The following is a true story about the unexpected gift I received as a workshop facilitator and experiential seminar leader. What could have been a disaster proved to be one of the best moments of my life.
I was in Saddlebrook, New Jersey for a few days to co-facilitate a weekend personal growth workshop with Sage Seminars. This was in the mid 90’s. We started the program and began to take people through some awareness exercises. The participants began to silently grumble with intense resistance and disinterest, as if to say, “I have been there and done that. I am bored. Is this all there is?” You get the idea. One of the company founders came up to me and said, “Val, they aren’t taking us very seriously. What are we going to do?” I said to him, “Give them to me. I am hungry!” and I growled a little.
I was not going to be mean. I was going to give them an experience that they had never had before, and I meant it. We stopped everything that had been going on and put two chairs in front of another part of the room. I sat down in one of the chairs and waited as everyone was directed to take a seat in front of me. I stood up in front of all the participants and challenged them by saying, “Are you human beings?! Do you feel anything?” I got their full attention. We were ten stories above the ground and you could have heard a pin drop all the way from the top to the bottom.
Authentic Communication
They knew that something unexpected was about to happen. I said to them, “I am available to work with you,” and gestured to the empty chair next to me. One at a time, various participants were escorted to the front of the room to sit next to me. I took each person through my intuitively guided, transformational process of emotional clearing. Many of these people had experienced a lot of abuse and didn’t know how to release those traumatic experiences from their past. All they really knew was their stuck feelings were holding them back, and nothing that they had ever tried had really made much of a difference in their lives. No wonder they were jaded. Because of my expertly honed ability, I could hear in each person’s voice what was precisely blocking them and what they needed to express (that was unique to them and their situation) to transform their blocked energy into passion and creative aliveness.
Emotional Intelligence
Every person that I worked with had life changing, emotional breakthroughs. When we finished, we were all elated and crying with vulnerable tears of joy. Now they were interested and engaged! They were no longer bored and disconnected. They had come back to life. After this experience, I knew even more deeply that this is what I came here to do. They did not really care how I did it. They just appreciated that they were taken to a better place. They had been willing all along. They were good people. They just needed our expert help, and we rose to the occasion and helped them when and where they needed it the most. I did my part, and it was a challenging and wonderful experience that I will never forget.
Creating and holding the space for new possibilities is exciting and rewarding. I feel blessed to be on this path with other truth seekers. I am interested in hearing about YOUR dreams. What’s important to you, and what would you like to manifest in your life?