First of all, con­grat­u­la­tions to the small but mighty group of keen explor­ers of the “Think Refer­rals Busi­ness Net­work­ing” group who embraced a Buf­foon­ery Team­build­ing Work­shop recently. Rainer Shmoll, CEO of Think Refer­rals; Rhi­an­non Fos­ter, Real­tor extra­or­di­naire for Royal LeP­age; Jason Scott, of Fit­ness Town & the fab­u­lous Power Plate; Mar­garete Vinke , Inde­pen­dent Asso­ciate of Legal Shield; Marlise Mel­lett, Mar­ket­ing, Sales & Pro­mo­tions Man­ager for Doolin’s Pub & prop­er­ties; Dr. Dilyana Nestorova, Acupunc­tur­ist & Her­bol­o­gist with Vista Well­ness and Gary Chomyn, The SalesMD.

These peo­ple rec­og­nize that play is just as impor­tant as a fit­ness work­out, eat­ing cor­rectly, and any self-​development edu­cat­ing learn­ing. I com­mend them for get­ting curi­ous about what a Buf­foon­ery Work­shop could offer them.

Telling your partner’s story… cre­at­ing a safe place

The word “buf­foon­ery”, the Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tion of the tricky tech­nique for this team-​building process based on the French “Bouffon”…

…can star­tle peo­ple and give an impres­sion of “not seri­ous”, “silly”, “un-​productive play­ing”, and cause them either to laugh, and want to know more, or smile while think­ing “this is not for me, and much too foolish”.

Some of that is true. Yes, it’s silly. Yes, it’s not seri­ous. Yes, it’s fool­ish. But, accord­ing to many stud­ies, play proves to be a cru­cial ele­ment for effec­tively maneu­ver­ing in this world and most def­i­nitely NOT unpro­duc­tive! Acclaimed writ­ers Daniel H. Pink, Stu­art Brown M.D., and Jonah Lehrer all address the impor­tance of play.

I asked some of the group if they had any impres­sions after the work­shop they would like to share.

“What I took away as a pre­cious gift from you, Trilby, as you led us in a safe and trust­wor­thy envi­ron­ment, was that I became aware of let­ting my energy (emo­tions) flow; then I started to feel and con­nect with what is really impor­tant to me on my jour­ney in life. The biggest reflec­tion from the work­shop in my mind is “con­nect­ing with me through the eyes of others”.

Mar­garete Vinke

We enjoyed your unbri­dled laugh­ing, Margarete!

“Bril­liant expe­ri­ence: for self-​growth, for ther­apy, for dis­cov­er­ing your­self and of course for FUN!!! Truly hon­oured and happy to have the chance to be a Buf­foon! Thank you sin­cerely, Trilby!” Dr. Dilyana Nestorova

Get­ting into our bodies!

Know­ing your trep­i­da­tion for “per­form­ing”, Dilyana, it was fun to see you dive in!

“I loved doing the buf­foon­ery ses­sion so if I were to say some­thing about it – I would have to say how much I enjoyed get­ting out of my shell. It really loos­ened me up around a group of peo­ple that I try to be more business-​like around and real­ized that it’s more fun to relax and be your­self.” Marlise Mellett

You work in a play­ful envi­ron­ment, Marlise. I appre­ci­ate that you wanted to explore that further!

“I gained per­sonal insight and aware­ness.” Rhi­an­non Fos­ter

As an already won­der­fully expres­sive per­son, Rhi­an­non, it was great to see you play more, and also aid in giv­ing per­mis­sion to the oth­ers to play. Thank you!

Every­one helps you to find your ‘Bouffon’!

“Tak­ing the time to search deep into my Buf­foon was a truly amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. You took con­trol, you knew exactly how to make me open up, per­form, and relax, but most of all have FUN!!!

I’d never felt, or seen myself through other people’s behav­iour, mim­ic­k­ing me, not in a bad way, but to see myself through other peo­ple in the group, from their move­ment.

I really am a con­fi­dent indi­vid­ual, and through your work­shop, I feel even more con­fi­dent in a dif­fer­ent way. My busi­ness is of a seri­ous nature, and my per­son­al­ity can reflect that. How­ever, with just a few lit­tle tweaks from you, get­ting me out of my com­fort zone was really a huge achievement.”

Jason Scott

As some­one in the Fit­ness busi­ness, Jason, you real­ize how impor­tant it is to con­nect with our bod­ies. When we are in tuned with what are bod­ies are doing, it can be enlight­en­ing, and help­ful to our every day. Thank you, for boldly tak­ing it a step further.

A few of the bouffons!

It is always a joy for me to wit­ness each individual’s per­son­al­ity pop out in a safe, free envi­ron­ment. I can’t think of a bet­ter mis­sion in life.

Is play a pri­or­ity in your life?

“To be your­self in a world that is con­stantly try­ing to make you some­thing else is the great­est accom­plish­ment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson