In the Midst of Fear and Uncertainty
( We are planning a webinar on the topics discussed below – your fears and uncertainties, unfolding political and social events that are affecting you, and being the ‘middle of action’. Please check back on this website for more information)
When we are in the middle of action, we truly don’t know how it will ripple out.
In December 2012 Pat Omidian and Focusing Trainer, Wajid Syed, put on an intensive Focusing and Community Wellness Workshop for men and women social workers working in the war zone of Pakistan’s western border, where the US has been targeting drone attacks. The social workers were under much stress; some of them came to the workshop mostly for a holiday from their dangerous jobs, not particularly interested in the subject. Nevertheless, the workshop went very well, and by the end of the it,the group had even developed a training manual in their local language, Pashto.
Four years later, on December 13, 2016, Pat reported from Pakistan:
Today I got a call from a woman who took my class in 2012. She is an amazing woman and when I met her, I liked her instantly. Of course I could not know how much she had learned in 2012 or if she would use what she had learned.
Her name is Nazia and she works in Abbottabad in the north of the country. She is a teacher and a teacher trainer.
It turns out that she loved that 2012 Focusing and Psychosocial Support workshop. She has been using it in the classroom — mostly with students from 6th through A levels (Cambridge system).
She told me that Focusing has really helped her and that she found the students enjoyed the activities very much. The one they liked best was going to their “Safe Place.” They were so happy to know that they could find within themselves someplace safe where they could find the strength to endure. Children in Pakistan have an incredible amount of pressure to succeed and get high marks in schools, and the process is almost all memorization. Tough work with little reward. So this inner work, she said, was very supportive of the students.
Since she is now out of work, yet loves doing this, I asked her to plan a time with me in Islamabad so we could offer another level of training. She can be great support for Wajid, and they are friends already. Since Wajid wants to open a Focusing Center in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (province) where they both live, I think we have the start of an awe-inspiring process here.
It never ceases to amaze me how I can do a workshop, put the skills out there, but never exactly know what will come of it. Occasionally, much later, we get hints, as in this case, where we have found hundreds of 12 to 16 year-old kids trained in basic focusing. And we never suspected it.
We learn a lot by working with people who live with fear and uncertainty
Nina Joy and Pat have witnessed resilience in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds in Pakistan and Afghanistan (and in many other places in the world) We are planning a webinar covering these topics, where you would be able to share with us your fears, maybe about the unfolding political and social events that surround you. Community Wellness Focusing has much to offer for healing and being with whatever is there. Please check back on this website for more information.
