A couple of weeks ago I had the great opportunity to share a collaborative workshop, “Prismatic Trees”, with Pinot’s Palette of West Chester. If you have not yet made it to a painting session with Emily, Alex, and their crew of creative painters, I HIGHLY recommend it!
In our time together we explored the concept of internal lenses and our perception of the world through different images of trees. Combining the painting instructions with self-observation of how we perceive different versions of ourselves, our artists created six different trees representing six different versions of themselves.
The results were AMAZING! The individual diversity, creativity, and perceptions created BEAUTIFUL reflections of each artist. It was exciting to watch as each new tree formed into something different!
Everyone stretched a bit out of their comfort zones to explore the perceptions of versions of themselves. They painted as roles they were familiar with & roles they may never have thought about before. Our intent was to choose which lenses we look through on a daily basis. Once we can choose a lens, we can begin to choose higher & more powerful forms of ourselves.
AND we had a lot of fun!
Thank you to Pinot’s Palette for creating this collaboration! Thank you to the artist’s for sharing their creativity with us! There were multiple moments during the evening where I was humbled and grateful just to be there and be part of the exploration.
The Prismatic Trees was enough of a success that we are planning other collaborative events with Pinot’s Palette in 2020! Please keep your eyes and ears open for the schedule. Please share with anyone who might be interested. We hope to see you there! – www.rhoadscoaching.com
finding meaning and purpose in daily life
professional basis for individuals or for groups and businesses.
generally common knowledge that can be agreed upon. I wear glasses. Or I am a certain height. Or I hold a specific position in a company. I am a fan of a certain team based on the jersey I am wearing. It is easy to do something with this information as it can be used by everyone. If you are in the arena, generally everyone can see what is going on.
public event. We all have blind spots to who we are personally, professional, emotionally, and relationally. There is a BENEFIT to knowing that the car in the other lane on the interstate is in your blind spot before you change lanes! There is a BENEFIT to knowing you have something in your teeth before giving a presentation. Knowing allows you do something to fix it! The intent of this quadrant is to find someone who is willing and able to give you accurate feedback. What if the feedback you received during your next annual was viewed as someone trying to HELP instead of attack who you are? We can grow as individuals if we can accept help in being shown the things about us that we can’t see for ourselves.
under the water at the pool so no one knows it is there. It may be easy to hold the ball underwater for a while. After a while though it takes a lot of effort to keep it submerged. Our secrets are like this! We have to hold onto them all the time! There is a BENEFIT to not hiding certain things about ourselves. This does not mean being completely transparent. It isn’t safe to tell everyone all of your deepest hidden information. But having a trusted friend or mentor to disclose information to can be a relief and allow you to observe yourself in a different way!
ourselves. Places of who we are on the inside that we have never had a chance to develop or explore. This could look like the painting class or guitar lessons we take for ourselves once the kids are out of school. Or an unresolved fear that has haunted us our whole life. It takes a certain amount of courage to be willing to explore this unknown, and sometimes dark, place in ourselves. The rewards for digging into the unknown areas of who we are can have tremendous BENEFITS! A new skill. A new perspective on life. A release of something we didn’t know was holding us back.
to this pinned in place! The first step then becomes 
opportunities that we had not considered. If you don’t turn over the soil in a garden before planting, the likelihood of the seeds thriving decreases dramatically! We often get stuck because we try to control for all variables in a situation. By not letting go of that need to be in control, we limit ourselves.
But if you haven’t been able to solve the situation on your own up to now, I will refer you back to #1. Frequently someone else has a simpler solution, or is willing to pitch in to try and solve a problem. Back to the car in the snow – it is far easier to have four people push a car out of a snow bank than to continue spinning the wheels. So what internal dilemmas do you have where you are not asking for assistance? Who do you know who might be able to offer an idea or solution? What is preventing you from asking for what you need?