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Juggling Energiser

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Introduction
Clown Facilitator
Workshop Session Plan
Key Learning Outcomes

Workshop Focus:
The juggling workshop is delivered by ‘Peace-fool the clown’ so expect some frivolity to lift moods and re-energise staff.
Duration:
1 hour session
Target Audience:
Staff and management
Expected Outcomes:
Team building, positive attitudes, team building and relaxation

Introduction

The Juggling Energiser workshop is designed to offer organisations a positive team activity that is both open, fun with the intention of developing critical skills.

The juggling workshop is delivered by ‘Peace-fool the clown’ so expect some frivolity to lift moods and re-energise staff.  This program fosters stress relief, coordination and balancing the right and left hemispheres of the brain, this is called relaxed concentration.  Juggling fosters creativity and definitely expands wellbeing as it feels good and there is much laughing as people seek to master techniques.

The juggling workshop runs for 1 hour, this is a great way to start the day or re-energise the afternoon, mood’s change and people feel reinvigorated, mentally on a high note. There are trends emerging around the world where staff are engaging in fun activities that give them a sense of creativity, balance and freedom.  This is critical in stressful, immobile and structured environments.  It provides a counter experience which re-balances people generating positive activities.  The workshop can be extended (by demand) to a half day workshop to explore the philosophy of juggling and how it can be applied to a working situation.  The skills in juggling are great metaphors for discipline, endurance, concentration, rhythm, lateral thinking, persistence and laughing at mistakes.

This workshop is excellent for organisations to help people to reconnect with a fun activity where there is not too much thinking but a focus on fun, developing skills and being active in non-competitive ways.  This type of activity is great for team building, having fun together and making plenty of mistakes in an environment that is open to mistakes as this leads to perfecting skills and learning new skills without fear.

The positive properties of juggling are endless and it is highly recommended that organisations do this regularly for the sheer fun of it.

Be inspired!

Here is a wonderful presentation from Tedx by a master juggler to inspire you.  There is a lot more to juggling then meets the eye.  It is a wonderful activity for learning rhythm, balance, concentration and of course most importantly, fun. What is noteworthy from this discussion is the development of creativity, innovation and lateral thinking.  It is a way for staff to relax, be active and to find the rhythm and flow and it leads to developing creativity.

Clown Facilitator

peaceclownSusan Carew aka Peacefull has been a professional clown for 14 years and a facilitator for 19 years (since 1995).   She comes to the workshop as ‘Peacefull the clown’ . Joking and silliness is encouraged in this workshop.   In  2002 Susan was personally invited by Patch Adams to attend his Healing with Humour tour in Moscow, Russia.  This tour is an annual event to Russia to build bridges of friendship.  Susan has conducted workshops with a wide range of corporate and not-for-profit organisations to share with them an experience of joy, playfulness and stretching past the comfort zone.  It is an excellent process for learning confidence, courage and reconnecting with positive feelings.  Positive employees are creative, supportive and a joy to work with.   The wellbeing aspect of working life is often seen as not as important as the serious workshops, yet it is the most important as the focus is on mental health, happiness and community building.  Juggling brings people together in fun ways.

Since 2010, Susan has travelled the world visiting 20 countries and clowning with locals of that country.  Susan has clowned in:  Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Egypt, UK, Ireland, USA, Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand and Nepal. She has experienced that clowning is a universal value that is understood even in places where clowns haven’t been seen.  She has clowned in slums, orphanages, schools, nursing homes, HIV clinics, hospitals, mental health clinics, schools for the blind and deaf, community organisations, bonded labour, cancer centres, remote tribal communities and universities.  She has clowned with young people to the elderly and had a wonderful time sharing the joy.

 

Workshop Session Plan

  • Stretching warm up
  • What is coordination?
  • How does juggling balance the left and right hemisphere of the brain?
  • Demonstrating juggling
  • Learning the skills of observation
  • Learning to visualise the pattern being taught and then copy
  • The philosophy of the figure 8 (balance)
  • Putting what is learned into practice
  • Learning to make mistakes and laugh
  • Having fun and the importance of relaxation

 

Key Learning Outcomes

The juggling for Balance workshop skills designed into the workshop that can be developed through juggling, as follows:

  • Listening to instructions
  • Practice and patience
  • Learning from mistakes
  • Finding the balance in rhythm
  • Observation skills
  • Coordination
  • Cardiovascular exercise – running after that ball (hee hee)
  • Posture and balance
  • Self discipline
  • Developing skills patiently