• Connecting with our feelings, acknowledging our limits
• Understanding the meanings of a “YES” and a “NO”, the needs they answer to and their consequences on our relationship with other.
• Learning to say “No” and to welcome a refusal to a demand

Duration : 1 hour 30 minutes Important: The following exercises are thus designed for a group of 9.

Divide the participants in 3 groups of 3. Ask each group to line up as below:

Ask the person in the middle to close his/her eyes and connect to his/her body and feelings. Invite then the 2 others to come closer to him/her, being as quiet as possible.

When the person with the closed eyes in the middle “feels” the others (sensorial feeling), he/her has to say “STOP”. He/she should not open his/her eyes yet, but the others have to pay attention to where they stand, to be able to analyze what happened afterwards.

The game goes on: the 2 challengers keep moving slowly, and come closer to the person in the middle. When he/she feels the others are entering his/her “bubble” (=private area), he/she says “STOP” again. He/she can then open his/her eyes and see where the others stand.

This process might take 3 4 minutes. Repeat it 3 times, so that each participants con experience being in the middle with the eyes closed.

Take then 5 minutes to debrief: What did we notice? Are we surprised with our feelings? the results we obtained ? Why and to which extend?

Gather participants by pair. For 4 minutes, each of them may answer to the 4 following questions (1 minute/question):
- “I like to say YES because…”
- “I like to say NO because…”
- “I’m afraid to say YES because…”
- “I’m afraid to say NO because…”
Switch roles and do the exercise again with the second person.

Take then 5 minutes to debrief: How do they feel? Are they surprised with what came up? Did they ever ask them those questions? What emerged that they will remember?