Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Book Study Group & Reflections on Presence
I was just playing back a recording of a book study group I'm participating in this quarter. Alas, I missed the first call.
It's always interesting to hear a variety of check-ins, how people describe themselves, a surprising number with rising inflections at the end of their factual statements. That peculiar rise in inflection at the end of a statement sounds hesitant, not fully grounded in one's own experience.
What is it about unfamiliar group settings that makes us sound uncertain about basic things, like what we most care about?!
My client work today was with very different men, yet had interesting parallels to my book study group call. Each client dropped into amazing moments of presence, and then, as quickly, each popped back out and felt distant, abstract, although still continuing to talk.
The difference was in how deeply each man experienced himself as he talked. It's the same for all of us, of course. It can be subtle, we can talk without that disturbing uptick in our voices, but still not be fully embodied in our own experience (the old "talking heads" syndrome).
As I listened to the rest of the recorded call tonight, I tried to imagine each person, how they were holding their bodies, what their mood was, whether they were distracted by a computer screen with email popping up, however silently, etc.
The call wasn't live. I couldn't participate in the conversation. I didn't love the book. So I found myself far more intrigued by the quality of each person's recorded presence than the content being covered.
I'm also left with a curiosity about how I come across when recorded, as part of a visually anonymous group. Hmmm.
It's always interesting to hear a variety of check-ins, how people describe themselves, a surprising number with rising inflections at the end of their factual statements. That peculiar rise in inflection at the end of a statement sounds hesitant, not fully grounded in one's own experience.
What is it about unfamiliar group settings that makes us sound uncertain about basic things, like what we most care about?!
My client work today was with very different men, yet had interesting parallels to my book study group call. Each client dropped into amazing moments of presence, and then, as quickly, each popped back out and felt distant, abstract, although still continuing to talk.
The difference was in how deeply each man experienced himself as he talked. It's the same for all of us, of course. It can be subtle, we can talk without that disturbing uptick in our voices, but still not be fully embodied in our own experience (the old "talking heads" syndrome).
As I listened to the rest of the recorded call tonight, I tried to imagine each person, how they were holding their bodies, what their mood was, whether they were distracted by a computer screen with email popping up, however silently, etc.
The call wasn't live. I couldn't participate in the conversation. I didn't love the book. So I found myself far more intrigued by the quality of each person's recorded presence than the content being covered.
I'm also left with a curiosity about how I come across when recorded, as part of a visually anonymous group. Hmmm.
# posted by Cindy Marteney @ 7:18 PM 
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