At a dance vacation in Rio de Janeiro, I was invited to share my Resilience Tree Model. In a room filled with dancers, creatives, and adaptive leaders, I felt called to try something different.
The hotel ballroom was empty (no tables, no chairs. Just open space).
So I went upstairs to my room, gathered blankets and comforters, and laid them out on the floor. One by one, others followed. Shoes came off. Bodies softened. People laid down, closed their eyes, and agreed to journey with me.
Instead of walking through the model intellectually, I wanted us to experience it.
To feel roots.
To stretch branches.
To taste fruit.
To sense the ecosystem around us.
What made it even more powerful was this: it wasn’t one specific tree.
It could be any tree.
As we debriefed, people shared trees from their homelands. Trees they climbed as children. Trees native to places they miss. Trees they had never seen in real life but somehow felt connected to. Palm trees. Oaks. Baobabs. Blossoming trees. Desert trees.
Different species. Different climates. Same essence.
The photo above captures us on the ballroom floor after a full day of adventure and dancing (resting, reflective, open). It was a sacred pocket of space that I deeply cherish.
When I stood up to leave, I noticed something that stopped me.
Someone had arranged our shoes (the ones we had slipped off to get comfortable) so that they were positioned like footprints leading into our gathering.
As if the space itself had marked the path.
It felt poetic. Intentional. Almost ceremonial.
I didn’t want to simply explain the Resilience Tree. I wanted people to see it within themselves. To realize that it is not my Resilience Tree Model.
It is ours.
It already lives within us. I am simply noticing it… naming it… and helping others articulate what they already know deep down.
If you’d like the guided visualization with reflection prompts you can download it at the link below.
It is now part of my Embodied Resilience Series, where we experience leadership and growth through reflection, movement, and metaphor.
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