Our 2016 adventure

Welcome back to our 2016 adventure!

 

I have taken a kind of detour with ‘interesting times’ as the ancient Chinese quote goes. I was hospitalised and had an operation and the opportunity to see what is really important in life. Surrounded and supported by loving friends and family it became quite clear. Mindfulness and relationships! Especially those with the people you connect to around you in the moment.

The journey of our 2016 adventure is on how to break our habits. Let us change certainty into curiosity and stop operating on autopilot!

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This month our experiments are concerned with the wonder of the other.

There are many reasons why you would want to ‘wake up’ in your relationships. Feel free to share any of the comments about your journey by clicking on ‘No comments:’ below or by sending me an email.

Let us change certainty into curiosity, knowing into asking and accusations into questions. Let us stop telling and start listening and trade our biting words for biting our tongues.

You might think you have certainty about who your partner is or who your parent or who your child is. And you may be absolutely certain why they are doing or not doing what they do, like for instance, “(Name) is disorganised and irresponsible (by, for example, not studying)” or “He/She doesn’t care about me”.

Gewoonlik, dink ons die woorde: “Dit voel of ek nie meer deurkom na jou toe nie” beteken die einde van die verhouding. Maar wat as dit beteken dat die verhouding dan uiteindelik kan begin?

Dis juis wanneer ek uitreik na ander in plaas daarvan om op myself fokus wat dinge vlotter verloop. Wanneer ek dit byvoorbeeld my doelstelling maak om die verhoudings met my spesifieke naaste te verbeter (en dit beteken neutraal luister sonder oordeel!).

Bowendien is daar ’n heelal opgesluit binne die persoon wat ek liefhet.  Op die meeste, ken ek die klein stukkie wat ek ‘bewoon’, maar daar is nog lande, oseane, hemele en uitspansels wat ek nie ontgin het nie. 

Daar is misterie binne elkeen waarmee ek saamlewe!

Hulle is dinamies, groeiend, ontwikkelend en daarom kan die dinge waaroor ek so seker is, verander.

Of dit kan ook wees dat dit waarvan ek oortuig is, ’n projeksie is van my eie vrese, onsekerhede, vertwyfeling of eensaamheid...

I provide you with the new activities for the following weeks:

• WEEK ONE, rather than jumping out of bed I want to pause long enough for 3 whole breaths to pass naturally (It will only take a few seconds, but it will set the tone for the day ahead).

• WEEK TWO I want to listen and really hear what my loved one is saying – I mirror back to him/her to check what has been said and that I understand.

• WEEK THREE I want to keep communication open by validating what has been said – that there is logic to what he/she has said and that it makes sense.

• WEEK FOUR I want to have better dialogue by expressing compassion - by putting myself in the others’ shoes and seeing it through their perspective to have empathy. 

This blog post is dedicated to all those who make my life more wonderful – thank you for your love and support especially in a challenging time!

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My services include the Complete Study Course

The Complete Study Course is provided to students at school or university level. We follow a Mindfulness Approach – learning how to study, and we form good habits.

The Course is meant to give you or your children practical insight on how to learn more effectively and with less frustration (like beating procrastination). The lessons in this course can help in learning many different subjects and skills. Whether you love language or math, music or physics or history, you will have a lot of fun, and learn a LOT about how to study!

Contact Details

Lucia Brand
082 782 4747
luciabrand@cybersmart.co.za