Week 8 

Surrendering & letting go

We played (Dennis Cahill’s)  “Dear Diary” game last week, one of the most challenging games for me.

This game is designed to put you out of your head and be spontaneously present in the moment. In this game, we tell a story while mimicking writing a page in our diary. To add more challenge to this game, this game is directed by another person who is the director of the game.

The Director is instructed to shout “NEXT DAY” immediately once they notice that the narrator is getting into their heads, or uttering “umms” or “aahs” or pausing. The moment that happens the narrator starts writing a new entry for the next day.

This game is perfect if you notice yourself getting into your head a lot. The game forces you to be fully present in the moment and be comfortable in the unknown.

This game challenged me a lot as I need to know ahead of time what I am going to say. How could I come up with words without any forethought?

In my first attempt, I struggled to come up with an interesting story to tell and noticed myself getting worked up. I added so much pressure on myself to make the story interesting to the audience. Once I had said the initial sentence of the story I had in my mind I was lost. I was struggling and searching for words which eluded me.

This game is similar to the one-word story in a way, but only much harder. You do not have a partner to rely on and there is an added pressure of a director asking you to start a new story each time we mess up.

With some notes and adjustments from Shawn, I tried again, this time, letting go of the outcome and trying to be comfortable with not knowing where I was going with the story. I started slow, I only needed a starting point, I did not come up with a preconceived idea for the story beforehand.

It was nerve-racking, but once I let go in the moment and focused on the previous word I had said the next words started coming to me.

I started slowly to make complete sentences and a story started to form. By letting go and surrendering to the moment, one word at a time, I was able to tell a story without the pressure.

I look forward to playing this game more and recommend it to everyone who wants to practice letting go and surrendering to the moment.