I am in a writing group that I love. I adore the teacher and have worked with her over a period of a few years. I admire her greatly. There are four other writers in the group that I enjoy working with very much. We meet via zoom, because we are spread from London to NJ to Seattle to LA and Hawaii. They are smart and great writers. The other day I read my piece. It was something I’d written about experiences in grade school and I was upset when I got done. People would make a comment and I’d respond to them by talking about other things that were also going on that weren’t in the writing. The teacher cut in and said, “Why don’t you try listening, you might learn something.” So here’s my model:

C- Linda said “Why don’t you try listening, you might learn something.”
T – I just got scolded because I must not ever listen
F – shame
A – tried to listen, had hard time concentrating on what anyone said, had circuit of negative thoughts on loop in my brain, didn’t write down what anyone said, lots of negative self thinking
R – still didn’t learn anything and feel embarrassed.

I get lost when I get to A/R. I feel like I don’t really know what those lines are for or how they help me? Thanks for your help!