taught by Lansing and Jane Gresham
About communication: we can all feel when it is going well – and when it is not. But most of us don’t recognize the triggers that turn it negative.
Human survival required that we develop two wildly different capacities. Our nervous systems need to register millions of inputs from both internal and external sources simultaneously. Our personalities can only manage a few. So we have created layers of filtering in between.
Many subtle cues are both given off and received– perceived and projected — without crossing the threshold of conscious recognition.
The sequence can be summarized as:
- Stimulus
- Perception
- our own instantaneous Response (from habit and not realized)
- Reaction
- and then Behavior
In practice this results in mistaking our “own response” for the original stimulus/response to the nervous system. The usual result is defensiveness, judgment, saying “That’s wrong” and a failure to communicate successfully.
To learn to sense the actual start of a sequence that may turn out to be unsuccessful means reclaiming a portion of the young child’s sensitivity to others’ feelings equally with their own, but without the ability to clearly distinguish them. Adding the adult’s life experience for clarity can end recurrent miscommunications and conflicts.
It’s fun, empowering and frequently funny.
Join us for 2015’s final gathering and leave with a lighter heart.
Saturday: 11am to 6pm
$150 for the day. Bring a friend or family member and both receive a 20% discount.