Open Out
Getting to the nitty gritty of living inter-culturally. Exploring new pathways for intentionally opening our faith communities (and ourselves) to folk who not only look and sound different but also think and act in ways we might not expect. A safe space where we can both accept our chronic clumsiness and overcome our unavoidable fears as our brains and hearts encounter the unexpected. The podcasts provide a practical, hands-on approach to helping people who want to open themselves to form new relationships with folk with a different cultural or racial background - in faith communities, or any other kind of community. Research was funded by the United Church Foundation.
Open Out
Committed 4: How many kisses are necessary? How differences affect us (Part 2)
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Bill Millar
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Episode 11
Have you noticed? Even greeting each other can be tricky... should we bow [who first?], shake hands, kiss [one cheek or two? How many times?] Often the things we stumble over in our cross-cultural relationships aren't the big things - but the myriad little things. We are expecting one thing to happen, and something altogether different happens - this is hard for our brains. They can start to pull back, or collect resentments over this expectations that are not met.
This episode explores a variety of cultural differences - and then offers a spiritual practice or mental tool called NAIL [Notice / Accept / Inquire / Learn] to help our brains relax and accept the unexpected.