Let Beauty Renew: Caring Art Workshop

[Warm response from the new class of the 2007 Cultural Practice Camp] 1

Is caring also an art? Is there anything special about accompanying someone on a sad journey? With questions and needs, the students gathered together to study and discuss together.

"What is care and counseling? Care and counseling are the expression of life, a way of life that uses life to influence life." This was the opening statement of teacher Jiang Haiqiong of the first "Art of Caring Workshop".

▲Lecturer/Jiang Haiqiong

Know yourself

Vivid games and questionnaires allow students to know more about themselves and understand areas for improvement in communication skills. Some students said: "I thought my personality was very open, but I found out it was not enough after taking a test." Others said: "The results of "self-confession" and "accepting criticism" revealed the trump cards of each of us. 」

Knowing yourself is the cornerstone of caring work.Teacher Jiang gave an example: Before the plane takes off, passengers are taught to put on oxygen masks before helping others when they are in danger. In other words, we must first equip ourselves before we can coach others - we cannot give others what we do not have.

Understand others and strengthen communication

Teacher Jiang asked the students to write all the "feeling" words they could think of on the blackboard, and then analyzed them one by one to clarify which ones were the correct feelings. This not only helps us express our emotions correctly, but also captures the feelings of others.

When communicating with others, you must first consider the other person's environment, background, and even family of origin, and pay attention to the other person's body language. It turns out that while it is not easy to understand oneself, it is even more difficult to get into the hearts of others.

therefore,Empathy is very important. This precious gift is the lubricant of interpersonal relationships and a necessary condition for living in harmony.;Through empathy, many hurts can be understood and healed.

grief processing

After learning "The Valley of Sorrow", some students lamented: "Remembering that in the past, I always failed to achieve results in caring and counseling for people. After learning this lesson, I suddenly realized that I didn't understand their emotional ups and downs after experiencing severe trauma. Standing in the position of an outsider and helping others with what you see, what you think, and how you think you can help them, it is conceivable that the results will always be "counterproductive", and some may even be "hot in the face but cold in the back". Feeling. In fact, the problem is not with the people I tutor, but with my lack of understanding and learning about caring.”

the power of forgiveness

During the teaching, Teacher Jiang used the movie "An Unfinished Life" to let us understand that everyone has the "big bear" in the movie in their lives - some unresolved pain, and everyone also needs To be cared for, accepted, and loved. That broken and incomplete life, under the mold of God, always has room for change and growth.

The video also teaches us the lesson of "forgiveness". As Teacher Jiang often quotes: "Not being able to forgive others is like drinking a glass of poisonous wine bit by bit while hoping others will die." In this way, learning to care requires building yourself up first; being able to bear the burden and Only when pressure is overflowing with God's love can we remove our prejudice against others and then help others.

Teacher Jiang even inspired us with personal experience. She went through the depths of depression, being divorced, being a single mother in the United States, suffering from depression, and having an unexplained foot injury that limited her mobility. She still overcame many difficulties and founded the "Streamside Care for Single-Parent Families Ministry Association." This time, I reluctantly stayed away from my seriously ill mother in Taiwan and returned to the United States to take classes. This was actually out of the urgent need to cultivate caring counselors. She is witnessing the Lord’s great love with her life!

Five tips for caring

Teacher Jiang particularly emphasized that caring is a way of life, "there is true love all the time, and care is everywhere." When we practice caring as freely as breathing, we become counselors spreading true love. Teacher Jiang gave us the five tips for caring. I hope that we and the people we care about can continue to have beautiful lives!