Pedagogical warning

The experiments presented on this site are not for mass consumption – this is one of the reasons why we do not “scale up” this initiative.  People’s histories, investments, attachments, and conscious and unconscious fantasies and desires affect what they expect from their learning experiences. Where they are at in relation to their traumas, fears and insecurities, and what is going on around them, also have a major influence on their capacity to dive into processes that may be difficult and uncomfortable at points.

As an introductory movement, we use the Broccoli Seed Agreement to invite people to become familiar and comfortable with the discomforts and difficulties of moving from their comfort zones to their stretch zones in order to build intellectual and affective stamina and “negative capability” (the capacity to hold space without feeling irritated, defensive or overwhelmed by uncertainty, complexity, difficulty, failure and disillusionment). We use The Haruko Accord to invite people who are already familiar with the stretch zone to “dig deeper and relate wider” in that space.

However, sometimes people move from their stretch zones into their panic zones without warning and they need some individual support to come back to the stretch zone. Therefore, we choose not to make publicly available the resources that we feel have a greater potential to push people into panic zones. On the other hand, different people get to that challenging space with different stimulus – even this text could create the conditions for that to happen, depending on what a person or group of people are going through.  In our experience, in some contexts, the exercises proposed by GTDF may be extremely helpful in moments of personal or collective crises, in other contexts, the same exercises can push some people into spaces where they might need personalized guidance to process what is happening.

We recommend discernment if you are thinking about using the materials on this site.  If you feel you need support to decide whether or not this practice is for you or guidance on how to process an experience with one of the resources, we can refer you to a trained psychologist who is part of our collective. Just email us at: gtdfcollective (at) gmail.com.