Making sense of the past and present with a view to a different future

Making sense of the past and present with a view to a different future

I gave two workshops last week to two audiences.  Each audience had different expectations of me and different hopes for effective and practical tools for their current situations.  One workshop was in my church for people from my church seeking spiritual formation.  The other was for elementary school teachers seeking emotional intelligence.  I noticed two poignant similarities:
1)  Both were looking for answers on how to move forward differently.  As I spoke I could see them do the tilt - as they looked up and to the right - a sign of brain activity that is aligning new information with existing context.  Both were incorporating new information into their life situation so they could move forward differently.  I love seeing people do the tilt!
2) Both were eager to share their story with me.  In my church, sharing your faith story is normal - we do it together all the time and I am one of their pastors - one that regularly engages people into their stories of self and God.  I wasn't too surprised by that.  The teacher group surprised me with their willingness to share parts of their story with a stranger.  I asked them to tell me (and the group) about their roles in their schools and some context of their lives.  I asked them to share their most frequent and prominent social and family settings.  They shared with me (a stranger) and the group (working peers) aspects of their personal life that were pretty personal. Why wold they  do that - in that setting?

I think it points to two aspects of what people are looking for these days.  Making sense of the past and present with a view to a different future.  Now, that doesn't surprise me.  I hope my workshops helped in their quests!