After doing a speed dating style meet & greet with a dozen or so other students from the course we were then tasked with responding to “kindness is like what?” on a Miro board.
We split into breakout groups of three in order to explore a selection of “kindness” related words further.
ie. What kind of warm hug is this warm hug.
I liked this exercise for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because it’s positive – having to explore what ‘kindness’ means and the words associated with that.
And secondly, I was happy that I intuitively felt into my body in order to explore my responses to the question. I do this a lot in my meditation practices so was happy it became second nature to do so here. It showed me first hand that there’s an instant transference of knowledge/practise between both meditation & art.
I really felt from the heart and energetically, and just felt like the words kind of flowed very natural, naturally and spontaneously. I didn’t find this task a challenge.
I also liked the fact that through this task I can imagine how the course is going to develop – that Jonathan (course leader) is making us think about how to go deeper into a certain topic, exploring different layers, rather than just settling for our first response.
I can already see how that will influence my art practice in a different, positive way.
Looking at the final “behavioural” Miro board, we now have an understanding and agreement together for the traits or attributes we want to have for each other moving forward.
So I thought it was a really great exercise to start the course in very positive way, to set the right tone.
I left the end of that first session thinking, yep, we’ve got some shared values and good alignment here.
I’m happy it feels like the right fit, the right decision to take this course, and I’m excited to get started.