Community of Practice: Witnessing
Community of Practice: Witnessing
There were two portions to this exercise. There was witnessing and there was opening. The witnessing exercise was definitely a challenge. It's difficult to eliminate all emotion or presumption from an action and state it purely as a fact. For example, I picked up piece of paper and put it into the trash can. However, Conrad described it as me "cleaning". Now, he didn't do the readings, so I didn't expect him to obey the nuanced requirements for verbiage, but it was fascinating to see how easily something could be interpreted without us realizing it. Anyone would have assumed I was cleaning up, but that may not have been my experience in moving the paper. It was this that really solidified the idea of making presumptions about others based on your own limited experience, and how closed that can be to others' experiences.
The second exercise was when we created nests and spoke to one another openly about feelings, while the other listened. While I loved the concept of this exercise, I admit that I did not particularly enjoy it in practice. I feel as if I had a very different experience with this exercise than others did. Perhaps I feel as if I was cheated somewhat out of the full experience of this exercise because my nest was made of an extension cord and paper towels from the garbage can. Again, I can't blame Conrad for constructing for me what I found to be a repulsive nest, but nonetheless, it disturbed me and I found it difficult to open up when I felt as if, by creating what I thought was an unpleasant experience for me, Conrad somehow didn't care about my feelings. I found myself unwilling to express these feelings to him, however, showing how difficult it is to do something like that. Honestly, in hindsight, it would have likely been far more advantageous to the exercise for me to express my distaste for my nest, but I did not want to offend or seem offended. So, in a way, I failed.
Both of these were very language based, either with describing factual situations or with expressing feelings. The paper we all read at the beginning about interpersonal communication is almost exactly what we were doing and trying to accomplish. The first exercise was the separation of different verbiage. It was the distinction of feeling, task, and idea speech. Whereas the second exercise was expressing feelings in a nonviolent way. And while I failed to fully express my feelings, I definitely think there's another side to it, which is the listening side. I think it's equally as important to listen to another person's feelings without presuming anything or becoming enraged.
There were two portions to this exercise. There was witnessing and there was opening. The witnessing exercise was definitely a challenge. It's difficult to eliminate all emotion or presumption from an action and state it purely as a fact. For example, I picked up piece of paper and put it into the trash can. However, Conrad described it as me "cleaning". Now, he didn't do the readings, so I didn't expect him to obey the nuanced requirements for verbiage, but it was fascinating to see how easily something could be interpreted without us realizing it. Anyone would have assumed I was cleaning up, but that may not have been my experience in moving the paper. It was this that really solidified the idea of making presumptions about others based on your own limited experience, and how closed that can be to others' experiences.
The second exercise was when we created nests and spoke to one another openly about feelings, while the other listened. While I loved the concept of this exercise, I admit that I did not particularly enjoy it in practice. I feel as if I had a very different experience with this exercise than others did. Perhaps I feel as if I was cheated somewhat out of the full experience of this exercise because my nest was made of an extension cord and paper towels from the garbage can. Again, I can't blame Conrad for constructing for me what I found to be a repulsive nest, but nonetheless, it disturbed me and I found it difficult to open up when I felt as if, by creating what I thought was an unpleasant experience for me, Conrad somehow didn't care about my feelings. I found myself unwilling to express these feelings to him, however, showing how difficult it is to do something like that. Honestly, in hindsight, it would have likely been far more advantageous to the exercise for me to express my distaste for my nest, but I did not want to offend or seem offended. So, in a way, I failed.
Both of these were very language based, either with describing factual situations or with expressing feelings. The paper we all read at the beginning about interpersonal communication is almost exactly what we were doing and trying to accomplish. The first exercise was the separation of different verbiage. It was the distinction of feeling, task, and idea speech. Whereas the second exercise was expressing feelings in a nonviolent way. And while I failed to fully express my feelings, I definitely think there's another side to it, which is the listening side. I think it's equally as important to listen to another person's feelings without presuming anything or becoming enraged.
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