Curiosity, kindness, and reflections

On March 27, 2024, we had our 4th System Work community session, where 19 participants showed up.

This special session was sprinkled with curiosity, kindness, and reflections from the participants What a gift!

Curiosity

Twelve (12) people had completed System Work — some joined our private run, some public. Encouraged by what they had learned in the class, they invited their spouses, friends, and colleagues to this community gathering.

We had five (5) “guests” who never took System Work. One of them was a husband who was curious what made his wife more understanding when working with colleagues (yes, they shared the same office). Two invited by their common colleague who practically said, “Just come, it’s hard to explain what System Work is but you’ll learn a lot from it.” All were curious to engage and participate throughout the session, which started from 6pm to 9pm on a Wednesday.

Their curiosity was a gift for the community.

Kindness

There were many but we’ll pick two to share here.

First, one (1) participant offered her helping hand again to secure the venue in Blibli’s office. We are grateful for Blibli and her repeat support. We also felt warm to acknowledge that she joined all of our offline community sessions.

Second, three (3) participants brought some refreshments for people who they had never met before. We consumed them together with fellow participants who broke their Ramadan fast (berbuka puasa) that evening.

Their kindness was a gift for the community.

‍

Reflections

We managed to complete a lecture piece on emotional reconstruction. This allowed the participants to raise these follow-up questions:

1. Is numbness an emotion? What’s the distinction between emotion and feelings?
2. Is emotional reconstruction the same as reframing?
3. Does recurring exposure to the same event necessitate emotional reconstruction?
4. How might we balance ensuring our team feels both acknowledged and listened to, while still making objective decisions?

The discussions and reflections on those questions were a gift for the community. (Yes, we managed to finish at 9pm!)

‍

•

The initial idea of our community sessions was to deepen our understanding of System Work by listening to how the participants practiced what they had learned in the class. Over time, I learned that we might have created a space for people to connect and bring their curiosity, kindness, and reflections.

This evolution itself is a gift.