Speakers: Kim. Kim
Describe your week at Premier Training in 1 word
Kim: I would say Joy
What would you tell someone considering Premier Training?
Kim: I guess I would encourage them to take some time to listen to Jesus on it, of course. But also just to think about the investment, which it is a significant investment of time and energy and finances, but to think about the relative value of growing your ability to relate well and handle situations in a healthy way, a Godly way even, with your family, with your work or your ministry, how it's gonna impact successive generations and just kind of like that cost-benefit analysis, it seems like you know, what could be more impactful? Is how I view it.
What is your favorite skill to practice?
Kim: I think my favorite skill is appreciation, 'Creating Appreciation'. It's been so helpful for me personally because I didn't naturally do that. And in our family we've used it so many ways between me and my husband, but in our extended family and in our nuclear family, to get our relational circuits back on and to connect with the Lord and grow our own joy and capacity. So what do you love about thrive like
What do you love about Premier Training?
Kim: I especially love you know, being with the people, like it's a whole different way of being with people where you're all focused on joy, but also on the need that we have for quiet and being tender with one another's weaknesses. I love the dancing part personally, I love that and the the exercises can be really challenging to, you know, to actually do them to relate with people, but it feels like a lot of growth and like it's really helping me and important for me. So it feels like a blessing.
Handling a stressful situation using relational skills
Kim: So the stressful situation for me was, my mother has Alzheimer's dementia. And so really, it's been kind of an ongoing stressful situation over the last three years. It's like had its ups and downs but generally getting worse. And I've just been so thankful for the Thrive skills because I feel like it gives me a chance to practice so many things with her and so many tools that I have that I wouldn't have had otherwise and I wouldn't have known how to handle situations. So some of them are just as simple as like bringing joy into her life, remembering to, to smile and bring joy, which wasn't necessarily something we always did. So that's been really a blessing. A lot of Quieting, bringing quiet into her life when she gets agitated or upset. There's been so many big emotions that have come up for her and just knowing kind of how to respond to those in a healthy way, how to help bring her back into a peaceful state and myself at the same time has been such a blessing. And so I wanted to give like one special example was recently, she's been very agitated and anxious. And one day in particular when I was there with her visiting her, she was just, you know, you could just see she was keyed up, her face was just full of fear and anxiety and she, she didn't know why and, but she, she just couldn't calm down and everything everyone was trying to do, and like my first instinct is like, "There's nothing to be afraid of, we're here", you know, kind of dismissing the feeling she was having and trying to like distract her or you know, encourage her with things or tell her funny stories or, you know, things like that, that not that they're bad things, but it just that skill of intervening where the brain is stuck. I could really see that these things aren't helping. I think I know what she needs. And so I took her into her own room and said, "You know, mom, I, this is really hard, isn't it? You're, you're really feeling scared and anxious and I'm just glad to be with you. I just want to be here with you in this hard thing." And I put on some soft music and kind of opened the shades so the sunshine could come in and just held her hand and she was, I could tell she just so appreciated that I was just with her in it and I could see the tension, you know, gradually drop out of her body and mine too and her breaths, you know, get larger. And after a while she could kind of talk in coherent sentences, whereas before it was just kind of garbled up and she just became peaceful and we just enjoyed that time together and it's been such a blessing. I'm so grateful for these skills.
Pick one area of your life that has benefited because of relational skills
Kim: It's hard to pick one area. But I guess to piggyback on you know, the story about being with my mom to, to handle challenging relational situations. even you know, the emotions and stuff that she was dealing with with her condition it just, it gave me so many more tools and, the ability to take care of both myself and help her come back to peace. And to enjoy, to even experience healing and growth through a hard time because of these skills.
