Party This Way Builder Wheel Birthday Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Acknowledging Someone Else's Feelings Isn't About You

I conduct quite a bit of training focused on how to have difficult conversations.  What do I mean by a difficult conversation?  It is anything that you find difficult to talk about.  It could be a discussion with your spouse about family issues, or a conversation with a co-worker about workload, or a much needed conversation with a friend about something that has upset you.  Whatever the topic of the conversation, it is very likely that you feel strong emotions about it...and so do they.  If we aren't able to acknowledge these emotions it might be very difficult to move forward to address the problem.  When it comes to acknowledging emotions or empathizing with someone, we need to remember that it is not about us.  It doesn't matter if we are feeling the same feelings or even if we can't in a million years understand why they are feeling the way that they are.  What is important to recognize is that as human beings we have emotions and acknowledging those emotions can help us move forward.  Ignoring emotions can cause them to get in the way.  Acknowledging someone's feelings can be as simple as naming the feeling we hear them expressing to us.  For example, "It sounds like you are feeling overwhelmed by our finances right now."  When it comes to emotions I often hear people begin their statements with, "I understand."  I don't know about you, but when I hear someone say "I understand," my first reaction is to want to say, "there is no way you can understand - you aren't me!"  Remember, acknowledging their feelings isn't about you - it is about them and providing their feelings with the gift of being seen.  And don't forget, you need to take some time to acknowledge your own feelings, particularly if you want to be able to focus your attention on giving them the gift of recognizing their's.
Today's card was created with the Party This Way stamp set - one of the sets that is available for FREE during Sale-a-Bration if you place an order of $50 or more in Stampin' Up! product!  I stamped the candles in Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral and Island Indigo and cut them out.  I added some Dazzling Details to the candle flames for sparkle.  The bottom of the card was created by rolling the Candle Crazy builder wheel on a Calypso Coral ink pad and then rolling it across the bottom of the card (3 times).  I added the strip of In Color designer series paper from the Patterns Stack and finished the card by stamping the birthday greeting from Party This Way and punching it out with the Modern Label punch.  I hope you like it!