Through our efforts to come together, reflect about and share our intercultural journeys, the members of the Global Intercultural Circle (GIC) have been engaged in a consciousness raising process.    As members accept the invitation to join a Global Intercultural circle, we are accepting to become more aware, more conscious of what it means to be on an intercultural journey.  We are agreeing to practice the global intercultural mindset and actions articulated in the GIC mission.   As members participate regularly in monthly sessions with others who are also working to elevate their awareness of what it means to be on an intercultural journey, we process together our experiences, questions, challenges and discoveries.  Through this active processing, we enhance our awareness and recharge so that we plunge again into global intercultural interchange.  When we hold our annual retreats, we deepen our connections,  develop our cultural knowledge, refine our intercultural skills, push our personal comfort zone and renew our resolve.  We are slowly building new intercultural habits for ourselves and constructing new intercultural bridges for others.  We have intentionally drawn from diverse sources and experimented with different techniques to further stimulate growth and discovery.  We have experienced together how each of us takes in, processes and expresses information in different ways; we have been exploring these diverse ways of knowing and making meaning.   

For those who use the written word to make meaning of  life experiences, reflective writing can be a powerful tool for fostering intercultural mindfulness.   A simple prompt such as–  “What are your earliest memories of engaging with another person who was notably different from you?” —  can bring back to mind experiences and offer the opportunity to unpack how these interactions shaped who we are, how we see ourselves and how we see others.   (Click here for an example)

For those who read to enhance our life experiences, reading memoirs, travel narratives or historical novels offers vehicles for fostering intercultural mindfulness.   As we absorb the words and enter into narratives different than our own, we have the opportunity to step into another’s perspective and to experience their engagement. We can imagine for a spell how their life experiences have shaped them, how they see themselves and how they see others — including ourselves. This perspective taking can inform our efforts to interact with people who are from the cultures depicted in these works.  It’s important not to assume, of course, that the individuals with whom we engage are going to have the same life experiences as those depicted in the written piece. It’s also important to be aware that the authors of these texts bring their own cultural lens to the writing of these texts.  Nonetheless, these texts can begin the process of shifting us out of our own cultural perspective and open us to another point of view.  (Click here for an example)

For those who listen to stories to deepen our life experiences, hearing another person talk about an intercultural interaction or read an extract from a carefully crafted intercultural narrative offers yet another unique opportunity. Through actively listening, we can step into their story, to be present with the emotions raised up into their bosom through their reading, and to be changed through the experience. 

For those who teach, counsel, mentor or parent, guiding others through their own process of discovery and being open to wherever this process may go, opens up new pathways for our own global intercultural learning.