slate. Through experiential exercises on your creative project that involve inverting time, shifting perspective, switching lenses, changing mediums, stretching the canvas...use your imaginations to explore and map unlimited possibilities.
FEAR AND LOVE
Through experiential exercises on your project, experience how storytelling based in the past profoundly affects our beliefs about ourselves, and how these beliefs create our present circumstances. Learn how to move from unconsciously allowing fear to create "what we don't want" to consciously using love and imagination to create "what we do want." Learn how to choose a new story from among all possibilities, based on love, vision and purpose.
THE SHORT STORY
Through experiential exercises on your project, learn to chisel your chosen story down to its shortest, clearest, most unequivocal, authentic, purposeful, potent, generative and actionable form. Practice always telling the shorter, more creative story in your everyday conversations, whether regarding yourself or your endeavors, whether in formal or informal settings!
VISUALIZATION
Through practicing with specific visualization tools (such as creating a three-act structure, mock-ups and dreamlines) on your project learn how to convert your story into physical action and implementation.

WORKSHOP FORMATS

SIX-WEEK WORKSHOP SERIES
The creative principles described above are practiced through real creative projects and experiential exercises in a group format. (Summer 2013 Series scheduled for June 2nd to July 7th. Time: Sundays, 2pm-5pm. Cost: $555 per participant; reference materials included. Group size: 6-8. Register by prepaying above and emailing info@flyingchickadee.com)
YOUNG CREATIVES SERIES
This series focuses on developing creative writing skills and connection with personal story as part of self growth and awareness, specially developed for children or youth.
WEEKEND/FULL-DAY INTENSIVE
This is a full-day or 2-day intensive workshop for out-of-town (non Seattle-based) locations, covering all of the elements of the six-week series, with the creative project development occurring outside the workshop time. (Next Weekend Workshop to be held in Hyderabad, India for school teachers of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Dates and Cost TBD. Group size is 5-15.)
INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP: WHAT'S YOUR STORY?
In this 4-hour workshop, get a taste of (re)creating your story and your creative possibilities! Also receive a copy of Shahana's latest book on Creativity, on which the workshop is modeled. (Next Intro Workshop will be held at Tasveer's Spring Festival Aaina on May 11th 2013. Register by prepaying above.)
IN-CLASS WORKSHOP: INVENTING POSSIBILITY
In this short module that can be integrated into an existing curriculum, we lead the group through an experiential exercise in inventing possibility. (Last session held on February 29th 2012 as part of a Critical Thinking class for youth with learning disabilities in the Occupational and Life Skills program, affiliated with Bellevue College.)

If interested in any of the above workshops, please email us at info@flyingchickadee.com

TESTIMONIALS (From Adult 6-week Series, Fall 2012, Spring 2012 and Fall 2011)

"Doing the Creativity Workshops was one of my epic events in 2012. Shahana, I want to take a moment to offer you my deepest gratitude for the experience. I joined the Workshops with concrete expectations; they were going to be the not-so subtle nudge that I needed to get my website, healthedited.com, up and running. I already had the domain and some content set up for the site, but for confounding reasons, did not have the desire or the drive to take on the project full-on. I learned about the lizard brain in our very first session. I learned a thing or two about taming this slimy reptile and about focusing on my goal by taking small but consistent steps. Not only have the workshops helped me get unstuck and pour love into my chosen project, but they also have helped me uncover some powerful life-lessons that will continue to illuminate my path forever."
- A.S., entrepreneur, nutritionist, writer. Project: Health and Nutrition Website

"The Creativity workshops sent me on a path of transformative journey to find myself and who I really want to be. Shahana took us through a process of self discovery that left me more empowered and encouraged than ever before."
- S.S., business and management consultant, mother, self-discoverer. Project: Reimagining Self Gaming Kit

"I joined the creative writing workshop series on an impulse, with no concrete expectations. What I had not envisioned was how enriching the experience would turn out to be. Every Sunday, the whole group was eager, engaged and genuinely interested in hearing what each one of us had written for the intriguing and unexpected prompts Shahana had given us the previous week. The power of hearing someone else's creative dreams and projects woven into a story, a letter, a poem or a song was immensely energizing and encouraging. It allowed me to pour my unsaid thoughts into concrete words - finally. The workshops made me realize that writing and sharing the silent imagery of dreams and daydreams in concrete words, are powerful ways to make those dreams a reality. This was an experience that I will relive the fun memories of, for a very long time."
- A.V., chef, entrepreneur, educator. Project: Food Business

"Thank you for an incredible Creativity Workshop session today (well every Sunday actually). If you don't already know this Shahana, you are an extraordinary person who is having an extraordinary impact with your presence in the world. I am so very glad I met you!"
- K.J., artist, engineer, citizen. Project: Book

"Through the mentorship and guidance provided not only by Shahana but also by my fellow participants, the Sunday afternoon Creativity workshops became a space of kinship and belonging where all thoughts and ideas could be safely and creatively explored. Though in some regards it was a physical space cultivated for a specific length of time, the space it created in my own being, to create as well as nurture other creative spirits, has endured."
- N.G., youth mentor, community advocate, performing artist. Project: Bharati's Story

"...The Creativity Workshop happened to me, and I knew that it was going to change my life. The biggest change for me has been in finding myself again after 25 long years. I had forgotten being me. I am shedding the layers and finding the courage to be vulnerable again. There is so much I want to say, but two words that encompass all are love and gratitude... Also, I am on a Courageous Creativity marathon...Every story I read teaches me something and gives me hope..."
- R.T., designer, artist, healer. Project: Jewelry Line

"I cannot explain how much the 6 weeks of Creativity Workshops meant to me. The Sundays, the writing, the discussions, the laughter and the conversations... I was my happiest and best, just soaking in everything the workshop offered. It was not easy coming out of my shell, but I did. Your guidance, sometimes gentle, at times severe, and at most times through silence, gave me so much strength and learning. You might not realize how much difference you and the workshop made but I thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming into my life at the right time and helping me find myself. What the workshop triggered continued over the next several months - getting my job, performing dance, my poetry getting published, meditation, and now learning Astrology and Carnatic music!"
- D.V., HR Manager, poet, spiritualist. Project: Re-imagining self

"'Just do it' - Sure, this is the tagline for Nike, but this was also the philosophy in the Creativity workshops I took with Shahana. And wow, did this philosophy work for me. The workshops taught me about creating…just to create. And how consistency and commitment can help creativity to flourish. I was amazed to see how Shahana’s lessons permeated throughout all facets of my life and continue to do so in transformative ways. Not only did we envision dreams we had, we were able to create roadmaps to make them happen! The whole experience was a gift."
- S.J., poet, musician, youth educator. Project: Music CD

"The Creativity workshops allowed me to jump-start my writing. More broadly, they gave me the opportunity to infuse creativity through many aspects of my life by providing me with the guidance and support to envision and commit to creative projects. The workshops served as a trans-formative space to take me from being an occasional and accidental creative to a joyfully deliberate creative. Shahana's careful coaching and guidance was the basis for this transformation and though the workshops have ended, I find myself regularly reflecting on and applying the lessons to my life. In addition to Shahana's coaching, the workshops were especially powerful because of the presence and support of the other participants. We served as inspiration and "mini-coaches" to each other, learning and teaching as we each found our own creative paths."
- S.N., political reformer, writer, photographer. Project: The Water Storytelling Project

"Dear Shahana and Shirin,
Thank you for coming to OLS to speak to our writing class. Your visit has taught us how to be a better writer and think outside the box. We really enjoyed doing the [Inventing] Possibility exercise..."

"Dear Shahana and Shirin,
I really liked how you explained about storytelling. Thank you."

"Dear Shahana and Shirin,
I really enjoyed the topic. I learned a lot. Thanks for taking the time to spend with us."

- Student responses from session with OLS, Bellevue College, Feb 29, 2012