Nargis is partaking in the four weeks Philia Women’s Empowerment Course. Learn more about her experience in her blog posts:
The first Philia Session took place at the AUAF and about 20 students joined. At first, we were told the Fairy Tale of “Philia the Warrior Princess”! Through this tale, different traits of characters and patterns of interaction were explained.
Here is a very brief summary: In the tale, there was a person called Hero who despite having everything in life was insecure and stressed out. He had three friends with whom he would share his struggles. The first friend was named Fairy. She was always available when Hero was asking for help and devoted all of her time to him. The second friend was called Drama Queen. Unlike Fairy, she did not care about his life challenges but in a selfish way wanted him to only care for her needs. And then there was Philia. She had a balanced relationship to Hero and towards herself at the same time. This is exactly why she turned out to be his inspiration. She was courageous and cared about her own life as well as helping others.
We were asked whether we recognised the traits of the three characters inside of us by filling out a worksheet. When we wrote down the specific traits of Fairy, Drama Queen and Philia the amazing part was also that we started to recognise their characteristics in different people we know! For example, there are some people we know who give up their whole lives for others. Then again there are also those, who only want to grab attention for themselves. It leaves us with the question: Who do we want to be? What relationships do we want to nurture? Who do we want in our lives? How do we relate to others?
For me personally, I recognised, that although I do not rely on others as well there are moments in my life, where I give an extra amount of my time to people who later never care about it. Also, I learned that too many expectations on either side can hurt. So, it is always best to be Philia, who keeps a balance in relationships.
Thank you, Nargis for your update on Week One!
If you are as excited as we are about Nargis as the new add-on to the Philia Family and are interested in learning more about Philia yourself, then sign up!
