Creating rain storm
Storms don’t come to teach us painful lessons, rather they were meant to wash us clean. ―Shannon L. Alder
👥 Serves: 11-25 people, 26-40 people, 41+ people
🎚 Difficulty: Easy
⏳ Total time: 1-10 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: A group of people
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Awareness, Community, Radical Care
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Collaboration, Community-building, Focus, Listening, Mind-body-connection, Relating to Others, Trust
Creating rain storm
📝 Description
An energiser to gather the attention of a group.
Energisers are quick activities that help you create harmony among different energy levels in a group, usually either boosting them or grounding them. Energisers encourage alignment and collective sensing.
The following activity consists in creating a rain storm by making specific sounds using specific body parts. It is particularly well suited to encourage a group to tune into their senses, expand their listening skills, and see the energy flowing between them. It works well especially at the start or at the end of the day as a grounding practice.
We experienced it during the ChangemakerXchange in-person ToT summit in Italy in mid-March 2023 and it was facilitated by Isabel Glaser, and inspired by Ashima Goyal-Siraj.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Instructions (2’)
Invite participants to sit (or stand) in a circle. You as the facilitator kick off a series of motions and participants follow you one by one like a wave creating the effect of a storm approaching, becoming stronger, and then drifting away. Participants imitate what the person to their left is doing so you go around like a wave and the sound builds and moves.
Step 2 – Rising wind (20’’)
Begin by rubbing the palms of your hands together.
Step 3 – First drops of rain (20’’)
Move to snap your fingers.
Step 4 – Harder rain (20’’)
Move to pat your hands on your thighs.
Step 5 – Adding thunder to rain (20’’)
Continue to pat your hands on your thighs and stomp feet on the floor simultaneously.
Step 6 – Thunder moves on (20’’)
Go back to patting your hands on your thighs.
Step 7 – Rain stops (20’’)
Go back to snapping singers.
Step 8 – Wind moves on (20’’)
Go back to rubbing your palms together.
Step 9 – Storm moves on (20’’)
Finish by putting your hands at your sides.