We did this hilarious exercise today.
I picked someone from my life who I don’t have free and open communication with (it’s probably not you). I listed all the ways I expect a conversation with them to be:
awkward
they will embarrass themselves
I will embarrass myself
it will always be like that.
The course leader suggested that this is how I listen to that person when we talk. To test the impact of this, the person sitting next to me pretended to be me, listening like that. I then pretended to be the person I was having trouble communicating with, being as generous with myself as I possibly could be.
Funny thing. No matter how much I gave, the conversation petered out in about a minute. Exactly how it always is.
Try that at home.
Maybe.
And about yesterday’s post – I apologise for the brevity and possible discomfort. Hey, that’s just what I was really feeling all of yesterday: how I am still a little beastie at heart, whose very first concern in life is surviving it.
That is a ridiculously hard instinct to give up.