I had another transformative experience while working with the Joy’n the Journey workshop. The session was “change it” - how can our environments support us through change?
Having experienced the power of the art cards from my show the Power of Coaching with Art, I introduced the cards to my partner as I was interested in integrating them into the work shop.
I believe our environments are a reflection of our thoughts and our thoughts create our environment, the events and our experience of the event. I wanted to demonstrate that reality is what it is, it is our interpretation that determines the experience and outcome of an event.
My partner wanted to experience the card prior to the workshop, so we had a coaching session. She had received so much clarity around the issue, she instantly saw the benefits of introducing the cards to the group during the workshop.
I suggested we use the same card in the centre of all the participants and let them write their impressions down so that they did not influence each other by what was shared. By shifting the cards through the five perspectives, every participant would have seen the card from the exact aspect as another participant.
What came out of the session was amazing. Eventhough my partner and I had done the cards already, we began to see different things in the card and felt compelled to write.
Every single participant came up with different images and interpretations. One of the participants I could see was not very excited about the process as she had a belief that she was “not creative” and so would write one short sentence for each view of the card. I kept assuring her there is no right or wrong way to do this, so just stick with it.
At the end of the process, we each began to share what we had seen in each aspect of the card. I would ask further questions to the answers to deepen the inquiry. It turned out that the participant that thought she was not creative, opened up and as we say in Trini ” de story jump out.” By asking her questions she was able to go deeper into the cards and began describing the images, the emotions, the significance of the colours, the definition of the symbols she had pulled out of the cards and was able to see how this was related to her life in this moment.
Her joy came from both the clarity of the exercise and also tapping into her creativity.
This process was an excellent and effective way to show that the card is reality. Nothing changed on the table except the angle from which one saw the card. By looking at the card from all angles it opened you up to the bigger picture. More importantly, everyone had been looking at the identical card “reality”. Everyone came up with totally different scenarios, meanings and interpretations, proving that we are all speaking from different perspectives to each other at all times. No wonder their is so much conflict in the world, no two people are ever speaking the same language.
It was a huge shift in perspective for everyone there, and it taught us to look at an event from different angles to receive the full picture. It also showed us how our environments are really reflections of our thoughts and that our thoughts truly create the environment.
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