[NoHo Arts District, CA] – In this month’s Soaring Solo blog, Jessica Lynn Johnson talks about “How the Hoffman Process Made Me a Better Creator.”
“Change is inevitable, but transformation is a choice.” – Heather Ash Amara
Have you ever had one of those life-changing experiences after which you are never the same? Well, I just did.
About two weeks ago, I returned back to the United States after undergoing the Hoffman Quadrinity Process®, in Canada. This healing program was founded by Bob Hoffman in 1967.
Myself and 25 other seekers showed up at the Calgary Airport in Canada ready to choose transformation, each of us in our own way.
Maybe you heard Katy Perry sing the praises of Hoffman. Katy has said that it helped her navigate a difficult period in her life, which included a separation from Orlando Bloom and challenges with her mental health. She gives credit to the retreat for helping her to rewire negative thinking patterns and start to connect with her emotions. This, she says, ultimately led to a positive transformation in her life.
Or perhaps you missed Katy’s glowing review and you’ve never heard of this hidden gem. Either way, allow me to give you a brief synopsis of what it offers.
The program focuses on personal growth and helps participants identify their negative behaviors, moods, and ways of thinking that were created unconsciously and were conditioned in their childhood.
It leads participants to become conscious of and disconnected from negative patterns of thought and behavior on emotional, intellectual, and physical levels. From this place of awareness, they are able to make significant positive changes in their life on a spiritual level.
Participants learn to rid themselves of habitual ways of thinking and behaving, become aligned with their authentic self, and begin responding to situations in their life from a place of conscious choice.
I heard about this powerful retreat from a client of mine over a decade ago and the seed was planted way back then. Something in me knew I would one day attend this program, I just wasn’t sure why or when. Then this month, a small internal voice whispered to me, “Go to Hoffman. Now is the time.”
Barely recalling the particulars of Hoffman from the details my client had shared with me many, many years prior, I began to research it. As fate would have it, the stars aligned for me to attend this month.
While I won’t reveal the inner workings of the Hoffman process in today’s blog because I want for you to someday be able to experience this epic transformation yourself, I will certainly shed light on one of the major takeaways that I received and how it can make you a better solo artist and human being.
One of the most profound insights I gleaned from this process is drawn from the Hoffman Quadrinity™ model.
Created by Bob Hoffman in 1967 and it represents the wholeness of Self: the Body; the Spirit; the Intellect and the Emotional Self. This is to remind us that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
This single principle was a massive shift for me.
As a business owner and director, my Intellect is in charge of my life most of the time. I juggle schedules, scripts, marketing campaigns and a to-do list a mile long. This prioritization of the Intellect doesn’t just preside over my professional life, it rules every aspect of my personal life as well.
Almost everything the world threw at me, I’d think my way through it.
So, when attending Hoffman and being asked to pay attention to and listen to these other important aspects of self: the Body, the Emotional Self, and the Spirit, this was certainly not a regular habit for me. And I definitely didn’t value these other parts of myself as much as I did my Intellect.
Can you relate to this?
Maybe you’re a person who follows your heart, or instead you consider yourself a heady person, always rational and well thought out. Maybe you are constantly in touch with your Spiritual Self or led by the needs of your Body. However, without the balance of the Whole, we are not totally tapped in. Therefore, everything we are, everything we do, and everything we create is manifested from a place of imbalance and disconnection.
As the week progressed, I started to connect with my Body, Spirit and Emotional Self, and while I could not put my finger on it exactly, I knew that I was fundamentally changing. I was changing because I was starting to integrate.
For example, rather than going on a hike with my cohorts because my Intellect and Emotional Self were telling me I was missing out, I chose to listen to my Body and my Spirit who insisted I stay behind to rest and reboot.
Previously, my body was just something I ran into the ground striving and working and addicted to busyness. Now that I was listening to my Body, it was teaching me to be wary of physical burnout and to start saying no more often in my life.
Next, my Emotional Self was illuminating the fact that I was completely out of touch with how I was feeling a large portion of the time. When you are moving at the speed of light and every nook and cranny of your life is jam packed, it’s hard to fit in a moment to identify a feeling.
Slowing down in the woods of this healing retreat, without my cell phone or computer, I was finally able to ask myself how I was feeling and then whatever came up, however painful or uncomfortable it may have been, I sat with it. I let myself feel it all the way through.
And even though I’m a very spiritual person with a pretty intense daily morning ritual consisting of yoga, writing, meditation and prayer, I still wasn’t practiced at asking my own Spirit for guidance. This important shift allowed me to get in touch with my own intuition. I started to trust that deep inside was an inner knowing that had the power to navigate me on my highest path if I allowed it to.
So, what does any of this have to do with solo theatre you might be asking yourself?
Well, simply put, to write and perform a one-person play that is genuine, bold and brave, vulnerable and authentic, we must be in touch with our whole being: the Intellect, the Body, the Spirit and the Emotional Self. If any one of those vital aspects of self are missing, our creativity will suffer.
For example, if we don’t bring our Emotional Self into our stories, the play just feels like a list of facts and occurrences but we don’t ever truly drop into a heart space. This means that the audience will also stay stuck in their heads and it’s a stale, intellectual performance.
Yet, if we ignore the Intellect and jump on stage with all of our messy emotions, disregarding structure, boundaries or conveying a message, we leave the audience feeling worried about our mental health and left trying to make sense of a bunch of loose ends.
If we do not include our Body in our solo shows, the performance tends to result in a stagnant, disconnected rendition of our life, lacking passion and pace.
Discrediting the Spirit keeps us from experiencing the magic that can occur between ourselves and the audience when we let the Universe in. When Spirit is allowed to participate, we adlib just the right line, attract just the right audience members and witness unexplainable synchronicities.
All to say, I encourage you to start valuing, in equal measure, the messages communicated by all four aspects of your being. It will make you a better solo artist and person.
I hope this month’s blog allows you to identify at least one part of your person that needs more attention and nurturing.
Please continue to persist along on your solo journey. It may not be easy, but it is so worth it!
Jessica Lynn Johnson
Founder & CEO of Soaring Solo LLC
SoaringSoloArtist@gmail.com
www.SoaringSoloStudios.com
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Utilizing thought-provoking writing prompts, Jessica will lead you in writing exercises that are sure to assist you in the development of your solo show.
A one-person play is not typically written in one fell swoop. Rather, the Soaring Solo Methodology teaches that the creation of solo art is much like that of creating a Mosaic…one beautiful piece at a time.
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-You are curious about creating a solo show, but you need writing prompts to help you generate material.
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Wherever you may find yourself on your solo journey, Jessica will help you overcome whatever immediate obstacle stands between you and your solo success.
If you resonate with many of the things on this list, then take the next step by emailing SoaringSoloArtist@gmail.com for more information.