Just a passing entry...

Mental Imagery seems to be a favourite among many of my participants. Am a little surprised as I had thought that MI would be a concept which is a little complex to grasp. Well, at least it shows that I have managed to simplify it so that its understandable.

So it just reminds not to be presumptuous...

Feedback..

I have been collecting quite a lot of written feedback from my participants. Most of it has been very encouraging.. however, one pertinent grouse seems to be that the sessions should be longer. Hmm... how to compromise this? I am thinking perhaps I could combine 2 groups together so that in this way I can perhaps have time to conduct more sessions..

The next session in the pipeline would be relaxation.. am kinda looking forward to it as I certainly need some of that too. I have realised through an activity I conducted during Mental Imagery that my colleagues are fond of the sound of water (as in like waves crashing onto the shores)... How to incorporate it? Any suggestions?

Well before I leave, I wanna kindle you guys with these 2 quotes I had used for my imagery sessions. Love them... esp Einstein's (who happens to be my favourite 'quotist' of all times). Love William James too...

Here we go... read and contemplate my friends!

Logics will get you from A to B,
Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein

Imagination will often carry us
to worlds that never were.
But without it, we go nowhere.
bCarl Sagan

While teaching, I learned.. :))

Well from now on its gonna be all about time-management. With the fasting month coming up, I am expecting it to be all the more challenging but I believe I am to the challenge.

In any case, I have been visiting the library quite frequently and I have become quite a fan of the non-fiction books which I borrow to gimme some inspiration for my practicum. They teach about handling fear, dealing with embarrassment and increasing self-confidence.

It came in handy during one of my sessions!!

I had a big mental block and in the middle of a self-talk class, totally ran out of anything to say. I desperately flipped through my notes.. but alas could not find anything to say. I had 6 pairs of eyes staring at me and the silence couldn't have been more awkward..

If this had been say 3 months back, the sheer embarassment of the situation would have eaten me up and I would not have been able to concentrate on work later at all..

But thankfully, it all turned out great as I managed to regained my composure and even used it as an example of how to change your negative self-talk during an embarrassing moment. From 'I can't believe I did that and I am gonna mess up from here' to 'Its ok, it happens even to the best.. you haven't committed any murder.. just laugh it off and get on with it.' Not to forget, I have amazing colleagues too!!

Hehe and guess what? I didn't spend a minute after mulling over it and even shared it with my other classes...

Wow.. there are never lack of opportunities to learn, are there?

busy busy busy

I doubt I have ever been busier... I have a session tomorrow with 2 of my colleagues who initially didn't wanna be part of my sessions. So yeah.. that's like cool. So it will be a cosy group of 2 for my intro session tomorrow.

What is more stress-inducing would be the self-talk session for some loud-mouthed and judgemental peers on Wednesday. I was a bundle of nerves when I did the intro with them. I will ensure that I try my hand at some relaxation-cum-stress mgt techniques before I stride into the class.

Anyhow, I like this quote by William James..

If you aspire for a trait, act like you already have it :-P

Nice ain't it?

Later...

The show continues...

The next 2 weeks are going to be very challenging for me... I have some some major stuff coming up at work and I have deadlines to meet for school stuff too. My practicum is underway and while it has been very exciting... it can be nerve-wrecking too. Like what Emily mentioned once, it is no mean feat to go about conducting a MST class when your own level of motivation is down the pits.

Well thats precisely how I felt like last Thursday. Thankfully, I was able to overcome my emotions and the session went without major hiccups...

I still think that my control over the class could be improved and I could brush up on my confidence level... I feel that one session of self-talk is not enough to cover all that I wanted. Well.. I would be needing to work on my schedule to try to squeeze in another...

As the show begins...

Well... I am more or less done with the intro portion of my practicum. The response so far has been encouraging.. I am going to start on self-talk next week and I am in the midst of finalising the activities which i will be including.

Though I have my stuff ready, I am wondering how to make the sessions more interesting... well at least at interesting as my intro.

Will update later..

As the curtain is lifted...

Well.. I know it has been amazingly long hiatus and I have alot to blog about but am gonna keep it brief till my next post as I am tired..

Well I have started my practicum proper from yesterday 21/7 after some delay as I had to rush fro some deadlines at work.

I wanna get my feelings out of the way first and I will post the details later

Feelings over first session - 21/7

It couldn't have been more perfect!! My audience was interactive and I could feel from their vibes that they were being soaked up by what I was sharing! It was totally exhilarating... I had rave reviews and saw my colleagues somewhat glow after the session. For the rest of the day, we shared a certain comradeship found among those who shared secrets. It was awesome really! Needless to say, I was totally revved up for the batch the next day...

Feelings over second session - 22/7

Hmm.. well I would say that this session was so-so. I guess I had been complacent and expected that this too would go seamlessly! Well, not quite. Firstly, I felt that my team leader who wanted to participate in my session was kinda trynna take control. As much as I appreciate her support, I feel that the rest of my team-mates feel a lil reticent with her around. Felt a lil cheesed with some comments she made and she was trynna act bossy. So I have to say the vibes I got from this group was certainly not as positive. Overall, I would rate it as a 5.5/10.

I personally called each of my client to gather feedback. I felt better after that and found out that they were lookin forward to the next session and that was something nice.

And ya know what? As I reflect on both experiences... as much as I loved the first session, I think that it is the second session which allowed me to learn more! Like I should have been more assertive with my TL when she tried to be bossy and also I forgot to mete out some impt instructions... And also because of some of the challenging questions raised, I felt a need to brush up on some of my answers... So there we go! I have done some extra research and improvised on my handout... so yeah like what I read somewhere, there is nothing you can learn more from than negative criticism.

Laterz..