I took a minute to attend a diversity training yesterday.  Our Diversity Team does such a great job of putting on these events that challenge our thinking.  I noticed that I have, though not intentionally, not taken enough time to reflect or pay as much attention to it as I needed.  It is amazing how easy it is to get comfortable in one way of thinking.  Here are some of my reflections:

Diversity is most often thought about in the area of what we can see:  I see the color of our skin, I see someone’s sexual preference in their mannerisms, I see others weight, I see them practicing their faith different, I see gender, I see beauty (physical symmetry).  I also see other actions, which I often interpret from the perspective of how it affects me.  No matter how much I want to be non-judgmental, I make quick judgments based on most of these things.  I miss what we cannot see.  I get distracted by physical appearance, and I easily miss people at a soul level.   

 Someone else reflected on the book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.  This sounded to me a lot like using our intuition.  Intuition is supposed to be without judgment and frequently I am not tuned in close enough and I misread fear as intuition.  Typically fear comes from what I see on the outside (skin color, disabilities, behaviors).  I also learned that I am not alone in my struggle to be more open to diversity. 

I was challenged by the Diversity Team Facilitator to make a change in some way.  Here is what I’ve decided to do.  I will work more intentionally to be able to see people more at a soul level, who they are in their heart.  I will work more intently to think about what the other person’s intent is versus how their actions affect me.  I will work to be less defensive and hone my intuition.  I will remind myself that being open to diversity is not a destination but a never-ending journey.  I will use these diversity opportunities not to support my views but to constantly challenge them.

So much of our attention goes into looking at deficits.  We look at others deficits to justify and to get health insurance coverage for mental health services.  Therapists are forced to diagnose and label the problems and not the strengths.  Many individuals put others down so that they can feel better about themselves.  I also must admit if one of my children came home with a D or F and all the rest of the grades were As and Bs, the D or F would get all my attention and effort.  Just think of the expression “A team is only as good as its weakest link.”  What about rephrasing to, we are only as good as our strongest link?  Is the problem that we are focusing a deficit? Do we try to improve areas that take the most work? or  Using our assets and improving our strength areas allows us to excel further than having to do and be good at everything.  Recently I have been reading Your Child’s Strengths by Jennifer Fox (I would recommend it).  I took a few moments to focus on my own, my staff, and clients as well.

Strengths come from different areas, Gardner theorized about 8 basic intelligences. 

1. Linguistic-VERBAL (Spoken and written words)
2. Logical-MATHEMATICAL (Reasoning and problem solving)
3. VISUAL-Spatial (Seeing and imagining)
4. BODILY-Kinesthetic (Body, movement)
5. MUSICAL-Rhythmic (Sound and patterning)
6. INTERPERSONAL (Interaction with others)
7. INTRAPERSONAL (Feelings, values, attitudes)
8. NATURALIST (Classifications, categories, and hierarchies)

I also found a good website to see where your strengths are: http://literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

I have done many mental health assessments over the years and I have focused on what the client says that they like to do.  I am starting to think about that differently.  Sometimes what they like to do might not be there strength but more importantly strengths are often found in what they are good at more than what they enjoy.  Considering that our expectations are the cause of most frustrations and typically we expect others to be like us, frequently a strength is observed by someone else without that strength as a distraction or a frustration.  Here is an example:  A teacher is frustrated by a student in school that is constantly moving (possibly with ADHD or just a kinesthetic learner) she gets frustrated with his behavior in class and corrects him to stop moving.  If she were to engage his learning by having him moving or try to focus him on moving that is not as disruptive she may be meeting his learning style better while decreasing the distraction.  Additionally, think about how many of us have some musical strength and that helps our learning style.  When I am looking for something that is alphabetized I still sing the ABCs in my head.  If I could use a song to remember what I am supposed to do (mnemonics), it would help my memory. If you struggle with emotions frequently they talk about having a mantra for your meditation.  That mantra is a way for you to remember something and is frequently put to some kind of rhythm. 

 Just a reminder to put energy into what you are good at, which in itself can improve your mental health.