Last night Jolene introduced an independent activity to our repetitions. An independent activity is an activity or task that must be completed with an obstacle inherent to the activity that prevents it from getting completed. It is tied to a trigger event and hot who, and serves to get the actor with the activity out of their head. It’s nearly impossible to be thinking and doing something at the same time, so the repetition becomes more instinctive.
What I’ve noticed is that whenever a new element is introduced, people in the class tend to fall into one of two camps: those who prefer to understand the exercise by doing it, and those who prefer to understand the exercise by trying to learn the rules of the exercise. I’m not sure that either approach is better, but I definitely find myself more in the first camp which causes a bit of frustration for me when those in the second camp try to define what is and isn’t permissible in the exercise. I just need to be aware of this so that my frustration doesn’t manifest in an unproductive way.
T and I volunteered to start things off and he decided to be the one with the activity. As the one without the activity I didn’t have any circumstances to work with, although I know that this will change in time. I left the room to let him and Jolene develop the circumstances around the activity. When I re-entered the room for the exercise I noticed that for me the addition of the activity generated a sense of curiosity about what T was doing, and his circumstances. In that respect, it allowed me to leave myself alone more, and to pick up and deal and trust the exercise more. I still sometimes struggle with identifying and dealing with my partner’s behavior…some of that I think is trying to identify and find the right word to name the behavior, which launches me into a thinking spiral. Again, something to be aware of.
Overall, everyone seemed to really connect with the addition of the activity. Those with the independent activity all seemed to be much more free of themselves, and those reacting and repeating were able to trust the exercise more.
Next week we have to come up with two independent activities along with triggers and hot whos. I have a couple in mind, but trying to provide the obstacle that prevents completion is going to be challenging.