Today we took ourselves back in time to our childhood parties and decided to move with balloons. We started the group as we always do checking into the space and sharing stories from our busy weeks. We then began to pas a small balloon around the space focusing on allowing the balloon to float and balance. The focus was amazing everyone was completely in the task and no one wanted to let the balloon float down to the ground. We soon realised that the balloon had a mind of its own and sometimes didn’t move or balance the way we wanted it to!
When I could sense the group were completely focused I then swiftly changed the music to an up-beat piece and without me even giving the instruction the group began to pass the balloon faster. The balloon was bouncing from person to person. The group were laughing, joking and smiling but were still in the exact same focus despite the change in energy.
We took a brief pause and began to discuss feelings on moving with the balloons, most explained that the balloons reminded them of their childhoods. The group also explained that they felt it was a good work out and felt quite warm after the task.
Before the group began to sit back into their chairs i walked to the back of the room to pull out a giant balloon from under the table. It was a bright red colour and took both my hands to hold it up as it was so large. The groups faces lit up with excitement. I then pulled 2 more from under the table a Yellow and Pink balloon. We began with the same task passing the bigger balloons round the space thinking about passing, balancing and floating. The group were hypnotised by the colours and again gained focus quickly.
When I changed the song to a fasted beat the group panics and the balloons began to loose control, I decided to leave the group a few minutes to work out how they were going to control the 3 giant balloons in the space and before I knew it they were talking to each other and had re gained focus, enabling the balloons to be moved around the space. The energy kept growing and so did the smiles on the participants faces!
We decided to leave the balloons for a moment and learn a short seated dance to 99 Red Balloons (of course sticking the the theme)! The group were even given the opportunity to add some of their own dance moves on the end- which they all jumped at the opportunity to do so!
The group were well and truly tired, but all agreed they had thoroughly enjoyed the session. We decided to bring the focus back to the balloons, balancing and passing as part of our cool down. This really helped to bring the focus in.
What a fabulous, fun, session!