Christmas is a natural time of year to Zoom-Out. To step back and take a broader perspective on your life and the people in it. This is precisely what happened to Ebenezer Scrooge in the classic Christmas story by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol – he essentially undergoes a series of Zoom-Outs facilitated by three ghosts.
This workshop has 4 parts (‘Staves’) comprised of a short video (~3 mins) and an accompanying exercise (~10 mins). You can choose to do one part per day or do all four together (< 1 hour).
Stave 5 concludes the story with a final point of reflection.
Please share with family and friends. In fact, you can do these exercises with other people if you have a shared history, shared social circle and shared future.
Stave 1: The Spirit of Zoom-Out
At times we can become Zoomed-In on something unhelpful. That is, we can hold a narrow view about something, someone or ourselves in a way that is detrimental to ourselves and those around us. In Ebenezer Scrooge’s case, he had become Zoomed-In on money at the expense of many other aspects of his life.
EXERCISE: After watching the video, take 10 mins or more to think about times you have been Zoomed-In on something unhelpful in a way that has held you back, closed doors or generally dented your happiness.
Stave 2: The Ghost of Christmas Past
Evolution has built into us a negativity bias which has maximised our chances of survival and passing on our genes but at the expense of our happiness and effectiveness in other aspects of our lives. As a result we tend to focus on and remember the failures and ‘negative’ events. This exercise aims to boost our self-esteem and sense of gratitude for our own achievements and the ‘positive’ events and people in our lives.
EXERCISE: After watching the video, take 10 mins or more, to write down your highlights of the year on a timeline from last Christmas to this one. Simply draw the timeline on a piece of paper or you can download and print this worksheet.
Stave 3: The Ghost of Christmas Present
EXERCISE: After watching the video, take 10 mins or more, to write down your social circles. Simply draw the circles and names on a piece of paper or you can download and print this worksheet.
Stave 4: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
EXERCISE: After watching the video, take 10 mins or more, to write what you would like people to be saying about you next Christmas. Simply write this on a piece of paper or you can download and print this worksheet.
Stave 5: Christmas Morning – A New Dawn
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Credits
Narration by Rob Aston
Voices of the ghosts by Kev Tsai
Theme music by Rob Aston & Ilana Jacobs
Conceived and created by Rob Aston
Inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
Thank you to all of the people that have co-facilitated, dressed up and
acted in the face-to-face workshop in previous years
and to all of the people that have taken part.