YOUnique from another point of view

YOUnique from another point of view

“Younique” – Diving into a new realityFrom the 05.09. – 14.09.2019, I and 23 other people from eight countries took part in an Erasmus+ trainings course called “Younique”. As the title of the training already tells, it was all about how to find your own uniqueness and how to help others finding theirs. The great thing with Erasmus+ is that everything you do is interactive – it´s based on non-formal-learning and for me it´s just so much more rewarding being part of a non-formal-learning environment than being cramped into a formal-learning system.

About the training: The hard part with writing this article is that no matter how well I choose my words it can just give you a glimpse of what may have happened. Everything I tell you runs through my own filters of reality and is just my understanding of this experience. Therefore, I choose not to give you an overview of the training, but I´d like to share some key moments with you, that made this training special to me.

The first moment I would like to share with you is when we were all facing our fears. This exercise

was probably one of the most intense in this trainings course. It lets you have so many emotions and thoughts running through you. The aim was to find a fear we had inside of us, giving it a name and finally facing it. This was executed in four steps. Step 1 was a short guided mediation with music. Than we were writing our fear down on a piece of paper. In step 2 we were all one by one walking a path in the woods. Along the path, we found different pictures attached to the trees. These pictures should help us to reflect upon our fear(s). It took me one hour to walk the whole way, even if it was just around 20 pictures. It was just me, the trees, these pictures and my own picture of my fear in my head. When I came back, we had to draw our fear on a piece of paper in step number 3. Music was playing, people were drawing – everyone was in his/her own world. You could see pure emotions and it was okay to show them, because we created a room, where it was possible to show ones vulnerable sides. Step number 4 was the hardest. We went outside on a grass field. There we divided in groups of four to five people. The task was to face our fears. Four of the group were turning their backs to the fifth person. Now the fifth person said: “I am ready to embrace my fear of….” – while facing the others backs. The tricky part was, that the four people who turned their backs to the fifth person did not turn around, until they would believe what they were hearing. Imagine the feeling of standing behind four people you barely know with the task of opening up to them, showing them your vulnerable side and telling them about your fear and that you embrace that fear. All these emotions and thoughts rushing through your head and body. “Why should I do that?” “Who are these people I am opening up to?” But even, if you don´t know them very well you still feel connected to them, you feel safe to let go and you feel that they will take care, of what you show them and tell them. When all four people turned around they would open a hole between them and the fifth person could go through that hole – entering his/her new world/reality where he/she would be set free from this fear to the very extend he/she could allow himself/herself to be set free. It was all about us. It is about you and how much you dare to be vulnerable, how much you dare to show yourself and how much you dare keeping this new reality alive and not letting it fading away, when coming back to “the real world”. 

I wanted to share more moments with you and I could go on for pages, but I won´t do that. I hope that

you got a glimpse of what may have happened in this trainings course and I am glad if it helps you in some way. I don´t want to tell you, that you have to attain such a training, because of whatever reason – even if it is awesome. Just always, think about what feels right for you and keep in mind to dare…. Dare to be you, dare to be vulnerable, dare to step out of your comfort zone and dare to show your true self. For me the Erasmus+ TC was perfect for that. What can YOU do in order to find your own uniqueness?

Yours,
Luca Mark