Christina, ESC volunteer from Belarus

Christina is very interested in psychology and in the topic of well-being. She held a workshop with seniors on this topic. After studying hard Polish for almost a year, her language skills were so good that she could manage all the activities in Polish. This is a great achievement, all the group is very proud of you!

Now, let’s see how it was from Christina herself.

After a short introduction and discussion of the topic, we went into practice and the first thing we did was to diagnose ourselves by answering the question “How do I feel now?”. We discussed the topic and found interesting “discoveries”:

• emotions are an important part of our life. They help us to better understand ourselves and our needs;
• every emotion tells us what we want;
• The choices we make, the actions we take, and the perceptions we have are all influenced by the emotions we are experiencing at any given moment.

We prepared papers, colors and created a calm, comfortable atmosphere through music and candles. The goal of this exercise was to show them how easy it is to come back and give yourself space for peace and energy. It was “Resource technology”. Such exercises help us to maintain feelings of happiness and joy and return to them in difficult life moments and situations.

We painted a tree to give a shape to our inner selves, feelings and emotions. In the end, we  gave them names and talked a little bit. We wrote answers to direct questions (yep, it can sound like a mystery – but it’s just where “meeting with our part of us from inside”). Answers help everyone to look at it after exercise from a distant perspective, to understand yourself better and perhaps learn more about our needs and desires right now.

Seniors felt themselves far better – full of energy and new discoveries about themselves. Everyone was smiling and saying “grateful words”.