Stim Sharing Guide
by Nastia and Kira
Many people have a place where they feel comfortable. It can be a place of your past, your present life or maybe a dream place of your future. With this guided dream journey you have the chance to travel to your place and enjoy yourself there. After you return from our journey, you can get creative. Maybe you want to show your place in a picture, in a poem or a scenic performance.
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It´s a picture by Fine that they painted at the Caring Arts Lab in Munich after going on Miri´s dream journey. Fine tells:
„I have painted a picture that shows a moment of caring.
It shows a footbath and arms washing legs in this footbath.
The background is white with many thin black lines reminiscent of waves. The picture has a black frame.
With the picture, I wanted to preserve the memories of the feelings from that moment.
I am at home with a friend and she is washing my feet and looking after me. At first I was ashamed because my feet were dirty and I didn’t like them, but then I felt very safe because she was taking care of me. The water is pleasantly lukewarm, the stone she uses to remove the calluses has a rough surface and scratches, but doesn’t hurt. Her hands are soft.
It was a very intimate moment. Maybe that’s why the black round footbath has the profiles of me and my friend on the top and bottom edges. At the time, I had a turquoise hairstyle with bangs. I also painted my lips turquoise. My friend had black hair and bangs at the time. I painted her lips an ultramarine blue color.
I wanted to show our bond through the colors. The water in the footbath changes color. The turquoise from me and the ultramarine blue from my friend run towards each other, spread out and mix in some places. This causes the colors to change their tones. I wanted to show how this connection came about.“
Abstract: What Stim Sharing Guide is about?
Listen to What Stim Sharing Guide is about, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: Stim Sharing Guide by Nastia and Kira is a process of sharing stim questions with each other or just questions and reactions, stim poems, stim videos, and images.
Kira: Stim Sharing means: you can stim alone and you can ask to stim with you. You can ask for support with your stims. For example, you can ask any person you trust to hug you or draw, jump, dance, write or dream with you, or listen to your story, etc. You can join in the other person’s stimming if they agree.
Nastia: Our guide is an attempt to bring you closer to how we organize stim sharing space and how we could change a way of communication when this communication is based on stims.
Kira: This is not a guide that you should follow. Because Stim Sharing is nonlinear.
Nastia: There is no one right way to do it.
What is Stim Sharing?
Listen to What is Stim Sharing, read by Nastia and Kira:
Kira: The moments of sharing are magic.
Nastia: Stim Sharing could be a ritual.
Kira: Something that you like to repeat with very certain people.
Nastia: Something that you are waiting for and can not wait for.
Kira: Stim Sharing could be something you didn’t expect.
Nastia: Stim Sharing could be a way of bridging and building relationships.
Kira: Stim Sharing could be a way to diverge.
Nastia: Stim Sharing is joy and mourning.
Kira: Stim Sharing is care and interdependence.
Nastia: Stim Sharing is art.
Kira: Stim Sharing is healing.
Nastia: To make photo and video materials we created the silver space on the table to share their stims. It is like a stage.
Rest
Listen to Rest, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: I have to ask you a question about rest now.
Kira: As a child I was often falling asleep on the big flat stone in a field, actually it was a big concrete block, or I was going to the hill and was falling asleep in the high grass. I thought I was far away from people and public spaces, but on one side of the field was a road, and on the other side was a construction site.
And you?
Nastia: As a child I was playing a game with my friends. One of us had to close their eyes and draw random lines and circles on a piece of paper. Then we would use this drawing as a map to explore the area around our houses. It was a big adventure.
Do you like it when it is hot?
Kira: Only a hot shower. Tell me about your hair.
Nastia: It has a new color, again. I like to touch it, but I hate when my hair touches me.
Kira: I often touch the ends of my hair with my fingertips. I often touch my metallic spiky ring with my fingertips. I’ve been doing that since childhood. It’s often uncontrollable.
My hair is currently long up to my chin. It’s light brown with silver streaks. I tried to capture my favourite moment in this photo.
I took a strand of hair and pulled it to the right side. My middle finger touches the ends of this strand of hair many times. I like it. The hair ends are soft and at the same time, they slightly tingle on my finger. It makes a sound that reminds me of the rustling of a hedgehog or autumn leaves. It’s just more quiet and softer. It sometimes helps me not to think, because my head is often overflowing with parallel thoughts, and voices.
I like soft and prickly textures at the same time when they alternate each other. They help me to feel and search my body.
Break
Listen to Break, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: Do you want to make tea now?
Kira: I do.
Nastia: And me too.
Touches
Listen to Touches, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: I like to rub my feet together and play with the soft parts of my body.
Kira: As a child I was often falling asleep on the big flat stone in a field, actually it was a big concrete block, or I was going to the hill and was falling asleep in the high grass. I thought I was far away from people and public spaces, but on one side of the field was a road, and on the other side was a construction site.
And you?
My hair is currently long up to my chin. It’s light brown with silver streaks. I tried to capture my favourite moment in this photo.
I took a strand of hair and pulled it to the right side. My middle finger touches the ends of this strand of hair many times. I like it. The hair ends are soft and at the same time, they slightly tingle on my finger. It makes a sound that reminds me of the rustling of a hedgehog or autumn leaves. It’s just more quiet and softer. It sometimes helps me not to think, because my head is often overflowing with parallel thoughts, and voices.
I like soft and prickly textures at the same time when they alternate each other. They help me to feel and search my body.
Kira: I don’t like soft parts of my body and when I feel my body intensely I want to hide myself.
I lay a medical black tape on the silver fabric and roll it out to create two parallel strips. I place objects on the strips. I like to line up the things I love.
On the edge on the right, I place the black spiral notebook that is on my avatar and a transparent pencil with a silver nib. I opened the notebook on the page where I had drawn wavy silver thin and thick lines. It looks like the sea at night. Vira gave me the notebook as a present. There’s a little 3D vulva figure on the pen. It has an angry protesting face. It’s a gift from the Japanese artist Rokudenashiko. She was persecuted for this work in Japan.
I put a silver metallic spinner on the left edge of the top strip to make it stay on the table. And then I put 4 things on this strip from left to right: the plastic orange-green dino figure with spikes that Marina brought me from the flea market in Rome. A small green dino figure that Kostia sent me from Odesa and 2 small silver massage rings. One ring is broken.
On the bottom strip I line up 7 things from left to right:
A silver Tangle. It is a toy that consists of rotating parts. It looks like a thick, smooth chain. Then a black shear with a light green gummy bear jewellery. Nikol made it for me. A plant that looks like a pine cone, but is softer and rounder. I found it in Tbilisi and took it with me because Jeanna took it too. A small bicycle chain that David gave me. I like to have it in my pocket. A green ceramic leaf figure that my mum gave me. A little brooch made from an orange-brown autumn leaf that Ulia made for me and a metallic spiky ring that I always wear.
Above both stripes is a slinky. I’ve already given it to Natasha as a gift. It’s also one of my stims: to collect the objects and give them away.
Poetry
Listen to Poetry, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: my body is like a small glass marble
such a small marble
always slipping out
never stays
in сuddles and kisses
impossible to grasp
for anyone
not with fingers not with lips
Nastia: I place a warm-green curved three-cornered glass figure on the silver table. I place a warm-green glass marble to the left of it. I spin it gently.
Kira: I gently throw 2 small metal balls at it. Your glass marble rolls because of it.
Nastia: I play with your marbles and put my green glass marble back.
Kira: I can’t remember when I was born
who I was
And first there was a line that I saw
I dreamed it was the sea – a moving horizon
And maybe in my head I was this moving horizon –
Transition
So not a big person,
but an open person,
who opened up in order not to answer,
I was wandering in language
I had no words for myself
Only stones around me
And maybe I was the stone,
So calm without meaning
I was not a consciousness of boys or girls
I was exploring surfaces:
The mirror,
And then I ran away from the mirror
And played with stones
Kira: I rub in my hand a red-grey stone and place it on the silver table. You asked Jeanna to bring me a stone. I lay down two round, softly smooth stones from Vira that Lilia brought me. I put down an orange-red amber brooch from my mother. It sparkles.
Nastia: I add a gray-white stone. This stone has a hole in it that you can see through. I found it in Rügen. I place my flat silver stone and show how it shines. It’s a gift from Vica.
Moss
Listen to Moss, read by Nastia and Kira:
Nastia: I like to be around moss. Touch it and smell it. When I am anxious, I often imagine moss. I have tried to make what I imagine with fabric.
Kira: I like to touch moss softly after it rains.
I tried to create from the textile a place where Moss grows. I collected a lot of materials and fabrics for it. I found them all at home.
I cut up my old clothes. My neighbour gave me some pieces of fabric.
I found a thick green-brown fabric that looks like damp earth. I cut it out in an irregular wavy shape and sewed the edges.
I have sewn various elements onto it. They remind me of different types of moss, stones under the moss, twigs, and other plants that grow together with moss. Some areas remind me of white moss because they look like compact, roundish, light green cushions. Other areas remind me of cypress dormouse moss because they consist of yellowish, olive-green, and rich green stems. The stems look a bit like plaits. Some areas resemble deciduous moss. It looks like a bright green plant that is divided into stems and leaflets.
The mosses form their turf on soil, tree stumps, rocks, wood, and riverbanks.
That’s why I placed foam and rubber balls under some of the fabric. In other places, I placed wooden beads or crackling plastic under the fabric. If you touch these places with your hand, you might be reminded of the sound of moss.
About the authors:
Nastia
The picture shows a close-up of 2 glass objects that are on the silver surface. On the right is a cold green glass marble. To the left is a warm green, curved figure, reminiscent of a Christmas tree, which is round and has no corners. Both glass objects glow softly and warmly and cast shadows on the silver surface.
Sometimes I feel my body like small glass objects. Like glass marbles, for example. I like their shape and transparency. I like the way the light is reflected through them.
Kira
The picture shows my black notebook with black pages. It is open on the page where I have drawn many wavy silver thick and golden thin lines. It reminds me of the sea at night. It also glows so soothingly and touches me a little. Vira gave me this booklet as a gift. Vira lives by the sea.
I often draw the lines.
When I was a child, I thought that the horizon line was a sea. Sometimes I think it’s my first memory from childhood. I’m still in the baby carriage. My mom is taking me for a walk. I look at the horizon line and want to get closer to it.
This memory of the horizon lines and the desire to be by the sea is the space in which I dream and relax. These are lines in my head that connect me with my mother and Vira, for example.
