The Floating Playground is the continuation of everything that happens at The Fluent Self.
The place where it all happens.
We all have our stuff. We’re all working on our stuff. Right?
Stuff (n): The accumulated not-fun side effects and residue from being alive and having experiences. Pain, grief, fear, dread, avoidance, stuckification, internal walls.
We also all have mysterious projects. Even if we don’t always know what they are.
Mysterious projects (n): Goals, wishes, gwishes, desires, internal investigations, things we’re hoping for, working on, or trying to figure out.
We are destuckifiers. Curious, investigative, playful destuckifiers.
And we want two things.
- To sneakily circumnavigate and dissolve the stuff that gets in the way of taking care of ourselves.
- To make giant happy progress on the things that our stuff is trying to keep us from doing.
And we want to do all this through play and discovery. Not through having to adopt someone else’s One Right Way. Not through being mean to ourselves. And definitely not through having to change who we are and what we care about.
That’s what the Floating Playground is for.
We experiment. We dream up things to try. We mess about with creative and play-filled ways to solve problems and recover from painful experiences.
We figure out what needs to be done and how to do it… so that we can feel the way we want to feel, and do the things we want to do.
You probably already have a sense of this work from reading the blog and hanging out in the world of The Fluent Self.
But if you want to practice it? If you’re ready to: experience it and use it and mess around with it and find your version of it and live by that and change it and play with it and have it be part of how you approach being alive, come to the Floating Playground.
Because THIS is the place where that all happens.
What happens at a Floating Playground?
Adventures. Shelter. Solace. Curious investigations.
Navigation and cartography of internal worlds.
Virtual blanket forts. Hot cider and secret passages and libraries within libraries.
So many things.
But really: whatever you want.
Because it’s an experimental space that takes the shapes you need it to.
The Floating Playground is a place to work on your stuff. And on your projects.
Except not to work. To PLAY with them. To lovingly investigate. To find out what you need and how to make sure that you get it.
In the ways that work for you.
Also this!
To make progress on things and get stuff done, but not in any of the usual ways.
To rewrite your relationship with yourself (as well as with things like time, space, money and love).
And to take care of yourself while doing it.
To experience safety, comfort, wonder, delight, freedom and possibility. To get to know your internal kingdom and to belong there.
To do the work so that you can really and truly feel at home in your life, your work, your body, your space and everything you do. Or choose not to do! Because that’s cool too.
What are the qualities of the Floating Playground?
So many. And so sparkly.
Let’s see….
And if any of these don’t speak to you, translate them so that they work for you. Or just let them float past you. All qualities are cousins. If one is your friend or it knows your name, you can find ways to make friends with the rest.
What lives at the Floating Playground?
Wonderful things.
The Floating Playground is an online adventure so the spaces described below are all forum boards. But they will be way more special than that. And they’ll feel like rooms or houses or secret passages because it’s that kind of space.
Including some of the special and unusual spaces that you might already be familiar with from the real Playground or from my Kitchen Table program that ran for three years.
That’s because the Floating Playground combines some of the most beautiful and important parts of Rally (Rally!) and of the Kitchen Table. It shares culture. It shares magic.
Crankypants McGrumblebug’s (aka the Whine Bar).
The Magical Elevator Shaft.
A rejoicing place! We are happy with you on a glorrrious day. Small yays count too.
The Refueling Station for hiding and retreating!
A Biggification corner for bringing projects into the world.
The Wanted board for VPAs and wishings.
An arts & crafts center for playful ways to mess about with projects.
A Costumery for trying on costumes and parts of new identities.
The Deguiltified Chicken board for getting stuff done. With loving deguiltified accountability.
The Galley for making (virtual) tea and hanging out! Yay!
Bulletin boards. Chickenings. Places to play with superpowers. Places to practice Entry & Exit. Places to work on OODs.
The Monster-Watching Collective to give you safe spaces to process while they’re being cared for. And the Negotiating Cooperative for talking stuff out when you’re ready.
There will be places to write woems and smash plates (only if and when you feel like it, of course) and the throwing of spontaneous dance parties! Yay!
There will be blanket forts and snacks! Mostly metaphorical because we’re online. But we’ll make it feel real, and it will be the most sheltering, fun, loving, full-of-magical-possibility place you have ever been.
It’s floating and grounded at the same time. Playing. Grounding. And Floating.
And a permission slip!
Use whichever tools, concepts and toys you want.
Avoid whatever doesn’t appeal to you.
Choose what suits you and leave what doesn’t.
It’s your process. Your internal worlds. Your experience. Permission to play with the parts that speak to you and to not worry about the rest.
The Floating Playground is also a place where we get to practice…
stating what we want and asking for what we need (finding out what that is)!
separating from our monsters by being curious about them, recognizing that they are not the whole of our experience, finding their truths, getting closer to ourselves through interacting with a variety of aspects of our internal world!
creating safe rooms!
inventing rituals for each other!
working on our stuff (in playful and curious ways)!
recognizing that now is not then!
practicing alignment (“what do I have in common with this person/situation”)!
creating language to support your individual experience, and consciously choosing the words that work for you!
practicing sovereignty!
leaving little stones for people when we want them to know that we’re listening!
accomplishing things (be rejoiced over, have our ideas welcomed, get things done, enter and exit experiences, etc)!
But of course you never have to do any of those things if you don’t feel like it. Just options.
So that’s the Floating Playground.
It’s the place where we practice.
And if you’ve been hanging out on the blog for a while, you’ve figured out that there are certain Useful Things you’ll need to rewrite stuck patterns and make progress on everything you want to be doing.
Concepts, techniques, practice, mind-tricks, silliness, fairy dust. Costumes. The usual.
This is the place where you do that. Where you find out what it’s like to live like that.
Other things you get.
Other things aside from these amazing places, structures and forms for processing, destuckifying, biggifying, getting stuff done and feeling better about everything in your life.
- The pleasure of being in a community — and I do not use that way-overused word lightly — of bright, creative people who are serious about destuckifying in a conscious, mindful way.
We’re also serious about confidentiality and about not throwing shoes. But total goofballs about everything else.
- Four beautiful seasons of making stuff happen, in the least bootcamp-ey way possible.
- Be around people who will actively support you in your process. They’ll be your Enthusiastic. I’m in awe of how my people support each other. I have never seen anything like this.
- A ton of us to follow you on twitter, comment on your blog (or help you start one, if you want), tell people about you (if/when you’re ready), connect you up, love you up, welcome you, let you whine. It’s pretty fun, actually.
- Access to our private group phone lines and Chattery. Ask for an Enthusiastic, partner with someone to brainstorm, have tea, throw together a group chat on any subject, facilitate a call, learn, participate, whatever you like.
- Hang out in the Chattery chatroom during and after group phone calls (you don’t have to but it’s really fun) and goof off. This is also usually where people end up problem-solving like mad. Some of us have businesses, so all kinds of joint venture adventures and product ideas have been unexpectedly and creatively launched there too!
- Tell us if you’d like support or witnessing or suggestions with whatever you’re playing with. Like your own personal helper mouse squad.
- Deals on new products and programs, some of which you also get to help me develop.
- Times when Selma and I hang out and you can ask us any question you want.
Are there cool bonuses? Gesundheit!
Yes.
I don’t love the word bonus, and I always want to use the word chooparim (Hebrew slang), but then no one knows what I’m talking about and it sounds sneezy. So bonus-ey things it is.
1. Access to the best library ever.
During the three years that I ran my Kitchen Table program, I taught all kinds of classes, on a huge variety of subjects.
FIFTY SEVEN of them, in fact. Yes!
And we have recordings. In some cases also worksheets and chattery transcripts.
Classes I teach generally tend to pretty expensive. If I were going to sell a set of 57 classes, I can’t even imagine what it would go for but it would be intense.
I’ve decided that I’d rather have these in our library. No additional cost. And you can listen to or download as many of these classes as you want.
You don’t have to ever take advantage of this, of course. It’s a library! No one is ever going to force you to read all the books in the library! Just know that it’s there for you.
2. Actually, there’s another floor of the library that I didn’t mention.
During those three years of the Kitchen Table, we invited brilliant, funny, creative people to teach things, lead us in experiences or hang out with us.
Amazing teachers and authors with great minds and hearts. Barbara Sher, Jennifer Louden, Pam Slim, Colleen Wainwright.
We are making an additional fifty two of these recorded classes and conversations available. Listen when you like or download them for later.
3. Special privileges. Also known as: Extras and Cool Shit.
Being someone who plays at the Floating Playground gets you special pricing on other things too.
You don’t have to get any of these, obviously. But there are discounts for you if you want them!
You pay less for Rallies.
Special discounted price to come to the real Playground and play with me at any Rally (Rally!).
Also first dibs — if a Rally is close to full and a bunch of people want in, we’ll get you to the front of the line. This is pretty great.
If I create products, you get a deal.
Discounted price for most products I end up making while you’re there.
I’ve been known to just comp my people into other classes as well…
Related bonus-thing: Spy on my creative process. Because the Floating Playground is where I’ll be playing too. Working on making things, solving things and figuring out how to work on things.
You can peek as much as you like. Kind of like a room of extra unedited blog posts or ebooks.
Discounted price for Shivanauticon!
If you’re at the Floating Playground, you’ll be able to pay reduced tuition for Shivanauticon!
Again, you don’t have to come to Shivanauticon. But if you want to be there, you’ll get a lower rate. That’s because the people I play with get to take all the best shortcuts.
ENTRY. How do you get in?
There are several sets of doors.
Because doors are magical and important.
And because this is the sort of voyage that requires preparation.
The doors are a way of stepping into readiness.
The 1st door. Saying yes to this being the place.
Who gets to come aboard?
You’re ready to start playing and finding out. Or ready to continue playing and finding out, because I’m assuming that you already have your own practice and your own way of working on things.
You hang out here. You read what I write about unconventional ways to approach the “working on your stuff” process. You get that the way to a thriving, successful whatever-you’re-working on is this thing of having a conscious, intentional relationship with yourself.
You get that the SELF part of The Fluent Self means you’re in charge of your experience, and that your process is something that happens between you and you.
This excites you and occasionally terrifies you … and you can (sometimes) feel the little sparks of possibility.
You don’t have to have a business. You don’t have to know what you want to do with your life. You mostly agree that Crankypants McGrumblebug’s Kvetchtastic Whine Bar is a pretty decent name for a fake bar.
Additionally, the following are expected:
- You have some sort of regular active practice of working on your stuff.
- You own the Monster Coloring Book, so we’re all more or less familiar with some basic concepts, principles and vocabulary.
- You have the Art of Embarking, and are willing to practice the material there before you arrive.
- You’ve read “How to Disagree Without Being Disagreeable“, and “Nonviolent Communication.” A basic familiarity with the principles will be very helpful for both internal and external communication. If you haven’t read these yet, do this as part of preparing to enter. The NVC book has some problematic poetry, which I apologize for in advance.
The 2nd door. Finding out if now is the time for you.
When does this magical year begin?
It begins through a day that is not just a day but an imaginary door to important and unlikely things.
The Day of Leap! February 29, 2012. It’s Platform 9 3/4.
The platform Harry Potter used at King’s Cross Station. You have to know it’s there…
We will have four seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter
The year will conclude at the tail end of January, 2013.
You might find then that you’re done with a particular process and ready to live by this stuff on your own. Or you may find that you are ready to do more and go deeper. In that case, you’ll have a month or so to assimilate what you’ve experienced, consolidate, reinvigorate and prepare yourself to ENTER into the next layer, if you’d like.
The 3rd door. The saying of YES.
You say YES and we say YES. It will be joyful and fun.
The Orange Buttons.
You click one of the orange buttons to make an initial deposit of $96.
This deposit counts towards your tuition, unless I decide this program won’t be the best fit for your needs at this time and then you’ll get it back.
The Pickle Page.
You’ll be sent to the Pickle page and you’ll get an email. You do not have to send responses.
The Cycle of Payment/s.
Once confirmed, the remainder gets taken care of in either one payment or 8 automatic monthly payments, with the 1st payment 30 days from the date of deposit.
IMPORTANT! Please note the credit card you used for the deposit, because that’s the card that will be charged for the monthly payments.
And There Was Much Rejoicing.
We rejoice. And you begin practicing conscious entry and readying yourself for our time together.
The 4th door. Making sure you are ready.
There are no automatic passes. Everyone goes through the same doors.
Being a graduate of my Kitchen Table program or any of my other programs does not necessarily mean you and the Floating Playground are ready to play together this year.
We have a highly unusual admissions process. In part because it is almost completely self-directed.
You’ll take yourself on an excursion to the Mirroring Pool. We’ll explain how that works! You’ll get an email!
You’ll let the Mirror Pool reflect back at you secret information about what you need right now. You can then use what the pool has given you to consult internally about whether you are ready for playing at the Floating Playground.
If you’re ready, yay. This is the place you should be this year. And if you aren’t ready, the Mirror Pool will show you how to prepare so that you will be ready.
And after that, you won’t have to do anything kooky ever again! Unless you want to.
The 5th door. Preparing for the voyage. Conscious Entry.
You have until February 29th to do what you need to do to ready yourself.
Use the Art of Embarking. Skip a bunch of stones. Use the questions on the pickle page (we’ll send you a link to that!).
Work on your stuff. Play. Think about how you want to feel and how you want to experience the experience.
The final door. ENTRY.
February 29th, 2012.
The Leap day of Leap.
Except that you won’t have to actually leap, because we never have to do that.
This is the day of beginning. It is going to be beautiful.
Pricing! And the ORANGE BUTTONS.
I’m assuming you’ve read the above section about the doors, and you are cool with the Mirroring Pool information and the prerequisites.
Awesome. Here are the prices.
- You go through the door of the Orange Button and pay a deposit of $96 to hold your place.
This goes towards your tuition, unless I decide this program won’t be the best fit for your needs at this time and then you’ll get it back.
- The remainder of your tuition will be a single payment of $920.
- Or you can do eight payments of $120.
And before pressing the orange button, take a moment…
You get to enter the way you want to enter. Pause (paws!). Take a breath.
This is a big, wonderful, change-filled thing. A commitment to slightly future you. It totally makes sense if it feels scary. Recognize the moment of eek! But enter the door as the you who is planting a present. Enter in your strength.
 |
 |
And the fine print, in the most fine-print typeface I could find:
- Included in the price: Full tuition to the first year of the Floating Playground, awesome discounts, epiphanies, shelter and metaphorical blanket forts.
- Before going through the doors, take a moment. Check with yourself and make sure this is what you want. See our Incredibly Boring Policies page.
Floating! Playground! We will adventure!
And If it doesn’t work out this time, we will have other adventures together. I promise.
But if this is speaking to you right now, I am looking forward to playing with you.
We’ll send you all the details and we will meet up on the Day of Leaping!
So much love,
Havi and Selma and the pirate crew
