Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Hope, Mind, Heart, Courage, and Imagination

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Hope, Mind, Heart, Courage, and Imagination: "The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz , and L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , present five themes over and over a..."

Hope, Mind, Heart, Courage, and Imagination

The 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, and L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, present five themes over and over again: hope, mind, heart, courage, and imagination. These five themes successfully address most of the issues and struggles we face day to day.

I was watching the fantastic film, The Shawshank Redemption, last evening and there was one scene where Tim Robbins said to Morgan Freeman, “Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things.”

Many of the students I have had the pleasure to work with in my seminars are dealing with this exact issue, hope. Hope is an amazing quality to possess. When we don’t have it and don’t feel it, life seems to be out of reach and we struggle to gain our footing. Hope keeps the inner fires burning. I remember years ago reading Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning. He recalled when he was in a concentration camp and knew when others had lost hope. He could see it in their faces, hear it in their voices, and feel it lacking in their movements. He said, “Those who had lost hope died within a short time.”

I remember when my mom had a heart attack in 2005 and the attending Cardiologist told her that she might not pull through because her heart had so much damage. When I entered her room in the ER, she was crying and told me what he had said. I reassured her that she would pull through. I went to the nurse’s station and called him on the phone and asked him why he told her such a negative thing when she was so vulnerable and struggling for her life. He told me that he told her the truth. I told him that he told her HIS version of the truth, not necessarily the truth. I told him that as a doctor you always give the patient hope because you never know what they are capable of. He disagreed. I fired him, hired another Cardiologist, and told him how I wanted him to communicate to my mom. He agreed. That was 6 years ago. My mom pulled through, lives independently, cooks, cleans, bakes, watches movies, watches the LA Dodgers, and is enjoying life again in her 90’s.

In the Wizard of Oz, the first person Dorothy meets when she arrives in the Land of Oz is the Good Witch Glinda. Glinda gives Dorothy hope. She gives her a pair of magical Ruby Red Shoes, tells her that the Wizard of Oz may be able to help her get back home, and then kisses her on the forehead and proclaims, “No one can harm a person who has been kissed by the Good Witch of the North.” Dorothy is sent on her way with both a feeling of hope and a feeling of safety and protectiveness. Isn’t it a great feeling to know that we are protected and are safe?

Once on the Yellow Brick Road, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow who is stuck on a pole. Through their interactions, she helps free him from his confinement on the pole and he joins her to see if the Wizard of Oz will give him a brain. He doesn’t think he has one but challenge after challenge proves that he has a great and creative mind. Belief systems are so important in life. What we believe is true is true for us BUT not necessarily the truth. Like the first Cardiologist that saw my mom, what we think is true and what really IS true might be poles apart. Scarecrow had a great mind and an amazing brain. He just didn’t know it. He just needed the opportunities to allow his creative mind to work.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow met Tin Woodman rusted and immobile standing in the woods. He persuaded them to find an oil can and oil his joints. Once mobile again, he told them his story of how he lost his heart. He was deeply in love years ago, the relationship ended, and he lost his heart in the process.  Tin Woodman told Dorothy and Scarecrow that a person without a heart cannot love and love is the greatest experience in life. He asked them if The Wizard could give him a heart again. They asked him to join them, giving him hope and inspiration.

Love is an amazing force. Some say that it is the greatest power, the most precious gift, the most fulfilling experience in life. In the film, Don Juan de Marco, Johnny Depp said,” There are 4 questions to ask ourselves.  What is sacred?  Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for?” He then tells Marlon Brando that the answer to all 4 questions is love.

Years ago I had the good fortune of spending time with Elizabeth Kubler Ross, MD author of, On Death and Dying. Elizabeth told me a story about one of her psychiatric residences. She worked at a facility where there were 4 children’s wards. The children in one of the wards were experiencing great physical and emotional improvement, so much so that it called for a meeting of the entire medical staff. The question posed was, “what are we doing differently on that unit that is resulting in this amazing improvement?” Meeting after meeting did not result in any clarity so Elizabeth took it upon herself to visit that ward to see if she could find any clues. The first 8 hour shift provided nothing out of the norm. The second shift provided no clues either. But, on the late night shift, Elizabeth observed something utterly amazing. The housekeeper picked up each child one by one, held them lovingly, rocked them in her arms, and played with them. The vast improvement was the result of loving touch and loving communication. What is equally amazing is that the medical staff with all their degrees and expertise didn’t think of doing what the housekeeper did.

Further down the Yellow Brick Road Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman come upon a very loud and angry Lion who attempts to scare and attack them. Dorothy walks up to him and slaps him across the snout! The Lion immediately stops his rants and begins to cry. He reveals that he has always been afraid and lives within a very small space in the jungle. “Can the Wizard give me courage, he asks?

While the four of them are walking along the Yellow Brick Road, they come across a big divide on the path. This gulch is so wide that the four of them sit down to discuss if they will be able to continue on their journey. Scarecrow says that if they cannot come up with a solution, then their journey will have to end. The Lion rises up, assesses the situation, and then says, “I can jump over it.” To this the Scarecrow adds, “If you can do that, then take each one of us one at a time, on your back over to the other side. And so he did with each marvelous leap, one at a time.

Hope, love, courage, mind, imagination….these are the gifts of the soul, the qualities that help us get through the challenges that life presents us with.  Remain hopeful;  keep your heart open and your thoughts positive and uplifting;  express your courage and draw upon inner and outer resources; and let your imagination be your constant companion.

John A. Tamiazzo, PhD is the author of, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Barnesandnoble.com, and as a Kindle e-book at Amazon. His dynamic workshops in the USA, Canada, and Scandinavia show participants how to creatively use the power of the mind and the wisdom of the imagination to successfully achieve goals, improve health, and make positive life changes.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The Wisdom of Your Imagination

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: The Wisdom of Your Imagination: "I travel a lot with the work that I do. I specialize in teaching people how to use imagery and imagination to make the changes they want to..."

The Wisdom of Your Imagination

I travel a lot with the work that I do. I specialize in teaching people how to use imagery and imagination to make the changes they want to make. My work is not talk therapy or emotional expressive therapy but each plays a part in the work. I do what is called inspirational interviewing wherein the client is put into a confidence building role, relying on a deeper wisdom to help them make decisions and achieve goals.

Imagery not only includes the visual modality, it also encompasses what we feel, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Imagination represents the expansive part of us. A friend of mine once wrote, “Imagination is the opposite of depression.” Imagination is always our way out of whatever is making us feel trapped. Imagination offers us possibilities, options, opens doors and helps us reach beyond the places where we are stuck. Imagination activates all of our senses so that we can see new opportunities, feel alive again inside, hear the music, smell the flowers, reinvent ourselves, reignite our relationships, and begin to take the steps which will lead us in a new direction.

Depression is a state of contraction, a holding in, a repressing, and a narrowing of perception. When we think negatively and feel hopeless, we don’t notice people’s smiles, the sounds of nature, or see beauty. When we are depressed, life becomes very limited in scope. In a sense, depression is a very self-centered experience. The “I” becomes all important: I don’t have, I lack, I missed out, I failed, I made the mistake, I, I, I. In the English language, the “I” is always capitalized but the “we,” “ she,” and “he” are in lower case. Why do we put such a high premium on the “I?”  Depression is not a bad thing, but when we are in it, it does not feel good. Depression can be viewed as ‘seed time.’ It is an important time to read, to journal, to look back, to look forward, to explore what we want to do, what we want to achieve, what goals we want to work towards. While depressed we typically don’t think about goals or what we want to achieve because we are waterlogged with feelings of hopelessness. But, these are the times that we must actively force ourselves to move beyond the feelings and tap into imagination. This is where my work comes in handy. It encourages and supports people to look at their lives in a creative way, a nurturing way, and a hopeful way. During the interview, the person is helped to identify a goal that is important to her. Even the most depressed person can be helped to identify a goal IF the questions asked by the interviewer are non-threatening and create safety. This is called establishing rapport.

Keep in mind that when I speak of depression I am not talking about grief as it relates to loss. Feeling grief and going through the natural stages of grief following a loss are quite different. I had the good fortune of working with grief and loss expert, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, MD while in graduate school and know from my own experiences that grief as it relates to loss takes time. But, I have had hundreds of people attend my workshops who were suffering from grief gain immeasurably from the creative processes and exploring grief and loss in new ways.

Following the interview stage of the work, I help those I work with to learn how to relax. This can be quite challenging, especially to someone who has not relaxed in a very long time. Oftentimes when a person is guided into a relaxation process, or meditative state they begin to gently cry. This crying is not out of sadness but rather a physiological response to entering into an altered state of consciousness that feels good. It feels so good that the eyes begin to tear. It is akin to crying at the airport when we pick up a friend or relative we haven’t seen in a very long time and it is feels so good to see that person again. We cry out of joy. The same thing can happen when we deeply relax. We tap into an inner place that we haven’t visited in a very long time but the body remembers how good it felt.

Next, the person is helped with the goal that was identified in the interview. My work is solution focused, not problem focused. Solution focused means that I am going to help you create viable solutions so that so you can do more of the things that will bring a smile to your face.  The goal might be to be more relaxed, to make a big life decision, to gain clarity on an important issue, to be pain free, to improve sleep, or to embrace something new. A goal is not something you don’t want but has to be put into positive terms as something you do want. Oftentimes people spend too much time talking about what is awful in their lives, what isn’t working, and what is causing distress. In my workshops, we spend very little time with these issues and spend most of our time looking at solutions, options, possibilities, needed changes, and creative ways of opening doors. In the words of Abraham Maslow, we explore “The farther reaches of human nature.” The difference with the work that I do is that these farther reaches are explored while in a deeply relaxing state of mind. We go inside and let the imagination take the lead. I have done this work with thousands of people in three countries and still today I am amazed at the positive life-changing results.

The work takes different forms and I offer those attending the workshops a half dozen creative processes to explore. Sometimes we work in the past; sometimes we work in the future; sometimes we work with a process wherein we take two opposing goals and place them metaphorically in the hands; sometimes we work in the present; sometimes we work on a dream or a series of dreams. But, the most important thing is that we work creatively and draw upon the wisdom of your imagination.

John A. Tamiazzo is the author of two books. His newest book, Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding Hope, Love, and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road, is available at Amazon.com, Amazon,ca, Barnesandnoble.com, and as a Kindle e-book at Amazon. Check his workshop schedule at www.landofozworkshops.blogspot.com for a workshop coming to your area soon.

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Dreams, Callings, and Archetypes of the Mystic's P...

Land of Oz Workshops Blog: Dreams, Callings, and Archetypes of the Mystic's P...: "In his novella, The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupery reveals the secret of the fox, “Only the heart can rightly see.” Having a heart ..."

Dreams, Callings, and Archetypes of the Mystic's Path

In his novella, The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupery reveals the secret of the fox, “Only the heart can rightly see.” Having a heart gives us compassion and reverence for others and the world around us. It gives us respect for the differences and uniqueness of others and the ability to reach out to those in need. Having a heart enables us to live life richly and enjoy the simple pleasures even if we aren’t financially wealthy. It allows us to open our eyes and ears, to take notice of the beauty and wonder that is all around us. Having a heart gives us the capacity to both give and receive love.

I have been a therapist and teacher for many years and have had the privilege to present my work throughout Canada, the USA, and Scandinavia. I have met and worked with thousands of people. Everyone I have met basically wants the same things: to open their heart, to love, to let go of depressive thinking and beliefs that shut life out. Everyone I have worked with wants to be inspired again, to feel their greatness and to awaken their imagination. Our anxiety and fear stems from our inability to draw upon these inner resources and to live the life a deeper part of us knows we are capable of. Once we connect with this deeper wisdom, our life is transformed. Talk therapy, insight therapy, and prescribed drugs typically will not help us make the connection. Imagination and dynamic imagery work will.

Imagination is always our way out of whatever is making us feel trapped. Imagination offers us possibilities, opens doors, and helps us reach beyond the places where we are stuck.  Imagination activates all of our senses so that we can see new opportunities, feel alive again, hear the music, smell the flowers, reinvent ourselves, and begin to take the steps which will lead us in a new direction.

American Psychologist Abraham Maslow once wrote, “The person in the peak experience usually feels himself at the peak of his powers. He feels more intelligent, more perceptive, wittier, stronger, and more graceful than at other times.”

Maslow was a mystic, as was C.G. Jung and Mother Teresa. Mysticism is not as esoteric as one might think. I will be teaching a new class in Calgary, August 20-21 at the Spiritual Directions Centre on the topic of Mysticism. It is a two-day course on how to awaken your own inner mystic, how to open your heart again, tap into your intuition and wiser self, to be inspired again, and to let your imagination soar. The work is exciting, fun, very fulfilling, and life-changing.

John A. Tamiazzo is the author of, Returning to the Land of Oz, available at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, and Barnesandnoble.com