Corey’s Story Adventure, 5
June 21, 2009
From Corey:
What an immense morning we had. IMMENSE! I met Annie at 7am and we immediately walked to the most charming little coffee house where we grabbed our deliciousness of choice and then sauntered upstairs to a private area next to where they actually store all of their massive bags of beans. Very cool. We sat down and immediately got to work.
Annie asked me questions, wrote down my responses in her “play” book and videotaped some of my stories. We opened up the artistic aspect of my life – what I have learned as a performer and pulled out delightful surprises that I have taken for granted such as 
truth, curiousness and rhythm of language, which I demonstrated by getting up and showing Annie an old exercise I learned in Shakespeare class.
Soon, we were off to breakfast and we chose a simple little place with simple dishes. I had an omelet and Annie had a cup of fruit. Again, we continued our discussions but were soon off to Annie’s place where I met Miss Sweetie, her adorable little miniature dachshund. 
Now this picture is misleading. Miss Sweetie is 10 pounds of tininess. She immediately became my best bud. In fact, later, when Annie did some light hypnosis on me, Miss Sweetie was curled up in my lap (a-do-rable!)
But before I was placed into a trance, we sat at the table and I brought out my drawing pad and started to create my map. It has a heart at the center that said, “Who I am” and then four quadrants thus far: Performer, Businessman, Director, Producer.
We talked out some more of my thoughts into the video camera and then she put me up on my feet to tell snippets of stories to see if I could easily morph into each facet of myself. That was easy and fun.
Then it was time to deal with my inner demon. We discussed that I felt I had only 10% of myself that thought myself powerful, confident and worthy of telling my stories. The other 90% was terrified that I had no credibility. Annie had an idea to lure him out so we could understand him.
So there I am in a big cushy chair with Miss Sweetie in my lap. Annie turned on a musical tone of sorts and sat next to me leading me through a hypnotic exercise. It was incredibly relaxing and I found myself following her voice and making new discoveries. My left hand was this 90% – the doubter. my right was the believer — the role I play in working with all of my clients. My left hand was raised, but anchored, heavy. My right was free, flexible. Over a period of about ten minutes Annie helped me to drop my left hand and release his hold, while floating my right hand up to the sky. Then the most powerful thing happened. She had the 10% of me, the believer visit the doubter. He was ill, crippled even in a bed in Los Angeles. He had been beaten up so badly, over and over again and now he could not walk. Rejection had maimed him.
Annie led me through a series of exercises where me as the believer visited and nurtured me as the doubter. Stuck with him while he expressed his anger. Visited and let him be defeated. Brought him soup on days when he could not raise his eyes from the wall. And a miraculous thing happened. My doubter took a few sips of the soup. On another day he cracked a smile.
Annie challenged me not to shut out my doubter, but to embrace him for a very important reason: he carries my gift. He’s the vulnerable one. He is the side of me with truth to share.
And so it is my role as the believer to protect him. To carry a bat in his defense so that he can feel comfortable venturing out of that room again. So that they can eventually walk around as partners and take responsibility for making a difference in this world. 
We nourished both my believer and my doubter over a delightful lunch where I tried Ginger Brew, Ginger ale for the first time.
And now I am back at my hotel room after a nap, ready to meet again for an evening of play.
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