Have you ever been part of a group where you had the experience that you were on the outside looking in? Maybe just an observer? Maybe it was difficult, or you didn’t speak up because you didn’t know how to engage in the group. 

Or maybe your experience is where it’s easy to talk. When you are in a group you can always think of something to say. You can engage with ease, and yet, at the same time, you feel like you are on the outside, that you don’t belong, and you don’t fit in. This is the experience of a group that I’ve been working with, that they were exploring the other day. 

For example, I have a hand, and I have two sides to this hand. So there are two sides to having the experience of having a hand. This is an analogy for what it’s like to be in a group. One side of the hand is scared to speak up. Maybe it doesn’t know how, and as they begin to learn how, by exploring the process of self-compassion, and slowing time...

Have you ever found yourself in the position of needing to get some support? Simply needing some help. Maybe you fell and were injured and later you recognized that you were hurt more than you realized. You can feel vulnerable, especially depending on what your life experience has been, feeling vulnerable may not feel safe. 

Maybe you’ve had to work out life on your own. As a kid you had to learn the hard way, by yourself, because there wasn’t anyone to ask. Maybe when you asked you were shut down, or shamed. Some of us have had the experience that when we ask for help, or guidance, we get dismissed or scolded. Told that we should have been listening. Or, we should have done what someone else told us to do. If we made a mistake and ask for help, we are belittled or put down. Through that experience we learn, ‘Don’t ask, just figure it out, somehow, on your own.’ 

Another experience we could have in light of that is believing that something is...