Not business as usual

What we offer is a new paradigm and way of looking at the world. It’s not business as usual. The Week That Was looks at our struggle to gain traction with 5th Place and our work.

Shouting into a vacuum

Despondent around so little take up of our workshop, we started the week off in a bit of a funk.

“Maybe we are just trying too hard?” I commented to a sagging Matthew. “When I feel resistance it’s a sign to let go. It feels like we are fighting and maybe we need to just take a breath and let it be?”

Sometimes it just feels like we are shouting into a vacuum. Ever feel stonewalled? That’s how it was feeling.

Everybody should do this

When people are exposed to Shape of Emotion, whether it is learning it, or at one on one sessions in our practice, they are blown away. We get feedback like “Everybody should do this”, “The world needs this.” But to get people to attend the workshops is another story altogether. It is really hard work. We don’t have a very big mailing list. Our following on all our social media sites is still tiny. I am sure there is a better, easier, more successful way of marketing, but right now we don’t have that fairy dust. We welcome suggestions, if anyone has any to share.

Not easy to define

What we offer is not easy to define. It is not EQ although EQ is part of what underpins the work. It is not about baring your soul and having to expose yourself and be vulnerable in front of people you do not know. It is not a rehash of cognitive or behavioural based methods like CBT*, although we do keep the brain busy during the process. Shape of Emotion is about connecting with your feelings. It is mindfulness based because to access your feelings you need to be present to them. The process has a guided meditative quality to it but it is not meditation. —–
*CBT: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to understand the thoughts and feelings that influence behaviour.

Principle: Heal the hole to make me whole

At 5th Place we have 12 Principles that underpin the work that we do. Each week we explore a different principle. Last week’s principle was  “Hook me to heal me.”

Each time we get hooked (or triggered, as it is also known) it’s an opportunity for us to look at the past experience, attend to the hurt and reveal the gift thereby healing in the process. Hook me to heal me. Exploring the 5th Place principle “Hook me to heal me”

What’s in it for me?

And then there is the question why would I want this? What is in it for me? I know how to manage my emotions. I know how to be present, I’m a coach / counsellor / therapist / yoga instructor / caregiver / for pete’s sake! I even manage to level up my meditation skill using the latest app.

Well, consider this: are you never anxious? Never stressed? Never down or depressed? Never hooked and angry at the world? What do you do to manage these uncomfortable, difficult emotions? What about the people you work with? How do they manage their emotions? Have you ever had a client arrive completely beside themselves to the point that you cannot work with them? How do you calm them down? Can you?

Not business as usual

What you get when you come on a Shape of Emotion workshop is not one day of interesting insights, a workbook containing a few facts and quotes, some nice eats and a few new friends. What you get is a life skill, a new way of being, a new way of seeing the world. You don’t go on a Saturday course and then on Monday go back to business as usual. It is not business as usual.

So where to from here? A break. We need a break from the relentlessness of our worry. Something is sure to shift. Next week hopefully we will have lighter, brighter news. Right now we are off to celebrate the sun. At least there is that – some warmth signalling the start of spring. Learn how to reduce stress, relieve anxiety and conquer difficult emotions