Living Words

Novelist Elizabeth Cox

By Jeremy L. C. Jones

Novelist Elizabeth Cox is one of my heroes.  If you haven’t read her most recent novel, The Slow Moon, I strongly suggest you do so.  Immediately!  What’s so good about it?  Cox writes about the challenges (and importance) of remaining kind in a world that doesn’t always reward kindness.

Cox conducted one of the sessions during our pilot program in 2008.  Here's the article I wrote about it for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal here.

Feel free to send us articles, links, and other stories having to do with Alzheimer's, dementia, and/or creative writing.  We look forward to hearing from you!

"Words of Wisdom" Workshop

By Dr. Kara Bopp

Commentary by Lauren Holland

Below is an overview and commentary from our "Words of Wisdom" workshop held at Wofford College on August 13th. 

Introductions (5 minutes)

To begin the workshop, Dr. Kara Bopp, Professor of Psychology at Wofford College, introduced herself as well as the topic of the day.

She began by telling participants that she came up with today’s writing activity when she was pregnant. As an expecting mother, “you have to know that you’re constantly going to be receiving advice from family, friends, and complete strangers,” she said. This segued into the workshop’s icebreaker.

 Icebreakers (5-10 minutes)

For the icebreaker, participants went around the room and shared one piece of advice that they had received at some time in their life or a piece of advice that they give.

 Writer introduces the topic (3-4 minutes)

As a transition into the writing portion of the workshop, Bopp said, “Everyone enjoys, yet also despises, giving and receiving advice from family and friends. We usually do so verbally, but today we will write down our words of wisdom.”

Bopp explained how the writing for this workshop was a little different, because the writing exercise would require them to write sentences rather than extended prose. So, they would be working to find the correct words that they wanted to use in order to express their advice and to find ways to summarize their ideas.

Writing (about 20 minutes)

Bopp began the writing portion of the workshop by asking participants choose a person for whom they wanted to give advice. She told participants to write down his or her name, a little bit of information about the person, and what type of advice they wanted to give. She told participants to be as specific as possible about what type of advice they wanted to give.  For example:  "I want to write advice to my niece who is getting married in four weeks. I want to give her advice about how to have a long, successful marriage." She invited participants to first take the time to write a list of people and types of advice then choose one.

On the board, she wrote:

1. Pick topic (e.g. marriage) and Person

Participants went around the room and shared their topic and intended audience for their advice. One individual chose the topic of “Respect” intended for her pre-teen granddaughters. For individuals who were having difficulty formulating a specific topic or specific intended audience, Bopp offered assistance to narrow the scope of the advice or audience. Second, she asked, “What three pieces of advice do you have for that individual? First, jot down as many ideas as possible, and then look at list to see what three themes arise. From these ideas, write your three pieces of advice. On the board, she wrote:

2. Advice -> ideas -> Write 1 or 2 sentences of advice

Participants listed about 3 pieces of advice and shared them with one another. Third, Bopp asked participants to do the opposite by telling them to write 3 pieces of advice for what not to do. She explained that the change in language we use can really make a difference for how people perceive and act upon the advice. On the board, she wrote:

3. Write 1-2 sentences of advice for what NOT to do

Again, Bopp advised participants to first jot down their ideas, look at list to find themes, and then work into three things they do not advise them to do.

Fourth, Dr. Bopp suggested that participants re-read their previous responses (advice and what you don't advise) and look for any overall theme that had arisen from them. She asked, “If there was a general theme, what was it? What are your ‘words of wisdom’?” On the board, she wrote:

4. Write 1-2 sentences that bring all those ideas together

Participants went around the room and shared their advice. One participant, who chose the topic of “cleanliness” chose the sentence “A cluttered house clutters the mind”. Another, who chose to give advice to his son who is about to enter the army summed up all his advice with one sentence: “Don’t be stupid!”

After sharing, Bopp invited participants to share any mottos, favorite sayings, or words to live by that they like. She offered the example that she often hears from her family, “This, too, shall pass”. Participants went around the room and shared many of their favorite sayings. Many wrote down in their notebooks saying that other participants had shared that they liked! Some of those mottos included “Laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you’ll cry alone”,”A bird in hand is worth two in the bush”, and “The experience of others is the cheapest teacher…if you’ll use it”.

Thanks/ Goodbye (1-2 minutes) 

Bopp thanked everyone for coming and told them that we look forward to seeing them next week. One participant interjected, “Can we have a full semester term of this? This is fun!”

 

 

Guest Writer: Lane Filler

[Below is a reflection by Lane FIller, guest writer for our first Living Words creative writing workshop. Thank you for your reflection, Lane!] 

What was most compelling to me about doing a writing exercise with folks suffering from Alzheimer's is that I tend to think of sufferers of that disease as people who have lost their memory. They haven't, of course. They have simply lost their moorings.

And to assume that because they have lost their moorings their memories have no meaning is to assume a boat, because it has lost its course, has no value.

These peoples' memories and thoughts do have value, and meaning, and relevance, and charm. It was a pleasure to listen and share, and watch them interact with each other, as they told about their memories of being hot and cooling off back in the days before air conditioning, in their childhoods. They remembered their deep past as clearly, actually more clearly, than I remember yesterday, and it was a privilege to be transported back with them.

Week In Review: August 10th 2009 - August 16th, 2009

By Lauren Holland

This week on the blog, Beth Brown gave a reflection on our “Finding Your Happy Place” workshop as well as a write up and commentary on the workshop itself, posted on Saturday. The blog is a place for us to post our workshop activities with commentary and an open invitation for you to make comments and suggestions as well! On Thursday, guest writer, Tobias Buckell, reflected on his experience leading a Living Words Workshop. View his reflection here.  Thanks again, Tobias! On Friday, we gave you an invitation to start your own Living Words Program. If you or someone you may know might be interested in starting the program, contact us! You can print off the flyer as well as more information about the Living Words Program at www.LivingWordsProgram.com. Under the “Getting Started” tab, you can download a PDF of the invitation to give others who may be interested in implementing the program!  

On the website, we posted more writing activities and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to the website for more updates for resources to help you get started. We are constantly updating it to provide you with more resources. As always, feel free to email us at LivingWordsProgram@wofford.edu or call us at (864)597-4375 for more information. We are always happy to answer any questions you may have!

Next week, stay posted to the blog for a reflection by our guest writer for our first Living Words workshop, Lane Filler. Also look forward to commentary from our “Words of Wisdom” workshop held at Wofford College on August 13th as well as writing samples from it and other workshops!

The summer is coming to a close, but we certainly are not! Each week our program continues to grow. We are so encouraged by the growing interest in the Living Words Program and the feedback from participants. As one participant asked at the close of Thursday’s workshop, “Can we please have a full term course of this? This is fun!” We invite you to share in our experience. Contact us to learn more about implementing the Living Words Program in your own center. Additionally, feel free to leave us feedback on the blog or post a comment on our website (www.LivingWordsProgram.com). 

Finding Your "Happy Place" Exercise

Exercise by Beth Brown

Commentary by Lauren Holland

Beth Brown, Success Initiative Office Manager, and Lauren Holland, Wofford College senior, led our seventh Living Words creative writing workshop at Wofford.  The theme of the workshop was discovering your “happy” place. The goal of the workshop was to create/remember a safe, happy environment to use in focusing when life gets stressful.

Structure of the session

Introduction: (5 minutes)

The workshop moderators (Beth Brown and Lauren Holland) introduced themselves. Beth spoke briefly about how we all have stress, and one way to deal with that stress is going to our “happy place”. She asked if anyone had ever heard the saying “I’m going to my happy place”. While it is usually said as a joke, it works!  Beth told participants that she has realized that lately that she needs to use the outlet of her “happy place” in her life and wondered if others do, too. “Today, we’re going to find that place,” said Beth. This led into a focusing exercise, which was part of the icebreaker.

* It was important to not focus on the “stress” part of the exercise too much. While a “happy place” is something to turn to in times of stress, the exercise itself is meant to be happy, peaceful, and uplifting rather than ruminating on stresses!

Icebreaker: (15 minutes)

First, Beth led participants through a focusing exercise. With calming, classical music playing softly in the background, she said:

We’re going to start in the quiet this morning.  Everyone close your eyes.  We are going to imagine the happiest place on earth – FOR YOU.  This can be a real place or an imaginary one.  I will walk you through it.  First, imagine that you are in a blank place.  There’s nothing there.  It’s silent.  Then you start to hear sounds that make you feel good.  What are they?  Birds chirping?  Your friend calling?  A cat’s meow?  Listen to that.  Then you see the things around you that make you feel the most comfortable.  What do you see?  A comfy chair?  Books?  A table spread with your favorite foods?  A garden of flowers?  Let yourself imagine all those wonderful things.  Now breathe deeply.  You smell something that calms you.  Is it something baking?  Fresh soil?  The ocean?  Wait.  There’s someone coming.  Who is that?  It’s someone you love to be with.  Is it your dog?  A beautiful horse?  Your child?  A friend?  They are with you now, enjoying this perfect place.  This is your happy place: these sounds, sights, smells, and feelings.  Look around one last time.  Open your eyes.

Participants closed their eyes and imagined their happy place. When it was time to open their eyes, many had smiles on their faces and a look of calmness.

For the icebreaker prompt, Beth asked participants to take a few moments to give that place a name and write down a few descriptors about the place. Beth told participants to jot down their ideas and that we would expand upon that place in the writing exercise. Participants responded in turn, naming their place and a few descriptors.

 *Originally, we asked them to list a few adjectives to describe the place, but many ended up using nouns such as “chocolate chip cookies”. When using this exercise, it would be best to say descriptors rather than adjectives. Beth wrote the place and descriptors on the board for all to see.

To one person, her “happy place” was a field, to another, it was a room with her books. To some, it involved being in a contemplative state with solace and to others it meant joining around the dining room table with the whole family.

Writer introduces the topic (about 5 minutes):

After the icebreaker, Lauren introduced the writing prompt:

 “Write a story about your happy place. It can be a memory of something that happened at your happy place or something totally made up. It can be as fanciful as you would like.”

Beth added that participants should use as many descriptors as they could to make the best story.

Writing (about 5-10 minutes)

Participants spent a few minutes thinking.  They then wrote down a story about their happy place.

**This exercise is very representative of the creative writing nature of Living Words, because many of the participants created a fictional place rather than writing down a memory.

Sharing (about 10 minutes)

After 10 minutes of writing, Beth asked participants to share their writing. Everyone read a story about his or her “happy” place. To many, their “happy place” was a continuation of the place that they had visited in the original focusing exercise. Some writers wrote about a place that did exist with a memory associated to it or created an entirely new place of their own.

Once all the participants had shared his or her “happy place”, various individuals asked to share some of their insight of what the reflection had brought up for them. Some people found that other participants’ “happy place” made them think of an addition to their own happy place or a memory. One participant noted how none of the “happy places” involved modern technology like cell phones or televisions!

Thanks/Goodbye (2-3 minutes)

Beth thanked the participants for their writing and willingness to open themselves to experience their “happy place”. She invited them to reflect on their writing and think about our perfect place to become calmer, more relaxed when life gets stressful. 

Start Your Own Living Words Program!

We are actively looking for groups to implement the Living Words program this fall (2009)! We would like to have a variety of groups doing the program so that we can gather a wealth of information in order to better assess the program.

Living Words is designed to be extremely flexible for any type of individual and designed for whatever works best for each group. There is no doubt that this program has the potential to benefit anyone who is involved.

The response we receive from individuals who would like to implement the program, often sound something like this: “I feel [our residents] could really benefit from this program and would really enjoy it, but I’m not sure how to start planning it.” We have dedicated ourselves to teaching people about this program and the benefits associated with it. We know that it takes some time to design the program in a way that fits your group best, and we are happy to help you with that process.

If you are interested in starting your own Living Words Program, we will offer you the following assistance:

- Collaborative planning to decide what is the best way to implement in the program in your center (i.e. how often, how many per group, location etc.

- Provide ALL writing exercises (Prompts, specific directions, scripts—some of which are already available to you on the Living Words Website at www.LivingWordsProgram.com.

- Sign-up sheet with the title and brief description of all workshops, so that volunteers or workshop leaders can choose their workshop depending their interest

-If you would like to have local writers lead some (or all) of your workshops, we will help you find them!

- Provide pre and post-test assessments as well as come to your location to administer assessments (if local).

- And of course, we will always be available to answer any questions or concerns you may have throughout the process. 

If you would like to come to observe or participate in a workshop, please let us know. Our current workshop runs every Thursday at Wofford College through August 27^th, 2009. Contact us by email at LivingWordsProgram@wofford.edu or call us at (864) 597-4375. If you are able to attend a workshop, we will be happy to meet with you afterwards to plan how we will assist your group. If you cannot observe a workshop, please contact us to set up a meeting at another time.

Contact us so that we can help you start your own Living Words Program! We look forward to collaborating with you!

- The Living Words Team

Guest Writer: Tobias Buckell

[Below is a reflection by Tobias Buckell, guest writer for our sixth Living Words creative writing workshop. Thank you for your reflection, Tobias!] 

As someone who's seen a great deal of technological change in my life, from the early computers of '84 as a 5 year old to the internet and email while I was just starting college, I'm always intrinsically interested in hearing from people many generations ahead of me about what large changes they've observed in their own lives. And whether someone is at retirement or younger, pondering what is next around the corner is one of the most fundamentally human past times. It's just that as a science fiction writer, I've taken it to something of a more obsessive level. As a result, it is still always great to talk to groups like this about what they think were epochal technological leaps in their eyes, as it always reminds you that technology is all about how we adapt to change and incorporate it into our lives, not some arcane, technical concepts, but just more tools we have at our fingertips.

Finding Our Happy Place

By Beth Brown

As we grow, we often forget the power of imagination.  Children readily place themselves into amazing situations in their own backyards, don’t they?  I remember running with my brother and our neighbors, fighting crime, rescuing people, and putting out fires.  We would zoom around, supplying our own sound effects.  There was so much fun to be had by just opening our minds to possibility.  As we become bogged down by the stresses of life, we seem to lose this skill.  Our imaginations sit, lonely, waiting for us to come and play.  Perhaps we feel that it’s too childish to play this way, but why?  With all the difficulties adult life throws at us, we should take time to use our imagination to find a happy escape. 

It seems that the easiest way to escape stress is to create a vacation spot in our minds, a “happy place,” that is unique to each person and is only limited by our adult “I mustn’t be playful” attitude.  I am pleased to say that, through some guided imaging, every participant in our session this week designed their personal happy place.  No one grumbled or sighed when asked to close their eyes and dream.  The places were so different, reflective of varied personalities and needs.  Some wanted to be alone in their place with a book, in the quiet, while others dreamed of being at a table spread with food, surrounded by eleven family members.  For many, natural scenes, such as gardens and fields were sanctuaries.  Some even were children again, frolicking, smelling flowers, and playing with animals.

When the session was over, the talk continued.  No one seemed to want to go home.  The beauty we had created amongst ourselves in the course of an hour was too lovely to leave.  It is my hope, though, that it was not left in the room; all those who were there have happiness at their disposal.  All we must do is dream for a moment, and, finding our place, we play.

The Week-in-Review: August 3rd, 2009- August 9th, 2009

This week we have continued to add the website to make the Living Words Program most accessible to you! We’ve updated the writing exercises on the website from the exercises with commentary to directions for using the exercise in your own group. This updated version includes a downloadable PDF for each exercise, so that you may print out the exercise for use in your own program.

Next week on the website, look forward to more additions of writing exercises as well as more articles to help you get the Living Words program started in your own facility. Not only does the website have downloadable PDF files of the exercises, but it also has other starter resources, such as the downloadable PDF of “general format of a Living Words workshop” as well as the “general format for the first Living Words workshop”. These 1-page downloads are easy access resources for starting your own workshop!

Stay posted to the blog for more writing exercises with commentary. This week on the blog, we posted last week’s “Science Fiction” workshop with commentary and suggestions for improvement! We intend for the blog to be a place where we can have conversations about the exercises: what worked well for your group, what didn’t, and suggestions for improvement. The website will serve as a place to download the exercise in a directions-type format.

On Monday, we posted Linda Fisher’s essay “Writing as Therapy: Rock and Pebbles” which gave you a touching view of how the emotional release of writing touched her own life. On Thursday, we posted the third and final part of the series Folding Towels by Marlu Taylor as well as commentary about Tobias Buckell’s “Science Fiction” workshop last week.

As the weeks go on, the memories continue to grow in our own workshops. Participants are showering us with little moments that take us by surprise and remind us why we feel so confident in the benefits Living Words Program.  We welcome you to share your own feedback and experiences. Leave us feedback on the blog or post a comment on our website (www.LivingWordsProgram.com). Feel free to email us with any questions at LivingWordsProgram@wofford.edu. 

Science Fiction Exercise

By Beth Brown

Tobias Buckell, popular science-fiction novelist and blogger, led our sixth Living Words creative writing workshop at Wofford.  The theme of the workshop was imagining and writing science fiction.

Structure of the session

Introduction: (5 minutes)

The workshop moderator (Jeremy Jones) introduced Tobias.  Tobias spoke briefly about himself, his unique childhood on a houseboat, and his love of science fiction as a genre.  He explained that he enjoyed sci-fi because of its ability to contain anything you can imagine.

Icebreaker: (15 minutes)

Tobias posed an icebreaking question to the group:

            “What is the most amazing thing you have ever seen?”

Participants thought briefly, then responded in turn.  They thought of truly amazing things, some on their own, and some with prompting.  Responses were: balloons, the Internet, flight simulators, landing a plane on an aircraft carrier, vinyl records, glass elevators, and shocking dog collars.

Writer introduces the topic (about 5 minutes):

After the icebreaker, Tobias introduced the writing prompt:

            “Write a press release about an invention that would be neat to have around.”

Suggestion for Improvement: *One moderator (Beth) suggests clarifying the assignment by adding the question: “What invention would make your life better?”

Tobias explained that the invention could be anything the participants could imagine.  He asked that they write about what their invention did and how it affected the world.

Writing (about 5-10 minutes)

Participants spent a few minutes thinking.  They then wrote down their ideas.  Some participants needed some help brainstorming.  Others needed assistance with organizing their thoughts.

**This exercise is very representative of the creative writing nature of Living Words. Participants were creating alternate realities and not simply writing about past events in their lives.

Sharing (about 25 minutes)

After approximately 5 to 10 minutes of writing, Tobias invited participants to share what they had written. He went around the room, just as he did with the icebreaking question, asking for readings.  Everyone read off their ideas.

*   Some of the participants had difficulty writing a press release.  Some readings were just inventions and descriptions.

 One invention that invoked an excited response was an at-home teleprompter system that allows a home TV viewer to type corrections for the on-TV speaker.  For example, when a sports announcer says “amphibious,” the viewer can type in “ambidextrous.”  The announcer immediately gets the prompt and can correct him/herself.  This was invented by a participant and a student assistant.

Thanks/Goodbye (2-3 minutes)

Tobias thanked the participants for sharing their writing.

The moderator (Jeremy Jones) thanked everyone, stating that he appreciated Tobias’s visit.  Everyone applauded for Tobias.

 It was great to see how during this exercise, participants ( no matter what age) were ready to open their minds to imagine some fictional invention that they had never thought of before!