Welcome to the crowdfunding and signup page for our 8-week online course called “I’m glad you interrupted PART III.” We choose crowdfunding, because we want to make this course freely accessible to people from around the world. We welcome you to support and/or sign up, also if you were not part of PART I or PART II.
€1.544 received of €1.544 goal
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This crowdfunding campaign ended July 7. We will start the course Sunday September 29 10am EST, 4pm. Amsterdam time and 730pm India time. We welcome 30 participants, first come first served.
Your guides for this journey
The guides from PART II will once again team up for this new adventure.
Laura Lee from Rochester
(click to read more)
Number of group facilitations: 15 years facilitating various in-person conversation circles around poetry, philosophy, social psychology, women’s circle, & restorative circles with young children.
On a bad day: Sensory overload, inflexibility, perfectionism, dissociated from surroundings, ruminating, migraine, sarcastic.
Learning edge in conversations:
Self-connection, presence, care over taking responsibility for others.
Learning edge in life:
Balance: between focus and shifting interest to learn new skills, between enthusiasm and rest.
Brings joy: Time outside together, singing together, making all sorts of things with my hands, sharing food, writing, community building, loving friendships.
Needs support from this crowdfunding: Some empathic support.
Inspired by the work of: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Akilah Richards, Terra Vance, Czesław Miłowsz.
One thing not a lot of people know about you: I grew up in a small hunting cabin in rural New York.
Yves from The Netherlands
(click to read more)
Number of group facilitations: 8 years of 200+ classes with many ups and downs.
On a bad day: Cold-hearted and demanding towards people close to him, feels despair about the state of the world. Teaches to people who didn’t ask for it.
Learning edge in conversations:
Lightheartedness.
Learning edge in life:
Having enough financial support to treat myself with care. Enough emotional support to do the work I do with integrity and within capacity.
Brings joy: Making music together, singing, intimate conversations, physical intimacy, collaborating on projects that increase compassion, care and clarity in this world.
Needs support from this crowdfunding: €1.240. So I can drive the taxi van I drive less, and redirect my energy here. This money goes to food, shelter, transportation, clothing and webhosting.
Inspired by the work of: The Buddha, Miki Kashtan, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and the people I meet every day and that I have met 🙂
One thing not a lot of people know about you: There’s a part of me that feels scared facilitating, it wants to protect myself from the potential pain of a shame storm if I do something out of line with my own values, authenticity and care.
What the 8 weeks will look like
There will be three pillars in our journey. The first one is our Sunday class. We meet each other on Zoom for eight consecutive Sundays. Class takes 1 hour and 45 minutes. Here we take time to pause, reflect, get inspired by the topic of the week. After that, we go into breakout rooms to do the Pearl Diver’s exercise. To give you an idea, here are the six steps of this exercise:
The second pillar is our daily practice. We help each other ease into the practice by requiring one daily practice for class #2, two daily practices for class #3, et cetera. By the end of the course we will have integrated a daily practice into our lives, without having to “work hard”.
The third pillar is inspiration. Throughout the week you will receive videos, questions and answers, cartoons, stories, and poems from our guides. Delivered to your mailbox. Here are some examples.
Next to these three pillars you’ll receive three optional support options:
- 1 one-on-one zoom-meeting with one of the guides to support you on one challenging situation.
- A practice buddy to send a voice message to each other with your practice.
- Q&A forum moderated by the guides.
Our shared intention
To work well as a group we need enough shared intention. The basic formula we work with is:
We treat ourselves and others with care, even when we don’t have a sense the other person is treating us with care.
Want to grow our capacity to come from this intention by focusing on interrupting ourselves and others in the following way:
We want to cultivate our skills and awareness when it comes to interrupting with care. We want to acquire and improve the skill to interrupt in such a way that the other person responds with “I’m glad you interrupted”. By the end of this course we want to interrupt others 50% of the situations where we previously didn’t interrupt and lost an openhearted connection. The way we want to realize this goal:
- Seeing clearly the habits that stand in the way of interrupting.
- Seeing clearly the situations in which we would like to interrupt.
- Practicing interruptions during the weekly class.
- Writing down our sentences, insights and situations we want to interrupt on a practice sheet.
- Practicing 2 minutes every morning from the practice sheet.
This is where the focal points of the course will lie:
What people say
Questions and Answers
What is required to join this series?
No money is required to join this class. These three things are required:
– Feeling a deep YES to practicing care towards yourself and others, regardless of what happens.
– Attending a minimum of 4 out of 8 Sunday classes, and watching recordings of the classes you missed.
– Meeting the daily 2 minute, out-loud practice requirement per class. One daily practice for class #2, two daily practices for class #3, three daily practices for class #4, four daily practices for class #5, five daily practices for class #6 and six daily practices for class #7 and #8. So by the end of the journey you will have integrated a daily practice into your life.
Will there be a recording available of the classes?
There will be video-recordings available during the 8 week course for participants. After that, the recording will be deleted.
What physical requirement do I need to join?
A laptop, phone or tablet with access to stable internet for Sunday’s classes and to receive the inspiration during the week.
What skills do I need to join?
Having experience with meditation, yoga, nonviolent communication can be a help…and it can also be a hindrance 🙂 What seems to help is some kind of dedication to a spiritual path, although we do not require that and all traditions and self developed paths are welcome.
How much does the journey cost?
The course will be free of charge for participants if the crowdfunding succeeds. This way we can give this class away freely, without money being an obstacle for people to join. This is an important value for us and helps us to live in line with the principle of giving and receiving freely.
Why is this called PART III?
Patricia sent an email in August 2023 to an email list that Yves was subscribed to. In this email Patricia requested support with interrupting, because Patricia wanted to get better at it. Yves replied enthusiasticly because he had done 8 years of research on interrupting. Together they worked for four months to prepare for the first 8-week series called “I’m glad you interrupted.” Because the participants and the guides enjoyed the series so much, Yves decided to ask participant Laura to join him for the second part, as Patricia had already commited to another course. Laura and Yves developed, together with about 12 participants the material further. After the eight weeks were over, there was enthusiasm to continue. Now, we’re ready to go on another adventure.
What will the weekly topics be?
The program looks something like this and is subject to change according to the needs of the group.
1. Introducing theory of interrupting with care.
2. Focus on the daily practice.
3.&4. Discovering and transforming our fears.
5. Intention more important than words.
6. Using gestures and facial expressions.
7. Acknowledging our limitations.
8. How were these 8 weeks for you?
What is your vision with this journey, why are you doing this?
What we are co-creating is a practice group of people who want to cultivate thinking, speaking and acting with care, no matter who it is or what happens.
I have another question, concern or suggestion, are you open to hearing from me?
Yes, send a message to Laura or Yves.