Inhabiting All
Can we truly fully engage and connect with the emotions of others if we deny our own?
Hello Wildlings,
This is not the newsletter I had planned to write but the need for these words swelled up inside me after some coaching work I recently did for somebody. I hope they mean something for all of you . They are about our Wildling-selves and how we share our truth.
The photo above is of me, mid-performance of my show, The Devil, The Maiden and the Crone. I look powerful, perhaps a angry too …? I do not know what part of the show it is and this often happens, seeing photos of myself after a performance and wondering to myself, ‘what the hell part was that?´
This is from my show , Splinters …. what am I looking towards? I look like I am yearning for something, I sense sorrow looking at this
This is the same show - sorrow and pain again.
This is absolutely one of my favourite images of myself - I can sense the power, passion and bliss of this moment looking at it.
Finally, Splinters again - pain and loss crumpling my face.
The two images below, are of me running workshops …. can you see the emotions again? Connection and communication, in all forms, need them. Emotions form the fascia of connection.
I have a belief that a part of me does not even want to share because it may be uncomfortable for people to hear - but here it is:
In order to be powerful in your performances and presentations, you need to be at ease and able to connect to all of your emotions.
Anger
Passion
Lust
Fear
Anxiety
and on
and on
and on.
Why?
I feel my work is so much about enabling people to become aware of the stories they carry, often without knowing, and how these impact on their beliefs about themselves and others. (Of course I do this for organisations and communities too.) Here is the thing - if one of your main stories is that you have to be a ‘good girl, a kind girl, a peace-maker,’ it can be very hard for you to allow anger within yourself and often within others. This can impact on your performances and presentations as they can be missing that vital colour within the palette of life. I have heard so many, women in particular, give presentations/performances that are pastels and pale pinks, lacking blood reds, lacking earth black, lacking pained silvers …..
Of course many of these presentations/performances are great, lovely, perfectly ok, yet I feel they could be so much more engaging …. and often the people telling them also sense this …. they come to me and say, “I get good feedback but I sense there is something missing…” A little like food without salt.
Often times these people can create great content, have researched all the facts, are using all the ‘rules’ - (the power of three, the story arc, repetition, rhythm, rhyme and rest etc) the issue lies with the delivery, there can be a lack in tone of voice, an absence of change of speed. The delivery is measured and a little flat. I firmly believe that changes in tone of voice and the altering of speed in storytelling are the two most difficult things to teach. The reason behind this is all about giving ourselves permission to express the emotions that we have often been taught to swallow.
We seas of swallowed words, scared that once we belch one up, then the others will be vomited up, uncontrollably and God forbid we should lose control …..
I remember watching a male storyteller telling a story. He came to a part where a wife tries to seduce the young knight…. I squirmed with discomfort, felt slightly nauseous - not because of something I had eaten but because he seemed so uncomfortable. He was trying to ‘be sexy,’ sticking out his tongue, licking his lips. The result was a mix between a Carry On movie and the Office - wrongness and complete discomfort. He was unable to access the passion and lust within him, he was pretending to be something that he did not know.
So what am I saying?
Am I saying that you should not perform sensual stories if you yourself do not feel sensuous?
No.
I am saying that we should give ourselves permission to feel and express what we feel. What is great, is that stories offer a great way for us to do this. Any of you who have children may well do this when you read them bedtime stories - the angry wolf, the scared piggies etc. So why do we hold that back when we are presenting or telling?
Is it because we feel safe with a children’s story and with them as our audience and then unsafe when standing in front of ourselves and the audience of adults?
Is it because we have been led to believe that passion has no place in logic and fact?
Is it because we are scared of showing the true, powerful, beautiful depths of that ocean of emotions that we contain?
For each of us it will be something different.
However, one thing I do know is this; performing is like being a boat on a powerful sea. The rudder is your intellect and knowledge. The boat itself is your care and holding of your audience/subject matter. The sea is your passion and without it, your boat is going nowhere.
The other truth, that vibrates within the essence of me - is that the story is always more important than me. My message is more important than me.
More important than the shape of my body
More important than how my hair looks
More important than my age
and as such, I can surrender myself to it and disappear - become invisible and just arch myself on the sea that carries me, that carries you, that is the story, the purpose of it all.
All of the images you see above are of me being disappeared into that sea of passion, sea of purpose,
sea of story,
sea of emotions.
The place where we meet.
If you would like to meet me there, I am inviting you all to a small performance and Q+A next Sunday. I hope to see you all there.
Katrice Horsley is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: A sea of swallowed words with Katrice
Time: Dec 7, 2025 06:00 PM Stockholm
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Meeting ID: 833 0618 3861
Passcode: 934435
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