I run this course ONCE a year.​​​​
STORY MAMMAL
A 6-week narrative + nervous system course
This workshop will be the most raw, juicy and present-moment I've facilitated.
These photos are from one of my retreats in New Mexico. Not staged. All candid. Real people. Real moment swimming in a river together.
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ATTENTION to each other, their own bodies, the natural elements around them and the tactile moment. If you look closely, you will see others communing with the rocks.
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I paused. asked my 11-year-old daughter Eula to help me sift through images for this course. We landed on these together. We washed them out get both modern and moonscape-like. Listening, not overthinking. In linear time, quick and passionate.
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What will this Story Mammal be like? I want to create that deeply "we are in this together" feeling capture above. We are here on this planet at this time.... how shall we be, how will we
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Our world needs you.
What does it mean to be an alchemist of your own attention? As a change maker, That can feel like a feat in modern times. …. all on one topic, platform for discussing you could do nothing about this and the problem is you atrophy... you get scattered, n oohing happens. modernity and its impacts.. in real time in a circle, we are dong this in a group on purpose. power of everyone doing same story there is no "watch the videos 12 weeks later, it's now. we center around this theme together, more power ... not about doing more, or finding ways to squeeze t all in, or about giving it all up... an attention alchemist that isn't a fluffy description, I really mean it. (describe this, she is making choices, smart and current but not at the careless whim of modernity gone wild, sense of her days, flows easily between things, lets things go, trusts orchestration, can change focus like an aperture, is part of the world but not taken out by it
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Coming home to yourself in this way transforms you, your world and our collective culture.
Do you feel fractured, scattered, all over the place?
Are you stretched too thin?
Overwhelmed by everything coming at you?
Do you 1,000 ideas or projects for a new idea, a project, or for your loved ones? distracted
You know you don't want to be part of the grind, but somehow you are. Do you hear "slow down" and not know how?
Are long periods of focus a thing of your past?
Are you body-curious?
Does living in this era both energize and exhaust you?
It's not your fault. It's your responsbility. I don't have the magic answers. You do. This is al listening.
Humanity is in a huge transition. You are too. Are you here for it?
The time is now. We are evolving at lightening speed. The pace, volume and tech parts of the world is likely here to stay. AI is approaching We aren't going back to campfires (as much as I would like)You are what I call a story mammal. A what?! Well, it’s actually your homo sapiens nature. Your story (self-talk, mindset, beliefs) and your nervous system affect and shape each other—and your life. Without body, we stay stuck in our heads and addicted to reframes that can’t hold. Without story, we lose our language art and the powerful meaning-making of our heroine’s journey. Story and body are here to help you.
This is my first run of this version. It will be juicy and fresh and very much in the lived-in moment. Nothing prescriptive. I am living this right now and have been for a while. I believe in the power of the circle to propel change. This new world is here to stay. you are a story ma
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task switching and problem with that paint the pain points right here. liberate your attention (it has been colonized and this is not my idea ... choose what to do with your attention
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During our 6 weeks together, we will explore how to be in this new world,
our world needs creative, problem-solving, art-creating, collaborative change-making humans. the potent story of “who I am” because it influences every inch of your life and is/has been influenced by everything/one around you. It is your energetic signature. We use narrative and nervous system practices to land, over and over again, in a lush place where you experience, at long last, your own fluidity. Yes, you can maintain a vitality that doesn’t burn out no matter the externals. No, that doesn’t mean constant happiness. It means access to your inborn resilience during the expansion and contraction that is life. It’s no small revolution.
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You begin to hear your deep self and feel the ground beneath you. It’s highly personal and high communal. We do it together through connection because no one evolves in a vacuum. We create a culture of witnessing and being witnessed. It is real-deal, playful and full of heart.
Who is this workshop for?
I always trust the orchestration beyond me that brings an individual to a group and a group into being. My workshops are always a nourishing multigenerational experience. Many women and non-binary folks who take my workshops are consciousness-raisers who hold space for others—as therapists, educators, bodyworkers, parents. Some consider themselves artists of some kind. Not necessarily professionally but as creators in life. Important side note: You DO NOT have to have written anything in your life to be here; story is your birthright. Most have hit rock bottom at least once in life. All are seekers. All are truth-tellers. All live with an existential wonder. Most aren’t devoted to being status quo. I can also 100% say that each person I’ve worked with has an adventurous heart.
It is not for
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Shannon Klohr
It’s been months and I’m still using the tools I learned from Molly. I’m still feeling the love of the community she wove together with us. I can’t say enough about the warmth she exudes and I never expected a Zoom class to be so intimate and wonderful. I would give this gift to myself again and again. It exceeded all of my expectations. And took me to unknown places. The material is gold.
Rebecca Thering
In Molly's spaces, I feel seen, heard, welcomed, a sense of belonging, and an admiration and tenderness towards my fellow Story Mammals. Her content and the way she shares it are top-notch. Articulate. Nuanced. Human. Encouraging. A full mind/body/spirit experience. Her structure and pacing allow for true integration. Ten out of ten recommend!
Charlie Rigg
I have never spent that amount of money on a course before, but I’m so pleased I did. Story Mammal opened a channel of creativity that has been blocked, or perhaps even hammered shut with planks and nails. A kind of dislodging happened. One day towards the end of the course, I ‘woke up’ and realised that I’d been creating, busily, passionately, scribbling and drawing, writing, dreaming up things that are now coming to fruition. Thank you, Molly.
Gursharn Rait
I want to give you a massive tight hug to thank you for this new world you've helped open up! It wasn’t just self-care; I was learning new concepts. Healing is what your course did. I came out of it feeling empowered and proud. It was essential for me. I love the element of play and freedom in your workshops. Your style is so clear and simple, no bells and whistles and it came straight from the heart. Mille merci."
What happens as a result?
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You meet your own dimensionality.
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You get energy back! Stuck narratives and bound physiology drain us.
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You emerge with a nervous system + story understanding of The Human Mammal and of your particular self (tendencies, resources, impulses, fluencies, language, song) along with solid tools to meet your deep needs.
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Cognition is no longer the #1 go-to or familiar move.
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You tap into the renewable resource of creativity and its profound soothing effects.
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You broaden your capacity to feel and not get taken down by feeling
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Your relationships to self and others and planet heal in new ways.
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You will fall in love with your body for how it has kept you alive.
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When​
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Next: October 15 through November 26
Format
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*Video recordings will be sent to those who cannot attend live
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6 live Zoom workshops with Molly on each Tuesdays (1.5 hours), @ 10am MT **In lieu of meeting on Election Day Nov 5th, we will meet at noon MT on Nov 4th.
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6 live Q&As with Molly (1 hour),
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Real Time sharing and feedback
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Private Online Community Forum (NOT Facebook)
Content
This is an organic, living, breathing experience. There is no pre-meditated, printable course material or "location." We meet by Zoom and experiment with narrative and nervous system exercises around our attention. The course has an arc. We are exploring the ecology of your attention and how you can wield it to show up for yourself and your particular gift for this world. Q&As are collecting places, ask questions, source wisdom of the group as I guide us.
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Week 1: Ancestry/Story/Beliefs. What is your past and present baseline with attention? How do you narrate your attention reality to your people? We identify your tensions, edges, resistance, desire, grief and resources, along with your possibility thresholds. How has your relationship with attention been shaped by others (family, friends, society) and by your own self?
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Week 2: Nervous System. Your body is a guiding force. What survival mechanisms have you developed around attention? Being distracted or hyper productive can be a wise adaptation. Being present to what is in front of you can feel too intimate. Hiding from the future (or robots, in my case) can signal fear. what are other forms of safety that give you focused attention...
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Week 3: Make a Plan. track for 21 days. self deigned... We lives in a seasonless container less time. this is highly personal. what do you crave? block plan, small bursts, taste of everything Organize what you’ve unearthed. Not with filing cabinets! This organization unfolds like a dance—organic and rhythmic. We experiment with how the movement between trauma and resources creates resolution, lovingly name your impulses, and widen what and how you hold. what consequences wiling to bear and what not, look at too much too soon to fast and what we are asking of ourselves... relationship to phones, media, etc.
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Week 4: Play with fresh meaning-making that both naturally surfaces from your body and comes from your conscious re-languaging. We use the power of embodied imagination and story and you learn to inhabit the evolving song of you—your pace, silence, proportion, voice, and weaving. judgment _ grief process of what is and what needs to be
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Week 5: Express your essential self to your people. It’s an out loud frequency request of our community. We bust the myth of independence, align with our social animal nature and socialize our growth so others can hold it for us too. It’s a practice of discernment and tending.
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Week 6: Conclusion. Stand on the ground you have created. We find stability in the fluidity. We integrate (even more) your dynamic relationship between story and body and your continued attunement to your survival physiology. You leave aligned with your story mammal, one and the same.
About Molly
Molly Caro May is an author, teacher and story coach. Her most recent book, Body Full of Stars: Female Rage and My Passage Into Motherhood, was named a “searingly eloquent memoir” by Kirkus and excerpted in TIME. She has facilitated personal narrative workshops across the country for a decade and gave a TEDx talk about rage and the female body in 2018. She is trained in Somatic Experiencing, a trauma resolution and nervous system resilience modality. You can read more about what brought her to it personally here. Her mission is to democratize expression and explore, in good company, the healing alchemy between story and nervous system. Molly grew up in five countries and now lives in Montana with her husband and two children who are somehow already 11 and 7 years old.
