面對不斷持續的Covid19疫情，至今已經超過四個月，對我們的生活、家庭、工作造成很大的影響。今日看回早前教書的一件事，讓我回憶吸附 vs 觀察的概念。簡單講，吸附就是我們被某件不開心的事情帶領，就如浮沙一樣，一直轉下去，泥足深陷，不能自拔。但觀察，是同一件事，你單純地觀察，懂得用第三者的角度去理解，懂得適時抽離，不致被事情的負能量拖誇其他生活。以下是原文英文分享。
Last night, I was invited to deliver a talk at an adult college. It is always my pleasure to ignite their potentials to study again. In fact, It turned out to be a nightmare to me that I ‘ve never thought about.
To cut a long story short, the topic I shared was about stress management and I have spent more than 3 hours to review and refine on this topic before commencing the lesson. Meanwhile, due to the Grand Prix rehearsal yesterday, I stayed at a public park for reviewing my PPT and idea to make sure everything was in place. The participants are F5 level, so it means that I could penetrate the message deeper.
However, what I expected was totally wrong when I arrived at the classroom. Most of the students looked like mummies and felt exhausted. Therefore, I tried to warm them up but they didn’t really participate much. The mic system was obsolete and the speed of the computer was slow. I had to speak up in front of them. Even I rearranged my teaching skeleton and played more interesting videos, they were still not in a good mood or still in a very passive mode. Ironically, the videos I used in the classes were effective when they were used as a tool from the outside, but they responded nothing, no laughter but kept yawning! Their brains seemed to be clogged. This was literally the worst class that I have ever had. Finally, I struggled with this situation a lot. This 2-hour was more likely elongated by these toxic people and the environment. It was torture for both parties. I kept pondering about….
What struck me most is how I could do this better?
And what the hell is wrong with them?
This toxic atmosphere I “absorbed” during my delivery as I had tried to stir their energy around, but they seemed to get used to being there for ages. What does the word – “absorb” mean here? We sometimes are affected by this negative energy and tapped into it without notice because of our mind is “emotional engaged”. However, on the flip side, I should deliberately turn away the teaching plan in the beginning. And the first and foremost, I should invite them to say their expectation of this topic, so I could anticipate their situation.
What I’m saying is the “observe” mode for handling this situation. Then, I could have a better understanding when I step out of the crowd. As a result, the clear observation can be built and the creativity or any versatile method can be thought of if I could step out from the negative situation in the very beginning.
Finally, even though I had prepared some notes at the end, I didn’t force them to take one. Luckily, there was ever one student came over and took my note and he is an English speaker but is born in Macau. He was intrigued by my sharing so he would like to find someone to translate all my material for his further learning. I honour him a lot as we shared more than 30 minutes after the class ended.
When I got home from work, I was worn out and all I wanted was to lie on my bed immediately. Observing is one of the key skills which I should master well.
