Ep. 3 – TCI: Connecting to Self via Presence

Watch in ASL

Hi. Welcome to the connected interpreter podcast, where we will explore ways of staying connected to ourselves in our work, acknowledging the impact of our practices and continue to grow as practice professionals. I’m Amanda Smith, an interpreter, educator, coach and creative, and I’d love to discuss the puzzles of interpreting the complexities of human interaction and the power we have within ourselves to make a difference. So today’s episode is specifically about connecting with ourselves and both from a personal and a professional standpoint. And so as you go into listening to this, I want you to think about the following reflective prompts. So:

• what if anything is sparking your care for yourself, the work and others?
• Do you feel moved to take any action? And if so, what and when will you do it?
• What questions arise?
• What insights and connections do you see to yourself and your work? So those are the questions to keep in mind.
• I will answer a few of them at the end as well, and let’s go ahead and get started.

The Importance of Presence for Interpreters

So in the last episode, we talked about ourself as the tool or the instrument of what we do, and caring for that instrument in service of the work that we do, there’s also a need to care for our instrument, just because it’s our instrument, right? So just because it’s worth taking care of and it’s worth taking care of, so that we have other things outside of our work as well. And so this concept of presence, I think, applies to both of those things. We want to be present in our work, but we also want to be present when we’re not at work. We want to be able to be in the moment and be with the moment that is not hyper fixating on what work we have upcoming, or what work we just did, or any of those kinds of things, right? We want to be able to be present where we are. And so in the last episode, we did a centering practice where we paid attention to the cues coming from our body and checking in with our body and moving our attention around in an intentional way.

Connecting to Yourself Through Mindfulness Practices

So let’s do another version of that for today’s episode. So I want you to take a moment, take a couple of deep breaths all the way to your belly. Find your feet or your sit bones, be where you are you and try to locate the care that you have for the work. So you’re listening to a podcast on interpreting, there must be something there. So try to connect with the care that you have that leads you to listening to this episode.

And where does that care? Live in your body. Is it in your belly? Sit in your heart. Is it in your head? Is it somewhere else, and does that care have any shape, texture, temperature to it, when you think about your care for yourself. Where does that live? What does that look like? Does it have a temperature, shape, texture? Is it tense, protective? Is it open and inviting? Again, no right or wrong answers here, even if the answer was like, I don’t even know what you’re talking about or what do you mean, my care. Even if those were your answers, that’s totally fine. It was more a practice of or an exercise in attention, and where you put your attention and and using your power to attend to particular things.

So when I asked you to find your feet or your sit bones, your attention likely went there. When I asked you about care, your attention likely went there, even if it was to the intellectual activity of like, what does that mean, right? So I want you to remember that you have the power over your attention.

You also don’t have any power over some of the sensations and signals that our bodies give and receive in the process of communication and in the process of human interaction.

So there are things we can control. There are things we do have power over, and then there are things that our body just does it. Just does those things, and it the way our bodies individually process that information is dependent upon our life experiences, the choices that we’ve made, the experiences that we’ve had the habits we’ve developed. Our brain is always, always, always, always, always interested in preserving energy. Conserving energy is probably the better way to say that it does not like to expend energy. It’s going to take all the shortcuts. So if, in fact, interpreting was just taking a word and changing it into another word, our brain would love that, because that is so much easier than what we actually do, which is trying to take a human and hear their words, but also the way that they inflect them, and the ways that they are looking body language wise their face, all of those things right. And we’re trying to take all of that and capture it in a way that we can then portray it in another language, in another culture, in another way of being right. So it’s important for us to take a moment to slow down every once in a while, because oftentimes, oftentimes, the shortcuts that our brains make are beautiful and lovely and just ideal. And other times, the shortcuts that our brain makes ends up leading us in a direction of fear or anxiety or tension, as opposed to what it is that we’re actually seeing and or looking at.

Cultivating an Open Aperture: Seeing the Whole Picture

So when we are present in our work, and when we are present to ourselves, meaning that we’re choosing this moment, and we’re choosing to stay in this moment and respond to what’s happening in this moment, and to stay with our bodies whatever kind of experiences or cues or signals it’s having. We have more tools at our disposal, so if you think of like a camera lens. And I know, like almost nothing about cameras, but I think this is going to be accurate, so you feel free to correct me if it’s totally wrong. But there, there’s this idea of, like, if you think of a macro lens versus a no, that’s probably not going to be right. Okay, here’s my point. My point is you can, you can zoom that camera lens in really, really close right, where you’re only seeing the petals on the flower, right, or you can be zoomed way out, even to, like panoramic, where you see a field of flowers, right? We want to be able to see the field of flowers because all of that data, all of that information, all of those cues, are how we make sense of what’s happening around us when we are not as present, when we are activated by tension and anxiety and second guessing we are. The word I keep wanting to use is aperture, and I’m not sure if that’s the right camera word, but our aperture is closed. We are. We can only see very little bitty things, right? So oftentimes, if I go back to the idea of like, kind of where this came from, in the in the classroom. Oftentimes, when we are new sign language learners, we look at the hands for the words the meaning. However, as you get more seasoned and it and or if you are a native user of sign language, you look at the face, eyeballs, nose, maybe the mouth, but it’s like the middle of the face. And looking at the middle of the face allows you to see all of it, but if you only look at the hands, you only see the hands, and the hands are not where most of the information resides. So I know that might not sound like being connected to yourself, but when we’re connected to ourselves, when we are rooted in our instrument, when we are when we have our tools and we’re leveraging them to the best of our abilities, we can see more, and the more we see, the more sense it makes we want to be looking At the whole in order to make meaning. So how do we keep our aperture open as interpreters?

Managing Anxiety and Staying Grounded as a Practitioner

Well, one of them is the centering practice we did last time. One of them is this, finding my care.

Another one is breath work, so breathing in particular patterns or focusing on taking a breath all the way to your belly. There are also different counts you can do, like a box, breathing is four counts in, four counts hold four counts out, four count, four counts. Hold your breath essentially, or don’t breathe in, leave it out. What if. So for in, for hold, for out, for hold, and repeat that cycle, which gets your it eases anxiety, it lowers your your heart rate, essentially, so that you’re you are calmer after that, you can also do things like centering around the five senses. So what can I see, what can I hear? What can I taste? What can I touch? What can I see here, smell and get in the moment, in the room, in the place. So something very tangible and concrete for your body to say, I see the plant, I smell the chalk, I hear the fan, i right. So then you’re you, you have gotten into this moment where you’re having to name those items. It’s also important when we’re connecting with ourselves and being present in the moment, is to remember that it’s not I’m not doing this because it’s about me. I’m doing this because I am a better practitioner. When I am present to myself, I will also say that, and I will put some resources in the show notes if you’re interested. And I’m also happy to talk about this more. But one of the in the somatic class that I took, one of the trainers, talks about presence based coaching, and this idea of being present. So when we are present, when when I know where I am. I found my feet. I know where my sit bones are. I can hear the fan, I can smell the chalk, I can see the plant. I then am aware of my surroundings and able to make a choice. When I’m just in reaction mode, I’m not able to make a choice. I’m just reacting habitually, and usually, I don’t know about usually that’s not fair, but often not in alignment with what’s happening around me.

I’m just reacting because I’m just on the fight, flight freeze. I’ve activated my sympathetic nervous system, and I’m just going right. So what we want to do is get into our parasympathetic nervous system, where we are grounded and stable and able to make choices about what it is that we’re doing. So again, connecting to self as interpreter is not because the interpreter is the most important person in the room. It’s because when I’m not connected to myself, I am not a good practitioner. It’s not that I’m more important or less important than anyone else there. It’s that my tool and my instrument require me to be connected in order to do my best work.

Questions and Insights on the Journey of Self-Awareness

So I think I’ll leave it there for this particular episode, and I want you to just think on that, let it percolate, let it settle. And I’m hoping something sparked your care. I hope that experience was intriguing to you, at least again, no right, wrong answers. They are just noticing. I’m curious if you were feel, if you felt moved to action, if there were questions that arose for you, what insights and connections that you’re making. I would love to hear about your insights ahas and questions. So feel free to reach out to me at arsmithstudios@gmail.com and you can also sign up for my very intermittent newsletter at arsmithstudios.com and click the newsletter button in the upper right hand corner.

Amanda’s Musings on this Episode

So let me answer. Let me answer. Moved? Do I feel moved to action? And if so, what and when and then what questions arise. So I’m an external processor, which you may or may not know about me or have noticed from these podcasts, and I’m finding clarity by talking these things through. And so I think I moved to continue recording and continue getting clarity, even if I end up re recording some of these because of the clarity I’ve gained as we go, I’m also probably going to keep all of the episodes, in case people are interested in the process behind the scenes. This is not something that I have completely figured out. It’s something that I have been ruminating about and thinking about and talking about with my pre service interpreting students. So I am moved to continue recording. So I’m probably going to record at least one more episode today, and then probably a couple tomorrow as well. The questions that arise are similar to the ones from two episodes ago, which are like, is this worth exploring out loud? Is this something that is going to add to the knowledge base and or practices of interpreters? I. And is it useful? I think is my main kind of question right now, and I don’t think I’ll know that until I’ve recorded more. I don’t think I’ll know that until I’ve shared more. I don’t think I’ll know that until I start to see the themes and threads that emerge as I continue percolating out loud.

So those are my answers to two of the questions, and I’m super curious to hear yours.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai