Co-creating Brave Spaces for Resilience & Growth
Sharing some thoughts on the spaces that have held me and the spaces that I've held that allowed the emergence of authenticity, purpose and liberation
Brave spaces won't often feel “comfortable” because growth and change come with discomfort. In a culture of pakikisama, it can feel “walang hiya” to go against the flow, but it was when I was audacious enough to imagine and create something different that I felt most free, most true to myself, and most connected to my kapwa.
Hi there!
For those of you who’ve been subscribers of my Pagbubuo Substack mailing list for a while now, it’s been a while since I’ve written a reflective post here.
For those of you who are new (just joining in the last couple of months), welcome to the inner circle of my mind, heart and spirit! As I say in my welcome email, this is a brave, safe and emergent space for my reflection and writing — for making sense of all that I’m learning in life and for birthing new co-creations.
In this letter to you, I want to reflect on my journey as a tagapagpadaloy (facilitator) and tagapaglikha (creator/artist) — and in the spirit of the Ugnayan Cards theme of Laya, I wanted to reflect on how the act of creating, in both personal and communal spaces is making way for the freest, most authentic and connected version of myself to emerge.
Malayang paglikha: Liberating the artist in me
If we want to create brave, safe, and emergent spaces for our kapwa, we need to hold that space for ourselves too.
It’s been a month since I graduated and a year since I decided to join a course to learn about Expressive Arts Facilitation with The Arts and Health Institute (TAHI) by Magis Creative Spaces. I knew I would be throwing myself into new and likely uncomfortable situations — especially when subjecting myself to modes of creating outside my comfort zone, e.g. drama, movement — but that was kind of the point. More than just a learning journey to improve my facilitation, I also saw it as part of my journey towards liberating the artist in me.
Alongside my Expressive Arts Facilitation course, I also chose to dedicate time to making things with my hands…reconnecting with pottery, watercolor, movement in different forms. I also audaciously applied for British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant as an “artist,” a label I still struggle to attach to myself but am trying to sit with more and more.
Alongside my Expressive Arts Facilitation course, I also chose to dedicate time to my own personal creative practices…reconnecting with pottery, watercolor, movement in different forms. I also audaciously applied for British Council’s Connections Through Culture grant as an “artist,” a label I still struggle to attach to myself but am trying to sit with more and more. We got the grant and it’s inviting me to embrace that label more.
I do these not for my profession or career, but as a profession of faith in the truth in my hands, the wisdom of my body, and as cheesy or egotistical as it sounds, the divine creator in myself.
More and more, I’m coming to believe in creativity as a spiritual act — a portal or bridge to accessing something greater beyond ourselves, to imagine something different from what we see in our world, and to bring that to life.
But it’s not always going to look or feel so grand.
Often, the markers along the journey will look mundane, uneventful, not worthy of celebration, but I really think it’s less about our victories or accomplishments and more about each decision to show up as our whole, authentic selves, in the face of uncertainty and possible “failure”. In the end, I think that’s what we really want to celebrate.1
And when the self-doubt creeps in, as it usually does, I can sometimes surprise myself with my own wisdom when I look back at words I’ve written before:
Who is “creative”? Who am I to create?
Who am I not to? I believe that we are all creative, resourceful and whole. We have an inherent need to create — to exert our agency; the audacity to design and shape our inner and outer worlds.
Mapagpalayang pakikipag-ugnayan: Liberating each other through connection
“Kadalasan may mga gusto tayong hanapin, ngunit may mga pagkakataong matutuklasan nalang natin na ang gusto lang pala natin ay ang matagpuan.”
As written in my previous posts on kapwa and pakikipag-ugnayan — each time I took myself out of my comfort zone to connect, I could feel myself opening up more and more. Revealing more of myself to others and allowing myself to be seen helped me feel more connected to my kapwa. At the same time, when I saw other people show up with more of their whole, authentic selves, it often increased my sense of connectedness with them, and in several instances, it really inspired me to show up more wholly also.
Related reads:
It was in connecting authentically with myself and with my kapwa that I got to co-create the most meaningful products and projects for the living portfolio of my life. They were formed over shared meals around a table, in long car or bus rides together, in random chat exchanges, as well as in spaces designed intentionally for connection.
It is the joy and meaning I’ve found in those accidental moments and in those intentional spaces that spurred the creation of Ugnayan Cards, and it is what is motivating me to support my kapwa in creating spaces for connection too.2
Whether it be in the context of smaller support groups with friends, in teams or in organizations, I believe all of these are fractals of the larger culture we want to see in our world. If we co-create many small spaces of connection and creativity, we can build up the courage and audacity to imagine worlds that others say cannot come to existence.3
I know this email is coming in late, and the window for signups is also closing, but in case you didn’t catch it on my Instagram, I’m hosting a Culture First gathering on Creating Brave Spaces for Resilience and Growth.
Whether you’re a leader, HR practitioner, people manager, entrepreneur, facilitator, educator, coach, social worker, community- or coalition-builder, you’re invited to join us for an afternoon of re(connecting) with yourself and your creativity alongside fellow spaceholders at the Mess Studio by Common Room at Atrium Makati on June 12, 2:00-5:00pm (check-in starts at 1:30pm, and the event starts promptly at 2pm). Together, we can open up brave spaces for resilience and growth in our teams, organizations, and the communities we hope to serve.
Questions we’re exploring
WHY does creating brave spaces matter in teams, organizations or communities?
HOW do some teams, organizations and communities create greater psychological safety, ease (ginhawa, gaan) and motivation (gana) in its members through connection and creativity?
WHAT can we practice to nurture resilience and growth in our teams, organizations, or the different spaces we hold?
This is a space to reflect on our experiences as spaceholders, to learn new tools from each other, and to connect with a like-hearted community that aims to open spaces for courageous risk-taking, learning from failure, and proudly celebrating the attempts — through expressive art practices and generative conversations from our experiences. Learn more and reserve your slot via tinyurl.com/brave-spaces.
See you there?
Connecting and creating,
Jen Horn | @pagbubuo | jen-horn.com
Wrote about authenticity and Cracking My Creative Self Open at the start of the year.
See more about our clarified purpose for Ugnayan Cards in this Liham ng Ugnayan on Pagbalik sa Sadya: Returning to Our Intention.
I write more about creativity, emergence and dreaming together in this Liham ng Ugnayan on Pagpapalitaw ng Ugnayan.