Story – Young Muse 2 – Youth exchange in United Kingdom

26 young muses and 7 leader muses from UK, Greece, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Spain and Bulgaria gathered in the second part of Young Muse youth exchange in Kennington, United Kingdom.

“Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.” — Robert Waldinger, Harvard Medical School

Loneliness carries the same health risk as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. And the generation Z (born after 1995) is the most lonely generation ever. Want to know more about Emotional health?

“Millions of years of evolution have shaped us into creatures who need social bonds in the same way that we need food and water” – The Guardian

Generation Z was raised on digital technology and social media. 41 % of Generation Z spends more than 3 hours per day on computer with other purposes than schoolwork. According to Tim Elmore (founder of Growing Leaders), their life is characterized by FOMO and FOLO: Fear Of Missing Out and Fear Of Living Off-line. Therefore, they are unable to be in a present moment; even when they are between friends, they are constantly online. Their relationships are superficial, they are often lacking a real connection and ability to create long-lasting friendships, they are missing social skills, they are unable to go out and take risks. These are crucial skills for both personal and professional life. As a result, they are forever online and endlessly alone.

It is important for them to learn how to define their identity, identify their values, how to approach other people, how to be confident, brave, yet vulnerable, emotionally mature, ready to take the risks, how to live in the present moment, how to plan cautiously, and with patience (that means postpone the instant gratification), how to take in consideration people around them, how to live with people around, completely cut off the anonymous safety of the internet and digital world.

Grounding and Getting to know each other

26 young muses and 7 leader muses from 6 countries – sounds mystical? It is.

We want to support our participants to grow into a healthy relationship with themselves and society. For that, we use ART as a tool that is easily accessible to everybody, allows self-expression and is unlocking parts of our psyche which we learn to block to fit the general society. We grasped the piece of ancient mythology and introduced YOUNG MUSES – the personification of art itself.

Stepping in the maze

We kick-off Young Muse II with a Sensory Theatre experience. Going through the Maze, experiencing a different environment with my sensations, allowing myself to be challenged…

Do you know the myth about the Ariadne’s golden thread?

Once upon a time… in the island of Crete, there was a dangerous creature, half-bull, half-human. It was called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was living in a big Maze and every year the people of Crete were sending to it 7 humans as a sacrifice.

Theseus, a famous Greek hero of the Mythology, decided to stop this human sacrifices to the monster by slaying the Minotaur. But to do this, he needed to enter the big Maze and find his way back after.

To do so, he received support from Ariadne, the beautiful daughter of the king of Crete.

Ariadne gave to Theseus a golden thread that he could unfold in his way to the Minotaur and follow on the way back.

As learners, often we find ourselves in the Maze. Stepping out from what we know already and heading into the unknown. Maybe sometimes we feel lost, scared or insecure. Maybe we are walking towards our fears, to conquer freedom.

Today we practice to walk into the unknown, holding the golden thread that always show us the way.

In the second part of the day, we connect through dance and movement, exploring and expressing.

Explore

Today we explore how the ordinary world around us can ignite our creativity and inspire us to express.

We are slowly getting to know each other, playing together and experimenting. In the afternoon we go outside to explore the surroundings while collecting photos.

At the end of the day, we gather and sing, exploring connection through sounds.

Step by step, we are entering our Young Muse Journey.

Boundaries & Connection

We are starting the day with exploring 10 archetypes and how do we connect with each one of them.

Later, we move to building our safe learning zone by setting some basic agreements. Now that we know each other and have our learning goals, we are practicing to recognise and communicate our needs.

And on the topic of needs and communication, we have a whole afternoon to move and explore how do we connect to others. What needs to be there so that connection is there?

We explore our boundaries and how is it to say 100% “Yes”. How to say “No”, even if it is difficult and uncomfortable. And most of all how to connect with others without losing ourselves.

Tomorrow we will keep digging in the archetypes.

Connection to my character

We start the day with a massage and movement, coming together and sharing our learning process.

Day 4, we craft our characters. Starting from the archetypes that are familiar to us, we develop a character, led by the question:
“If life would be a stage, which is the character I play?”

We get to know our characters through Improv, Drawing and Storytelling.

During the second half of the day, we receive a second character to develop. A character that is the opposite of the first one.

What is the connection between them? How do I feel with those two?

Writing my story

We explore through meditation, movement and drawing the images that are coded in our subconscious.

What about myself I still don’t know?

Later, we use the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell, to give finally shape to our stories.

In the afternoon we share them with each other.

Day out

Today is our day to go outside of Kingswood and find inspirations for our creative expressions.

Most of us went to Dover, to visit the beautiful cliffs.

We charge our batteries by connecting with nature :)

How do you charge yours?

The Cinema

Today we do our first steps into video making with @totov4e_ .

We create videos and edit them, playing with the characters that we have been building in the previous days.

We have a very short time to design the experience, record videos, edit and polish, so at the end we have a final product.

Here one of our masterpieces.

https://www.facebook.com/abroadship/posts/2744584469018039

https://www.facebook.com/abroadship/posts/2744954862314333

Creating our own experience

For two days, the activities are not hosted by the team of facilitators, but from the participants themselves!!!

This is how exchange can happen. We give workshops for what we are good at and we receive from others! We have the chance to get to know each other better and also to explore how we really can collaborate together!

Day 8 we started with energisers, followed by Authenticity Workshop. We shared our vulnerable stories and what touches us deeply.

After we had a workshop on self-deffence and martial arts, which was really fun and… sweaty :D

We continued with workshops on Conscious boundaries, Contact Improvisation and Sports.

During Day 9, we had a lot of energisers and games. We did Improv theatre, drawing workshop and massages.

One of the cherries of our programme was a workshop where we were reflecting and sharing about how to be in a relationship and how to mindfully connect with others…

In the next days we will prepare our big festival! Stay tuned!

Preparing for the Festival

After a slow start of the day with a massage and a sharing circle, we are ready to kick off our Festival!!!

So what are the steps when it comes to organising a festival???!!!

1) Prepare the spaces. We decorated three areas, but at the end we could only use one :D So a lot of creativity, collaboration and enthusiasm was needed.

2) Design the programme, so that everyone can express their creativity and authenticity!

3) Prepare food and drinks! But first, order all the ingredients.

4) Invite guests.

5) Create visuals, so you can send them around and lift the spirits! Canva skills, I am writing about you in my #Youthpass

6) Prepare the sessions and check if we have all the needed materials available.

7) Prepare ourselves with body paint, special clothes and theatrical make-up :)

https://www.facebook.com/abroadship/posts/2746103685532784

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CqWlq4tN2kf/

Festival

Time for celebration!

Do you dedicate time to celebrate your successes? Do you dedicate time to celebrate your creativity?

Well, we do!

We organised a Festival and we enjoyed every part of it!

In the morning, we started with meditation and yoga spaces. Later one part of the team was cooking, while the rest, we enjoyed time together and ecstatic dance.

In the evening we had our last sharing circle, karaoke nigh, dancing, and a lot of fun moments together!

We are closing this experience with hearts full of love and gratitude!

Evaluation

Closing morning circle. In the last morning circle, participants will answer 2 questions:

1) What I learn thanks to living in the community…

2) I appreciate you (the community) the most for…

Question of the day “What is going to change in my life after comming back home.” (Action plan)

Daily input: Summary

Circle of Creativity is a project management tool that supports people with implementing projects which are aligned with their life purpose and way of doing things.

YouthPass in a labor market. Discussion about the YouthPass, its usage on the labor market, Reflection groups. Group filling of YouthPasses.

Day of See you soon

“Young Muse was a great project to enhance my ability on learning, I improved my English and also my ability to reflect through a team”

“Discussing, acting, dancing, making videos, painting, singing”

“Young Muse helped me by getting me in touch with many different people and also through the activities, for instance, the drawing activities.”

“I communicated with people from around Europe, facilitated and supported the participants with many aspects of the programme.”

“I was faced with opportunities that helped me with seeing the world through a different perspective, thus all of these categories were affected through the process of Young Muse”

“The film making activity was a mastercourse on all the above”