My Family

What you'll need: A handful of small objects or figures from around your home - keys, a mug, a stone, a coin. One for each person in your family, and one for yourself

STEP 1. Choose your objects

Pick one object to represent each person in your family, including yourself. Don't overthink it. Go with your first instinct, whatever your hand reaches for.

STEP 2. Arrange them

Place them on a table or the floor in a way that feels true to how your family actually IS, not how it should look. Add more objects if something else needs to be in the picture (a relationship, a tension, a memory, an absence). Move things around until the arrangement feels right. Trust your sensing over your thinking.

STEP 3. Describe and write down what you notice.

Now look at the arrangement and describe each object - not the person, just the object itself. Use what you actually see and sense:

  •  What is it made of? Hard, soft, heavy, light?

  •  How big is it compared to the others?

  •  Where did it end up — centre, edge, close, far?

  •  Is it facing toward something or away?

  •  What is its relationship to the objects nearest to it?

  •  Is there anything about it that surprises you?

Let the object speak. You don't need to explain or analyse, just describe what's there.

Finish by noticing: Is there anything in the arrangement you'd like to change? You can move things. See what that feels like in your body.