Friday marked the end of our language learning part of the training and Monday started the cultural learning section. In the few days that I have been in the cultural portion, I have concluded that the language learning part required more brain power and the cultural portion is requiring more heart power. Yesterday we learned about our different conflict styles. They put us into 4 different categories: Turtle-Avoiders, Teddy Bears-Harmonizers, Foxes-Compromisers/negotiaters, and Lions-Directors. Once we figured out what style was ours, we then had to first come up with and share with the others at least 3 things we appreciate about each group, and why we value them. THEN, after feeling all good about ourselves, we had to go back and come up with 3 de-motivaters and how it impacted us during conflict. Some of you might think, well this sounds great, however, we also had to hear those de-motivaters about ourselves, and how our behavior impacted them as well! To say the least, a few tears were shed and a few hearts were hurting by the end. The positive thing is that I now have an inside view to how others perceive me and my conflict style and how I can improve for better conflict resolution.
Today we had a great lesson on transition and how stressful that can be, but how we can be supports for each other whether we are singles, married, or families. I got to be one of the singles participating in the illustration we had today. We were all connected together (family very closely connected/singles connected but not as close together) and then we had to cross chairs and a set of exercises balls as our pretend bridge of transition from being settled, unsettled, chaos, re-settled, and then finally settled again during our big move and adjustment. It was a lot of fun, and eye opening as well. It was good to be reminded how we can all support each other in this transition.