exercise · all tools
The Noticing Game
Two people take turns completing the sentences "Being with you, I notice…" (or "Hearing that, I notice…"), naming present-moment sensations, feelings, and impulses as they arise in contact. A core authentic-relating game that trains staying in live connection instead of narrating about it.
Prerequisites
- Framing that all noticing is welcome and none of it is a demand on the partner
- Genuine opt-out available; eye contact intensity self-regulated
- Sustained relational attention can be unexpectedly intense for newcomers; normalize stepping back
- Do not run as an icebreaker with unprepared workplace groups — it reads as intimacy on demand
Practical
- Time
- 5-30 min + 5 landing
- Group
- 2–∞ · pairs, small-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- None
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, open-awareness, somatic-awareness
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Instructions
- Where
- authrev.org/ar-games-manual — Authentic Relating Games Manual, paid
- Availability
- In the source document — the instructions live inside the material linked, on its terms
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0 (Authentic Relating Games Manual)
Source link checked 31 Aug 2026 — unchanged since we recorded it on 29 Aug 2026
This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.
Origin
Brought into the Authentic communities by Guy Sengstock or Decker Cunov (the manual names both); variations by Mike Blas, Chad Phillips and Zachary Robison; codified by Sara Ness / Authentic Revolution — Authentic Relating (roots in Circling and humanistic group practice)
In this directory via Authentic Relating Games Manual
Related: Circling (prepares-for)
The manual calls this "the granddaddy of them all". Variations it lists: Bodily Sensations, Feelings, Feelings-Because, Thoughts, Things About the Other, Notice and Imagine, Notice-Imagine-Feel-Desire, Curious Noticing, Connection Appreciation (in threes or fours, with witnesses), Group Noticing, and Gossip Noticing. A precise example of depth 3 with modest logistics: nothing to prepare, everything in the quality of attention.
status: checked · added 2026-08-25