The Art of Relating Part II
Ever since attending the Time and Project Management course, I find myself looking at my life as though it is a river of opportunities to be a role model, a healing presence and available for everybody around me.
Today, walking down a busy sidewalk, I began to notice something that happened as I passed different ‘types’ of people; men and women of different ages, level of attractiveness, etc…
I discovered that I automatically put on an ‘act’ for each person as they approached. With an attractive woman, I pretended not to be interested. With an older woman, I became exceptionally polite and smiley. As I stood near an older couple, I acted like a little boy. When a good looking man passed, I acted tough and mean, as though I was stronger, smarter, or even better.
I realized that I had been “staging” acts like this for years as a way to protect myself from people seeing who I genuinely am.
Simply seeing this without judging it created a shift in me. I realized that who I am is, in fact, a much more pleasant, helpful, and generous person than the one I had been pretending to be. It became clear that I’ve been “ripping people off” by acting around them instead of simply allowing myself to be who I am. This is something I’ve learned from being in a “transformational” environment and taking workshops with the Kanes.
I became aware of the unkind affect that passing judgment has on others as well as myself. Once I saw this, it completely opened up other experiences for me later on in the day as I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and my friend’s painting studio in Brooklyn. It felt perfect exactly the way it was. Walking down the street, I felt at ease being friendly with strangers, and I found myself taking care of the ’sidewalk-traffic’ every chance I had. I let people through, ensuring a comfortable amount of space between each person, etc. On the crowded subway, there were so many beautiful people. It felt as if we were all brothers and sisters.
In addition to this incredible shift, it was the first time I ever paid for an upcoming Kanes’ course so far in advance. I registered and paid for the upcoming course, “The Art of Relating” (June 20, 21, and 22, 2008). It is quite evident that the course has already begun for me. Even my relationship with my awesome girlfriend, Kate, is remarkable. We’ve been having a magical, seamless time together, consistently for over a month, which, for us, considering the way we were before, is a miracle. Last week, she and I had a moment of “returning” to our old way of communicating and caught that we were doing that, stopped, then took responsibility for the way we were and talked it over. Soon we were back to having fun again!
I can genuinely say, I feel everyone’s brilliance, especially Ariel and Shya. I love you and thank you for giving so much to my life!!
-Gio F.
