How are you feeling, really?
BAD COMPANY EST.2017
What is a shared office if you can't share your feelings? We often ask, “How are you?” expecting a fine, well, good thanks in return. Answering with an actual feeling can feel a bit vulnerable. Naming the emotion doesn't give it more power; it empowers us to understand it and find more meaning.
“What rock represents how you’re feeling?” is the question I got asked the other day. We were sitting outside, having lunch on the picnic table where a pile of rocks also resided. These aren't just any rocks; these rocks were hand-painted by the 2023 Wednesday night Te Reo class during a paint-and-sip at Bad Company a few weeks ago.
“What rock represents how you’re feeling?”
Interesting that Bad Company Hawkes Bay now has ‘feeling rocks’. For a while at Bad Company Wānaka, they had a mood ring. Think, 90’s mood ring but where generic feelings had been replaced with words that would only be found in the Urban Dictionary and not fit for the queen. Picture this: someone slides over to you, asking you how you’re feeling and slips you a ring - like a proposal of feelings. Horny, hangry or c*nty, it didn’t matter. It was a way one of the Bad Company team was checking in.
Our painted rocks look like a 4-year-old painted them. Some are a single colour, one 3D with paint dots, and many are multi-coloured. The blue multi-coloured rocks people often talk about feeling calm, peaceful, and content with. People who pick up the red and yellow rock talk of passion, anger and motivation. The 3D rock is the most varied. Some people say they are feeling prickly, others say it’s because of how tactile it is; it calming. Seeing the rock and hearing the explanation gives a sense of understanding to one's description of their experience.
The rock and ring could bring some humour as a shield against feeling vulnerable when someone asks, “How are you?”. Next time you get asked, I challenge you to answer truthfully for yourself, it helps to talk about it, and you never know what solutions might come up for you in the process. So how are you, really?
Written by: Belinda Williams
Mates for Life
…if you’re finding it hard to work though your feelings or know someone who is, reach out the the team at Mates For Life, who are doing life-supporting work in workplaces around Hawke’s Bay.