🎂 🎂 🎂 July is the month for celebrating many of the precious patriarchs in my life – including one of my most playful teachers and fellow peaceseeker and peacemaker Dan Booth Cohen!
Back in 2020, I was searching for better tools to enable organisations and systems to transform and flourish for greater good when I came across Dan’s truly inspirational book about Family Constellations “I Carry Your Heart in My Heart – Family Constellations in Prison”.
I first began training with Dan in Systemic Constellations online during lockdown in 2021 and was very fortunate to train with him and Emily Blefeld in 2023-2024 on their Alchemical Constellations Facilitator training in the spiritual Menla Resort in New York created by the Dalai Lama.
To celebrate Dan and our mutual lifelong pursuit for creating peace, here’s the latest episode from The School of Play Play Alchemy podcast!
🕯️💖 🌎 If you’re looking for hope, magic and peace… Listen to our Play for Peace podcast episode and you might just be inspired to shift for greater good!
Category: Play Alchemy
The Beauty of Play
Have you ever wondered what happens when children play to their hearts’ content?
Now imagine what happens when adults get to play to their hearts’ content…
Wonder no longer! This is what we look like and what we sound like when a bunch of likehearted and openminded adults get together… we bring to life our full potential by tapping into our greatest individual and collective super power what Dr. Stuart Brown and I like to call True Play.
Playful Leadership: CREATION THROUGH PLAY ALCHEMY is a groundbreaking introductory course to the concept, practice and magic of Play Alchemy – a term coined by Portia Tung, the founder of The School of Play. Play Alchemy describes the process, tools and techniques for transmuting the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face into positive outcomes so that we can thrive and have fun making a living in a VUCA world.
If you long to imagine at least six impossible things before breakfast and have realised a bunch of them by dinner time, this is the course for you. You’ll get to explore your relationship with play and creativity in community and experience deep joy as you regain your superpower of manifesting more of what you wish for like you used to as a child.
And we didn’t just co-write one song, we co-composed two! Special thanks to Stuart Cocks our music meister for putting music and video to our words of calm delight and sheer joy!
Song #1: Keep Calm Be Patient & Song #2: It’s Love Obviously #madewithlove #playfulleadership #playalchemy
I Capture the Castle
Did you know that at the heart of creativity – the kind that enables us to flourish and feel joy – is play without which we would lack the resourcefulness to get started in the first place?
Play is the skeleton key that unlocks our creativity, our infinite potential. When it comes to creativity, we are the creator and the creation as well as the creative process as we transmute and manifest our soul’s expression and deepest desires.
According to the creator of Systemic Constellations Bert Hellinger, “Love equals seeing plus distance minus judgment.” And because we are relational beings, this observation isn’t only poignant in terms of our relationship with others but more vitally when it comes to being in relationship with ourselves. What’s more, love for ourselves is essential when it comes to being in healthy relationship with our creations and our creative process.
Play Alchemy: Exploring Our Roots of Creativity a 3-day course in the art and science of creativity takes place this autumn 11-13 September at the beautiful Ashridge House (aka home-of-magic Hogwarts) in Berkhamsted, UK within a stone’s throw from London (if you’re Hagrid).
If you’re a grownup who longs to remember how to play and have fun – just like children do – be it at work, at home or anywhere you go, you’re invited to join Play Alchemist Portia Tung this September, along with a constellation of other grownups who love life, to rediscover and harness our greatest superpower – play of course!
Among this bright constellation of likehearted and lighthearted playmakers you will experience what being the best version of yourself feels like as we dance in profound partnership and embark on the play adventure of a lifetime.
Isn’t it high time you explored your roots of creativity?
Book a FREE discovery call with Portia to see what magic we can weave together through this Play Alchemy course!
Happy 7th Birthday to The School of Play!
Play isn’t just an act of hope or faith. Play is an aria of consciousness. Play enables us to self-actualise through accompaniment and mutual support. This is why laughter is the sound of play. Laughter is the sound our heart makes when we are having fun.
Having played for the past 30 years – both professionally and personally – for most of my adult life, I’ve discovered the golden key to game-changing transformation is by changing our relationship with play.
When our relationship with play changes, we change, the world around us changes. Play isn’t just good for us. Play is good for everyone.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the Feast at the Party of Life as The School of Play turns 7 years old this week!
We made this to share with you. For each and everyone of us who yearns and learns to play the True Play way.
Are You Ready to Emerge and Play?
If so, we’ve assembled a gorgeous range of play adventures, be it in-person or online, that will inspire you to play well and play better – be it at work, at home or anywhere you go.
Playful Leadership
COURSE FULL: 8-10 May 2024 @ Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, UK
Four Seasons of Play
A highly enjoyable online play programme made up of individual one-off workshops designed to resource, restore and re-invigorate you through the Four Seasons
Begins 14 June 2024
The Magic Circle
A 6-week online circle of like-hearted seekers who wish to manifest their playful selves through Play Alchemy
Begins 18 June 2024, every Tuesday for 6 weeks
Play Alchemy
A deeply nourishing 3-day in-person introductory course to explore your roots of creativity
17-19 September 2024 @ Ashridge House, Berkhamsted, UK
Resonance Summit Recordings Package
You can hear Portia’s latest talk Play’s Hidden Symmetry: Constellations Through Play Alchemy by purchasing the amazing Resonance Summit 2024 recording package from Neuroscience Educator and Constellations Facilitator Sarah Peyton.
The Play Jungle Calls…
Isn’t it time you reconnected with your greatest superpower? If you long to answer the clamorous call of play, creativity or rejuvenation but aren’t quite sure how best to get started, why not schedule a chat over a virtual cup of tea with me and see what emerges?
One thing’s for certain, it’s never too late to start playing for your life or re-ignite your play brain. Let’s have a chat to get you on your way!
Explore the Healing Power of Play
Playful You and Me
Do you love the moments when you experience spontaneous bubbles of exploration and joy? And are these moments too few and far between?
Are you often holding your breath waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the goodness in your life to disappear?
Delight is one of the most joyful experiences humans can have. From bursts of spontaneous laughter, to genuine smiles shared, to shared exploration of ideas, to goofy and rambunctious expression.
Are you curious to learn how to cultivate the safety and self-care that will allow your nervous system to turn towards playfulness and joy with ease?
Do you long to be surprised, enlivened, and nourished by your healing journey?
Did you know that each of us has a neural circuit and body system dedicated just to play?
Play is our birthright.
The experience of playing lets us and our brains become who we are meant to be.
Playing brings balance into the body’s and the brain’s endocannabinoid system, which is the system that is responsible for our homeostasis. When we play, we balance every tissue in our body.
And it feels so good.
Play–not the shallow, competitive kind, but the deep play that comes with both emotional discovery and surprise, and with truth-telling in safe environments– is spontaneous, emergent, and unexpected.
This form of deepest play can only arise when our nervous systems are fully supported and in the company of people with whom we feel known and understood. Without supported and safe nervous systems, our bodies are unable to experience the absolutely spontaneous and unexpected expressions that come with our PLAY circuit.
Play in its purest form requires the interaction of two or more beings (people, pets, anyone that can be responsive). It also requires safety.
But what do we do if people have not been safe?
How can we support ourselves to have nourishing playful social connections and a sense of belonging even when we have lived through difficult things?
Resonance is the experience of another human understanding what is happening for you, and you being able to say yes to their expression of understanding. It has the transformative capacity to connect and heal us by offering new experiences of safety and acceptance to our nervous systems, which opens the door to play.
With the help of a neuroscience-based understanding of what makes us safe, Resonant Language works directly with the nervous system to restore our birthright of safety so that true delight becomes possible and even frequent.
Resonance enables us to have the experience of making sense to ourselves and others, sometimes for the first time. Often social safety is the missing piece that allows our bodies to find relaxation and open to joy.
As our nervous systems become fully supported, the movement towards spontaneous emergent play is actually unstoppable: like a bubbling brook cascading down a mountainside after the snows melt.
The Resonance Summit 5-9 April 2024
The fourth annual Resonance Summit, hosted by Sarah Peyton, offers a deep exploration of the latest neuroscience research on play plus wonderful interactive sessions, and an opportunity to immersively experience and learn resonance in community.
Each morning of the Summit features a keynote address by five exciting voices in the field of relational neuroscience, play, and trauma healing. Following keynotes, the days unfold through workshops and practice spaces led by some of the most creative and rigorous resonance practitioners working today.
My session “Play’s Hidden Symmetry: Constellations Through Play Alchemy” will take place on Tuesday, 9 April 10.30 am – 11.55 am PDT. I hope you’ll come to play!
Register here this free five-day experiential learning immersion to begin to change your brain into a kinder and more playful place, discover your own relational self, and catch a glimpse of the rich world of emergence that resonance and play can make possible for you.
What if you can’t make it to the LIVE summit?
In that case, you’re welcome to support this wonderful event by purchasing the summit recordings package available now with a pre-summit discount!
Happy Birthday to an Agile Adventure!
Your team’s fate is in your hands. Choose badly and you’ll come to a sticky end. Choose wisely and you stand the chance of living happily ever after. What will you choose to do?
I’m delighted to share with you that my first book The Dream Team Nightmare: Boost Team Productivity Using Agile Techniques published by The Pragmatic Bookshelf turns 11 years old this year!
They say time flies when you’re having fun so if you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book, I highly recommend giving it a go. With plenty of caution, of course – because this is the only responsible and fair thing to do when it comes to doing work from the heart.
In my case, the result is the first ever Agile business novel in the format of gamebook – a fun and interactive story with eight different endings where you, the Reader, gets to put your Agile knowledge and experience to the test.
Back in the autumn 2011, The Dream Team Nightmare began as a personal challenge to see if I could write a book at a time in my life when I wanted to gift back something of me to the world.
Now, as I complete writing my second book and delight in the gifts of feedback from my first readers, I feel incredibly fortunate to have followed the wisdom of my heart. After all, this is the Play Way.
If you’re part of a book club that enjoys having fun as you read, I’d love to pay you a visit (be it online or may be even in-person) to explore and experience the exquisite adventure that is reading – in community!
The Secret to Heartwork
It’s possible that when it comes to writing a book, you find it easy. Believe or not, I’ve met writers for whom this is true. Or you might find it as tough as climbing Mount Everest which is my case (although I’ve yet to climb Mount Everest for real but I’ve been working on my yoga crow pose – slowly, slowly, catchy monkey – in preparation for a handstand or forearm stand). And that’s the thing. Whenever we do anything truly, madly, deeply important to us, it requires hard work because it’s heartwork.
The truth is, I’ve spent most of my life working from my heart. It may sound simple, but up until recently, it’s been anything but easy. Fortunately, I discovered in my wonder years the profound joy that comes from embracing a challenge and doing something for the sake of doing it and because my heart wants to (regardless of what those around me have to say on the matter).
The trick I’ve found about writing a book is to treat it as an adventure of self-discovery par excellence. If what I have come to know as play alchemy has taught me one thing, it’s that “The greater the purpose, the more fun you need to have”. In spite of the ginormous challenge writing a book may seem to you, just imagine how much more fun and joy you’ll experience if having fun and joy becomes part of the process.
This is the Play Way.
THE SCHOOL OF PLAY 