Welcome to Jumanji
Posted on March 18, 2019 by Elias Ursitti, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
This article encourages readers to take a fresh look at their Identities, Somatic Experience, and Environment.
I’ve seen the movie “Welcome to Jumanji” twice, and I loved it both times. I think the movie offers an excellent example of how to snap out of our usual trance states and “wake up.” At the beginning of the movie, four high school students unwittingly get sucked into the game world of Jumanji, and they each find themselves transformed into a particular character in the game (avatar).
In Jumanji, each student becomes wide awake to his or her avatar’s superpowers (unique gifts and talents) as well as his or her “kryptonite” (triggers). The players have to work together to find hidden clues and overcome fear and self-doubt in order to move to the next level of the game and ultimately return “home” to their normal lives.
I think this movie is an insightful metaphor for practicing self-awareness and being alert to the clues that the universe is continuously giving us about how to up-level our experience of life. It also points to our inter-dependence with our fellow travelers and how we can develop and share our unique gifts and talents in order to collectively “find our way home.”
In the Jumanji jungle, the players are constantly curious about their new identities, their unfamiliar bodies, and their dynamic environment. In “Presence-Based Leadership” by Doug Silsbee), these aspects roughly parallel our Identity, our Soma, and our Context. If we can stay alert to the edges of our development in understanding each of these areas, we can grow in our capacity to handle complexity in our lives with skill and compassion.
It takes a great deal of personal growth work (and usually support from a trained coach) to see clearly the various Identities that we have constructed that now run our lives. Many aspects of our complex environment (Context) challenge our Identities. In turn, the conditioning of physical bodies and our psyche (our Soma) work overtime to protect the Identities that we have constructed. The more we can become aware of how this pattern is playing out in our lives, the easier it is to make little shifts that ultimately lead to big breakthroughs.
Ask yourself these questions: What Identities drive my behavior? How often do I pay attention to and get curious about the signals my Body is sending? What aspects of my Context (environment) are especially challenging to me, and why?
If we can become as curious, alert, full of wonder, and exquisitely tuned into our everyday reality (as the players in Jumanji), then we can transform our own lives into a journey of learning, adventure, and “advancing to the next level.” Are you up for the challenge? If so, then welcome to Jumanji!
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