Using the Emergent Practice of Async Constellations to Explore Interrelated Themes of Time, Space, and Silence
In this post, we describe our experimentation with an adapted form of systemic constellations that we call “asynchronous” or “async” constellations to explore practitioners’ experiences with the common themes of time, space, and silence.
Collective Transitions practitioners gather regularly to practice systems sensing approaches together. In these sessions, practitioners are invited to bring a “case” or issue for the group to work on together, using the approach of systemic constellations. In a recent session, when no case was offered, we tried something new. During the check-in round, we observed that common themes were emerging around the relationship of time and space and decided to lean into what was present rather than do a standard exercise or practice case.
Practitioners shared that they were “feeling overloaded” and “with overflowing tasks, like a waterfall.” From there, several key questions emerged: “How am I spending my time? What is the quality of my time and where is there spaciousness?” Someone chimed in, “and what can get squeezed, dishonored, or disrespected?” Someone else added the importance of pauses, noting pauses in music as an example. Another person took time to acknowledge these threads, which helped slow down the pace of the discussion and deepen reflection.
Practicing around the identified themes
We named the common threads as themes of “time, space, and silence” and decided to use these themes to experiment with an adapted form of systemic constellations practice that has evolved into what we now call “asynchronous” or “async” constellations.
In a systemic constellations session, which relies on a systems sensing approach, practitioners use their sensory “muscles” to activate and build the untapped capacities innate to all humans, in an effort to better meet and transcend challenging moments. The adapted async process allows a group of people to inquire into shared topics individually at their own pace and in different places and time zones, and to explore the patterns that emerge when the insights are shared. (Learn more about systems sensing and systemic constellations.)
Identifying the elements
In our experimental async practice, we identified Time, Space, and Silence as the specific elements in the process. Elements are selected aspects of a system that may include people, places, emotions, qualities, or essential details of the system. Participants represent (stand in for) and “sense into” an element using the “felt senses” and somatic responses in order to gain a wider range of information, such as the specific qualities of that element and its relationship to the other elements.
In a systemic constellation, we typically begin by identifying a common guiding question or intention. In an async constellation, we first identify common themes or elements.
Crafting the calling question
After naming the elements, the next step is to define a calling question, which serves to set the intention or territory of focus in the sensing process. In collective systemic constellations practices, there is typically one calling question and one focus, and each of the elements is represented by a different individual in the group, which then works collectively on a shared challenge. In this instance, the practitioners came to the practice space with their own separate experiences, so we invited them to develop and refine their own unique calling questions related to the shared elements (much like different entry doors into the broader themes, with participants sensing into each of the elements individually).
Individual calling questions on the themes of time, space, and silence included:
- What is there to know about the way I perceive time?
- What is the quality of my time?
- How am I trusting time?
- What is shifting in my relationship with time?
- What is there to know about time, i.e., when time gets squeezed or dishonored? How can I honor my relationship with time?
Running the async constellation
For the async constellation practice, we decided to sense into each of the three elements (Time, Space, and Silence) separately, taking notes and journaling on our own rather than as a group. We used the last portion of the practice session to share our experiences and were delighted by the texture and patterns that emerged.
Highlights from different practitioners included the following:
“Spending my time is related to guilt and what I have to do. This relates to a transactional relationship and does not come from the heart. As my guilt melts away, this rigid structure is breaking down. Silence is how I can honor a right relationship with time and space. Spaciousness invites discernment so I can be fluid and in the right relationship with time, trusting I know how to say yes and no and releasing the need for control.”
“Space brings up panic and contraction. Am I on track? Doing enough? Doing it right? Brings up feelings of unworthiness or the sense of wasting space. Time feels like a rubber band of connective tissue. Surfing on these multidimensional links can link me to my ancestors. Silence is where noise and dissonance falls away. Clarity emerges gently like a wave.”
“Silence became a beautiful cup for where you can put the grief and sorrow you are not wanting to hold. I noticed I had resistance to put it on the map. Silence is the place I can put things down. I can set down what I’m carrying. Then there is a softening and comfort in my body as I let it hold the discomfort.”
“Space brought up sensations of expansion and movement, being stretched in different directions. Space gives us the chance to see what can emerge.”
“I am perceiving time as a cone of time. It meets at the center of now. Only now exists. Dots appeared and dripped from a waterfall of ordered space. Moment to moment there is order. If things get weird, in the silence I can return to myself.”
“In the silence there is connection. I am loving and I am here. Just experience life. Connection is the bridge. Time can bend. I need to move to connect with it. What I care for in life is shifting, allowing that shift to happen. I don’t know where I’ll land. Cherish what you have shared over millennia. Remember what has been here before. Plug in, in all. There is an importance of reactivating something that is not cherished, that has been before. This is how we extend time.”
Reflections on our time together
“This was really cool,” someone shared during the check-out round. We felt we were on to something. A few of us expressed interest in iterating this approach by continuing to practice asynchronously: sensing and journaling individually at home, but then regrouping to reflect on our experiences. This emergent practice of async constellations, inspired in part by field readings from Collective Transitions’ Instagram community, has since become a core offering in our work. This approach also addresses the desire to practice and learn together, while navigating constraints of different time zones, schedules, technology, and preferred methods of harvesting and sharing.
Overall, we found that the asynch practice of “individually sensing and collectively observing” — as a way to make sense of a series of diverse felt-sense experiences over time — is a valuable addition to the systemic constellations field. It offers an alternative approach to providing needed orientation to an unknown dynamic and bringing awareness to the patterns present in a broad topic or complex issue.
To learn more about an async experiment in practice, see this blog.
This post was authored by Nancy Zamierowski, creative architect for Collective Transitions. Many thanks to the practitioners who participated in the sensing exercise and discussion: Keith Riggs, Allie Armitage, Vipua Rakambe, Dounia Saeme, Erika Negro, Nancy Zamierowski, and Luea Ritter.
