Authentic relating is the practice of bringing profound attention and awareness to the experience of being in connection with other people. How does the connection feel? How does it change? Once we become aware of what’s going on internally, we can reveal our experience to others. In this way we express our truth in this moment, in this connection, and we invite others to share the truth of their experience of being with us. By sharing our truth, and knowing the truth of another, we create trust, empathy and intimacy. These practices can be used at home or at work, with loved ones or strangers and everyone in between.
How does it work?
At an Authentic Relating event we use experiential exercises called ‘Games’. The Games are playful and fun, and sometimes may take you to the edge of your comfort zone. We use the Games to deepen our connection to ourselves and the group and create greater intimacy. They help us to co-create a space where we are deeply welcomed, seen, accepted and celebrated for exactly who we are.
What are Authentic Relating Games?
There are many different Authentic Relating Games. Some Games help us to slow down, become more self-aware and to develop curiosity about self and other. Other Games are livelier and get the group moving and expressing themselves. Some Games help the group to collaborate and bond, while other Games help us develop a deep level of empathy. Most of all the Games are playful and encourage us to have fun.
Events will often start by getting in touch with our own internal experience of what’s it like to be ‘me’ in the here and now, noticing body sensations, feelings, emotions and thoughts. The fun starts when we bring this level of awareness of our experience and start exploring how it changes as we connect with others. When two or more people connect a dynamic interplay emerges between them. Becoming aware of the role we play in the dynamic may reveal patterns of behaviour that we were previously unaware of.
After each Game there are opportunities to reflect and share our experience of playing the Game, and how the Game affected the way we related to ourselves and others. Insights from playing the Games can be transformational for our friendships and relationships.
Honour Self and Other
Authentic Relating teaches us to connect with the truth of how we feel about something and share it in a way that honours ourselves and another. Authentic Relating empowers us to share our inner feelings, desires, values and needs with others and, equally important, to hear and accept the inner feelings, desires, values and needs of others. When practising Authentic Relating we get to be truly seen and heard for who we are, not who we think we should be. Relating in this way can create new levels of depth, aliveness and respect with ourselves and in our friendships and relationships.
Reveal your experience
One of the most powerful aspects of Authentic Relating is revealing our experience of being with another person and for the other person to share their experience of being with us. Revealing our internal experience of being with another may feel vulnerable. Challenging things may come up, but our deepest truths need to be honoured. Ultimately, revealing our experience and sharing our truth builds trust, deepens empathy and increases intimacy.
Authentic Relating UK’s mission is to create a cultural shift so that sharing the truth of who we are, in a way that honours ourselves and others, is respected, accepted and encouraged. So that people feel more connected to themselves, their communities and the Earth.