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
- 10-20 min + 5 landing
- Group
- 2–30 · pairs, small-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- None
- Mechanisms
- dialogic-encounter, open-awareness, somatic-awareness
- Change scope
- state → skill · repeatable
Origin & where it lives
Authentic relating community; codified by Sara Ness / Authentic Revolution — Authentic Relating (roots in Circling and humanistic group practice)
Instructions: in source
In this directory via Authentic Relating Games Manual
Current manual edition is paid; an older version 7 circulates under CC BY-SA. A precise example of depth 3 with modest logistics: nothing to prepare, everything in the quality of attention.
status: checked · added 2026-08-25