JAFARECThe workshops continued on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The Women’s workshop had about ten participants on site and online, and the Men’s workshop was small with three participants, and the Friday night workshop had six participants on site and online. It’s good to have a small gathering to talk about things deeply.
In both workshops, we read Yoko Sano’s picture book “The Cat That Lived a Million Times” and worked on the “four words that describe me”.
This picture book was a gift from a woman I was dating once upon a time, but she abandoned me and I lost it before I knew it… I suddenly remembered it decades later and bought a second-hand copy. Looking back, I didn’t understand what the author was trying to convey in this picture book at the time, but if I had, I wonder if I would have been able to avoid being thrown away… haha. Either way, my life would have been a lot easier earlier.
It seemed that everyone who participated in the workshop received the message that the author wanted to convey in this picture book in various ways. In the end, it may come down to knowing yourself, accepting yourself, and living your life.
When problems occur, whether it is moral harassment, domestic violence, or any other human relationship, most people think that the problem lies with the other person, and try to change the other person, only to be betrayed, causing further complications and deepening the hurt.
My psychological solution is to change the relationship and end the problem by changing myself, not the other person. To do this, you must first know yourself, understand and verbalize your thoughts and feelings. At first glance, it may seem slow and tedious, but little by little, the problem will surely come to an end. The fact that many people eventually become happy, in whatever form, proves the real effectiveness of this method.
Originally posted on June 11, 2021
English text translated with DeepL (Japanese to English) and checked by Mina.
