LYM Week 2 Challenge

Week 2 woo hoo!

I'm happy that this week's focus is not on diet, but my goal is to continue to make healthy choices and eat as clean as possible.

Week two's pillar is Be Accessible. What does this mean? Co-founder of Moksha Yoga Inc. Jess Robertson says that it means forgiving someone before judging them, grab a strap or block before you write yourself off, and can also mean listen.
Here is a link to the full explanation from Jess Robertson.

Week Two Challenge-In order to be accessible, every day this week when talking with friends and family, practice Active Listening. At the end of each day reflect by writing in a journal.

What is active listening? It is being present when communicating with other people. Luckily I had a lot of learning and practice with this during my social work program. In my program, I learned that interviewing and counselling are based on active listening. The link they had in the newsletter explained it more in depth and was bang on with what I learned in school. Using open-ended questions (so questions that will not be answered with one word), paraphrasing (checking in with what the person has just said to confirm you are understanding them correctly by repeating it), being empathetic and acknowledging feelings (putting yourself in their shoes, and watching for and acknowledging their emotional responses), non-verbal encouragers (body language you are conveying, head nodding, culturally appropriate eye contact), and summarizing (pulling together everything they have said).

I'm looking forward to this challenge because I love journaling, and it will be interesting to see what kinds of things I notice about my communication and that of those around me. I will of course be sharing my journal entries at the end of the week.

Here are some more resources they have provided us to help with our journaling:

Read about the 7 barriers to active listening

Watch this video to learn about 5 ways to listen better

Read about How to stop beating yourself up over mistakes


Supersize-Each day explore one of the Nonviolent Communication resources we have shared in this newsletter. Write in your journal, reflecting on how it has shifted the way you interact with those around you.
Here is a link to info about non-violent communication.

I think I'm going to participate in this week's supersize challenge. It shouldn't be that time consuming, and I will already be journaling so it can't hurt to learn a few more things along the way can it?

Since my 40 days challenge I have already noticed a huge difference in how I communicate with my family and friends. I also started to notice the way others communicate with me. When someone starts to talk over me, when I can tell they haven't been listening because they completely change the subject back to them and their issue, when they don't ask me questions but just talk talk talk about them and what is going on with them. When I notice things like this, I am more inclined not to do them myself because I remember how I felt when it was happening to me. Always remember to listen first, ask questions second, and put in your two cents third!