Day 3_What's in Your Way

Hi again!

Hey, did a situation come up in the past 24 hours where you had to figure out what was really going on?

Tell us about it.

How did the interaction make you feel at the end?

Did the interaction make you communicate differently?

Did you work to understand each other better?

Think of it this way, your mouth can be as important as your ears in communicating through emotionally charged situations.

It helps to learn how to talk to a person in a way they understand your viewpoint. That alone helps to build trust, making those emotional landmines less intense.

Head for the video icon for a little insight from the film, 'The Blind Side'.

Tell us what you thought about the message from the scene when you've finished watching it.

Could it be that, like Michael in the film, the self-protective and necessary tools you once used for survival are no longer working for you?

Choose how often you use self-protective tools.

List as many of the survival tools you needed while you were growing up.

To get you started the 'tools' could have been:
*quick reaction time
*intimidating
*staying out of sight (under the radar)
*ability to clock your opponent
*running away or hiding from danger
*mistrusting
*one-sided communication
*sarcastic
*pleasing or non-confrontational

List the survival tools you use now that often leave you worse off than before.

*** We're going to end this session on a good note, so don't stay in this place and feel bad about it. Get what you need. Get out of Memory Lane.

If you're unclear about what has to go, then think about it this way: If you react in a way that consistently makes people feel angry, hurt, frustrated or manipulated, then it has to go.

If the reaction shuts you down, makes you sad, frustrates you, or makes you feel inferior, then it has to go. The sooner the better.

You deserve some peace and happiness in your life. So do your friends, classmates and/or coworkers.

Are you willing to let go of old tools that no longer work for you and develop new ones?

Let's lighten things up a little.

Go make someone else's day a little brighter.

Choose one of the following and do it in the next 24 hours:
*Offer a friendly smile to a stranger.
*Open a door for someone.
*Pay for someone's coffee or ice cream or whatever yummy treat you're in line for.
*Offer to help pick up something someone dropped.
*Complement someone who looks like they could use one.
(Hint: we could all use one.)

Willing?

We'll see you tomorrow! Hope you have a good story for us about making someone's day.