Sharing Your Joy

I was on a conference call yesterday with two colleagues, JAC Patrissi and Lundy Bancroft, and we started our work by sharing something positive in our lives. After I shared my positive experience, JAC asked me how I was going to celebrate. I was caught off guard. I hadn't thought about it. Later in the day, I made celebration plans with my niece, Ashley. We decided to have a double celebration dinner to celebrate my good news (that will be in a future blog) and to celebrate her return from France. We cooked a fabulous meal and had a glass of champagne from a bottle she brought back from a small biodiversity vinyard in France. It was wonderful to take time to celebrate each other's life.

Starting a dialog with sharing something positive is a co-counseling technique that I learned at the retreat that I went to several weeks ago in Massachussetts.
Some things I've noticed by doing this:
1. Taking a moment to start a meeting, conference call, support group, or counseling session with sharing something positive can open the door to more positive experiences.
2. If you are working with battered women or rape survivors, it's a way to remember that in the midst of pain and suffering, there still are some bright moments.
3. Sharing something positive can make it a little bit easier to share more difficult information.
4. Sharing our positive experiences is a way to have mini-celebrations of our lives and it's a way to share the joy going on in other people's lives.