28/01/2026
Yesterday I listened to someone describe how they experienced an interaction.
They felt confused. Upset. Spoken down to. Dismissed. Disrespected. The moment stayed with them long after it ended.
Later, I read the response from the perspective of the person they’d interacted with.
“It wasn’t meant like that, I wasn’t angry at them.”
And it struck me — this is one of the most important lessons we teach our students.
Because intention and impact are not the same thing.
Imagine this -
A teacher walks into a room full of adult learners.
Earlier that day they had a difficult conversation with their line manager. They felt criticised. Misunderstood. Defensive. They’ve been replaying it over in their mind for hours.
Their body hasn’t reset.
They enter the classroom with tight shoulders, clipped tone and narrowed attention — a nervous system quietly preparing to defend.
To the teacher, it feels justified. Protective. Necessary.
To the unsuspecting class, it lands very differently.
It looks like:
Sharp comments that feel personal.
Impatience with ordinary questions.
Dismissive body language.
A controlling tone.
Passive-aggressive remarks.
An atmosphere that suddenly feels unsafe.
The students don’t meet the teacher.
They meet the state the teacher brought into the room.
And to be clear — this isn’t about teachers.
It’s about humans.
All of us carry nervous systems shaped by stress, pressure, lived experience and unresolved emotion. When we are unconscious of that, we don’t meet the present moment clearly. We meet it through activation.
And there’s another layer to this.
When we get stuck in survival mode, the nervous system is constantly responding to perceived threat — even when no real danger is present. Over time, this ongoing state of activation places strain on the body, disrupts regulation systems and weakens immune functioning.
This isn’t just emotional.
It’s physiological.
This isn’t about blame.
It’s about awareness.
This is why we teach conscious practice at A Positive Start CIC.
You cannot work safely with people if you cannot tell the difference between:
What is happening inside you
and
What is happening in front of you.
Professional practice isn’t about suppressing emotion.
It’s about noticing it.
Pausing.
Regulating.
Separating yesterday’s emotional charge from today’s interaction.
Choosing response over reaction.
Because people don’t need our armour.
They need our presence.
That is conscious practice.
That is A Positive Start.
