I knew from very very early on in my dedicant training that I eventually wanted to lead a group (and I wanted to do it well.) I love teaching, I turn out to be pretty good at teaching witchy stuff, and I have a knack for talking about some of the stuff that gets glossed over because it's (legitimately) hard to talk about.
On the other hand, I totally don't want to be Awesome Witch Queen with Minions for Miles, because that sounds totally exhausting, honestly. I want to make a space for people who are interested in enough of the same stuff I'm interested in, and enough of the same approaches (because only so much time, energy, and space in the living room.)
And I went through the better part of a decade between having that in the group I trained with, and having it now (and it's still entirely possible one or both of the current students might decide they need something else, and not be around.)
Anyway, that meant I built a lot of the checks into my life that you're talking about - from very early on, I cultivated awareness about who else was out there, what they were doing, where gaps were, what my limits were.
I also know (from lots of conversation) that most people don't work like that. And while external requirements can help with that, I don't think there's a way to teach people to do that kind of self-check if they're not already somewhat wired for it, so you need some other steps in the mix.
(Also, I'm really clear that I'm not a trained therapist, and one of my requirements is that if people have chronic stuff, they have access to appropriate professional care - medical or therapy or whatever's relevant.)
no subject
I knew from very very early on in my dedicant training that I eventually wanted to lead a group (and I wanted to do it well.) I love teaching, I turn out to be pretty good at teaching witchy stuff, and I have a knack for talking about some of the stuff that gets glossed over because it's (legitimately) hard to talk about.
On the other hand, I totally don't want to be Awesome Witch Queen with Minions for Miles, because that sounds totally exhausting, honestly. I want to make a space for people who are interested in enough of the same stuff I'm interested in, and enough of the same approaches (because only so much time, energy, and space in the living room.)
And I went through the better part of a decade between having that in the group I trained with, and having it now (and it's still entirely possible one or both of the current students might decide they need something else, and not be around.)
Anyway, that meant I built a lot of the checks into my life that you're talking about - from very early on, I cultivated awareness about who else was out there, what they were doing, where gaps were, what my limits were.
I also know (from lots of conversation) that most people don't work like that. And while external requirements can help with that, I don't think there's a way to teach people to do that kind of self-check if they're not already somewhat wired for it, so you need some other steps in the mix.
(Also, I'm really clear that I'm not a trained therapist, and one of my requirements is that if people have chronic stuff, they have access to appropriate professional care - medical or therapy or whatever's relevant.)