Cultivating Gratitude through Time-Travel (workshop) @ Plot 9 Maze Hill

Introducing a new gratitude practice developed and facilitated by Sammy Alattar,  integrative psychodynamic therapist (MBCAP). The workshop lasts 90 mins and takes place in the beautiful Plot 9 Maze Hill in a circular, parachute-covered space surrounded by nature. Participants are welcome to stay at the space after the workshop and enjoy tea and chat around the fire.

Background

We’re led to believe that modern life is rubbish, that things are worse than they’ve ever been, that nothing works, that technology has eviscerated and enslaved us, that everything is too slow or painful or meaningless, that the good times are behind us. We’re told that we, humans, have lost our way, lost our heads, lost our spirit, that the 21st century displays the absolute worst of humanity, that people can’t be trusted, that nobody cares... But have we really lost our way or have we completely lost our perspective?

Perhaps the greatest story of lost perspective ever told is A Christmas Carol. Ebeneezer Scrooge is locked in a perpetual cycle of bitter disappointment, unmitigated as it would otherwise be by the soothing balm of human connection and, unsurprisingly, egged on by his early-life trauma. He acts from the self-fulfilling loop he is stuck in with an acute and miserly meanness.

Chronic disappointment and a lack of regular, authentic human bonding leads to chronic stress. It keeps our nervous system in a mode that renders us walled-off, wary of others, disparaging of the present, too narrow in focus and pessimistic about the future. It confirms an existential belief that might say “I’m not safe, I’m not in control, everything is failing, everybody lets me down, nobody loves me, people don’t care”.

We may not wish to admit it but we are all individually capable of embodying Scrooge in the right conditions. He certainly seems to have become dominant in the collective conscience already. Expectations that are set too high relative to our current circumstances coupled with a de-prioritisation of quality human contact can be all it takes to cross over into this fear-laden, conservative and austere way of being. Those of us who were really let down in the past are most at risk.

Cultivating gratitude is an essential part of a less disappointing life and a happier society. While it’s true that certain features of modern life are more harmful or less ideal than their bygone equivalents, when we over-focus on what we don’t have we negatively bias our minds, and our feelings follow. We need gratitude to help keep our expectations at healthy levels, to stay aware of the bigger picture, to stay open to human connection and to relax our nervous systems.

The Workshop

In this 90 minute workshop, powered by our imaginations and using guided visualisation techniques, we will journey, like our good friend Ebeneezer, through time and space. We’ll visit moments in our collective and personal histories, past, present and future. We’ll get in touch with and allow ourselves to appreciate what we have right now, what we so easily wouldn’t have if things were different. We’ll find perspective, gratitude, grace, calm and, most importantly, each other.

I’m excited to bring this workshop to Plot 9, a naturally immersive space that could be anywhere and anywhen, a place where people can truly leave their urban surroundings - and concerns - behind them to partake in a journey through time and space. It will be our capsule and container for the evening.

I look forward to meeting you and exploring this new practice together in such a beautiful and unusual setting.

About Me

 I run workshops that help people connect with and share their unmasked selves (authenticity, vulnerability), remind people of their insignificance/natural place in time and the universe (perspective, awe, gratitude), gather people together for shared journeys (community, comradery) and bring people into contact with their culturally-unacknowledged losses (disenfranchised grief/taboo loss). In the spirit of humanism, I want to support people to live more meaningful lives through exploring themselves, their reality and the reality of others. 

I strive to do this in unique, captivating ways that deeply immerse people in the subject matter at hand, via playful, creative, feeling-provoking, non-dogmatic, non-intellectualising, sometimes humorous & always participant-shaped practices and invented rituals (a mantra of mine is “all rituals were invented at some point”). 

I draw on my life experiences since birth, my career so far as an integrative psychotherapist and couples therapist, my decades-long work as a musician and experiments in video art, as well as whatever I've come across or have tried so far in any area, field or specialisation. 

From horticulture to cabaret to mythology, geopolitics to independent film , evolutionary neurobiology to human interest stories, esoteric religion to psychogeography, I'm endlessly fascinated and influenced by the explorations, research, personalities, meanderings, tragedy, performances, developments, wrong-turns, cultural impacts, rhetoric, delvings, wisdom and lore of other humans, as well as the non-human world that can't directly speak to us but is equally communicative and inspiring.

Thanks, Sammy.

Travel info to Plot 9

Arrival between 7pm and 7:30pm. Plot 9 is in east Greenwich, a few minutes walk from Maze Hill Overground Station which is served by Southeastern and Thameslink trains. You can catch a direct train to Maze Hill from any of: Greenwich, Deptford, London Bridge, Cannon St, Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon, St Pancras or West Hampstead. 

VIDEO DIRECTIONS: It's a short route from Maze Hill station to Plot 9 but a little bit convoluted so please look at video directions here showing how to get there from Platform 2 of Maze Hill where you'll alight if coming from central London.

It is also possible to travel via North Greenwich and get the 188 or 422 bus, alighting on Trafalgar Road or Woolwich Road and walking up Vanbrugh Hill, turning right onto Restell Close. The space is halfway down the hill on the right. Look for the bright green campervan and the entrance is 10 metres beyond it on the right.

Google Maps pin. Postcode: SE3 7RD

If you're driving then there's usually plenty of free space on nearby Humber Road (free parking from 6:30pm).

Plot 9 is not (yet) wheelchair accessible.