Socialising in a new place can be exiting ... but very often it is also scary. Yes basically just that. Scary. While for the Easter holiday I nicely avoided this fear instilling part & visited friends, the past week I could avoid it no longer & had a super big mingling planned. I don´t know what got me into this but I agreed to join my new roomy Anna to go away with 160 strangers for four days. Very often right before these crazy things (honestly how do they come up all the time?!) I doubt my ability to make any good decisions and want to run off. Welcome to my head.
Here is a list of things I took away from my four days with Soul Devotion.
1) Accept an invitation. This sounds basic but it helps to get out of the living room & meet new people face to face. Put yourself out there. Just so we all start at the very beginning. ;)
Anna invited me and then I searched for other friends who might had joined the trip already. Making a small start.
2) Forget the worries. As I walked with the girls to the first meet up I laughed so much on the way that I totally forgot to be scared of a room full of strangers (Thank you Lisanne). When we opened the door I was totally overwhelmed by all the faces, but I was not so scared by being scared... get it?
3) Go for the crowd. After the first two days in my small shell, checking out the crowd & being still a bit shy I decided to leave the safe field (the five lovely ladies I shared the house with) and go talk to a new person for every occasion I got, café table, lunch, hiking, prayer meeting. The whole thing.
This was the view I got up to every wonderful new day :D
This was the view I got up to every wonderful new day :D
4) Going for a hike will not help. I let myself be talked into hiking... how on earth, haha. Yes, this little retreat was close to the alps and you know, full of mountains. For the better talk of the hike up this pretty 1036meter high beauty I was busy enough focusing on each of the steep steps and catching my breath, let alone mingle with new persons. My face was painted deep red for fours hours straight.
5) Go a little crazy on the social media connecting. I said a little ;) From my very biased and subjective statistics I might have met a little under a third of the group and talked a little beyond hello and where are you from? with a fourth of the crowd. I would never be able to learn, let alone remember all those wonderful new names without the help of pictures and social media. So I did what my good indian friend would have done & went to all and asked for their contact.
So far for the insight into my first full week here in Stuttgart. I went on a mini vacation and found a most gorgeous place in the south of Germany. A place not only outdoors but also indoors with a bunch of great new people.
The mountain we spoke of
Finally on top
And then the hiking day turned into a lake day.
Oh, those two are tons of joy!
Do you remember them from their engagement shoot?
The evening view from our house
My final tip for mingling; you don´t have to got for it four full days full time, a dinner or cup of tea will do as well ;)
Have a wonderful new spring week friends!
Tanti Saluti.
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