weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 85
e Establishing Boundaries and Crossing Thresholds
In different stages of the Weaving Voices journey in learning new
vocal and weaving practices, I have been invited to consider my
relationship with boundaries and thresholds.
Much Sociological research supports the importance of establishing
personal and professional boundaries as a way to maintain health
and function, to practise empathy and compassion. “According to
Professor Brené Brown’s research, compassionate people ‘assume other
people are doing the best they can, but they also ask for what they need and don’t
put up with a lot of crap’.” The traits of the most compassionate people
are that they: Ask for what they need, say ‘no’ when they need, and
when they say ‘yes’, they really mean it.139
Poet John O’Donohoe says: “A threshold is not a simple boundary
boundary; it is a
frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. At this
threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement,
sadness, hope”.140 O’Donohoe suggests that in order to recognise,
acknowledge and differentiate between Boundaries and Thresholds
it feels important to take time; to feel all the varieties of presence
that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until the
inner voice can be heard. (TB) / (HB)
• What beliefs or association do you have with boundaries?
• At which threshold are you now standing?
• How do you feel and behave when one of your boundaries
has been crossed?
• What is preventing you from crossing your next threshold?
• How do you feel when someone communicates their
boundaries to you?
• What are the boundaries you sense you need but haven’t
yet been able to communicate?
s Safe spaces, Safer spaces, Brave spaces
Safe spaces is a term we are hearing everywhere in our various
contexts, particularly when working with vulnerable people. It’s 9
am on a sunny august morning in Leeds. I am setting up a space
in a museum for Weaving Voices collaborators and local people
who have sought sanctuary in this city, who will all be arriving soon.
Today, we are going to work creatively to ‘activate’ our museum
exhibition. We’re going to co-create this creative action, rooted in
our lived experience and interests. I’m not exactly sure how many
people will arrive, or which languages they speak, or what access
needs they might have. I have completed a risk assessment. Drawing
on over a decade of experience, I am imagining the ways in which
I can facilitate learning and meaningful experience in this space. I
am thinking about what I can do to make people feel comfortable. I
think that comfort is important. I know that I hold responsibility for
the people in the room, to some extent, at least whilst they are in
the room. But can this literal room (or figurative space) be deemed
‘safe’? Safe for everyone, at all times? Part of taking responsibility
is about acknowledging limitations and the impossibility of striving
for safe spaces. Let’s make them safer. This can be achieved by
continuously evaluating the notion of safety in spaces we cultivate: by
asking individuals what they want and need, by making explicit the
trouble with safety and accessibility, and acknowledging that these
(HB) / (HB)
environments can be challenging.141 (TB)
a Active Citizenship
Active Citizenship is an increasingly used term within the field of
Community Arts Practice and Co-Creation. The British Council’s
Active Citizens Social Leadership Training Programme has launched
over 18000 Social Action Projects across 80 countries. In the
healthcare sector in Scotland, the term is used to highlight the ways
in which inequality leads to health inequality; poverty causes poor
health; and climate change is a public health emergency. Community
Arts practices bolstering wellbeing will be part of the UK’s National
Health Service: Social Prescribing from 2024 onwards. This marks
139 Setting Boundaries (2020) KimAllenYoga. Available at: https://kimallenyoga.squarespace.com/blog/
setting-boundaries [Accessed 22 Sept. 2024].
140
O’Donohoe, J. (2008) To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. New York: Convergent Books.
168
141 Martin, B. and Mohanty, C.T. (1986) ‘Feminist Politics: What’s Home Got to Do with It?’, in T. de Lauretis
(ed.) Feminist Studies / Critical Studies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 293–310.
169
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