Welcome to the eight-week Zoom-course “I’m glad you interrupted.” Where we learn how to move from “being rude” or “overly polite” to “interrupt with care” for ourselves and others.
The course starts Sunday, January 25, 2026. We welcome twenty participants. We work on a “pay-it-forward-basis.” This means there is no fee for this course. Donations are optional and help future seasons possible. Thank you if you were one of the past donors who made this one possible 🙂
Looking forward to meeting you! Questions?
Signal/Whatsapp Yves: +91 81464 51059
What will the eight weeks look like?
There will be three pillars on our journey: A Sunday class, a daily practice, and inspiration.
Sunday Class
We gather for one hour and forty five minutes in our virtual studio on Zoom. We talk through the topic of the week, do exercises in pairs and celebrate our interruptions.
Daily Practice
After each class you take your notes home and during your morning routine you dedicate 2-10 minutes to practicing what you’ve learned.
Inspiration
During the week you receive videos, cartoons, poems and stories in your e-mail box for inspiration.
Who is the guide of this season?
This season has Mr. Interrupting himself as a guide. Laura Lee – who you might know from previous seasons – is taking a break from teaching on Zoom. Instead she wants to focus on creating an interrupting video-course and publishing The Daily Interrupter. She will be joining as a participant.
Click here to read more about Yves
Number of group facilitations: 10 years of 300+ classes with many ups and downs.
On a bad day: Cold-hearted and demanding towards people close to me, feeling despair about the state of the world. Teach to people who didn’t ask for it 🙁
Brings joy: Making music together, singing, badminton, finding gems, intimate conversations, seeing people grow, collaborating on projects that increase compassion, care and clarity in this world.
Learning edge in conversations:
Interrupting in groups from a lighthearted place.
Learning edge in life:
Taking enough rest to live and work in integrity. Show myself fully when I’m in a position of less structural power.
Financial support goes to : giving people money so I and my family can have a roof over our head, food on the table, bus tickets, small gifts for people in need and for my loved ones, and an occasional treat for myself. I’m moving more towards a world where money is not an obstacle to what we truly need and what we truly want to give. So I also accept support in more physical ways, if there’s something you have to give that you don’t need any longer.
Inspired by the work of: The women in my life, the Buddha, Miki Kashtan, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, the people I meet every day, Theravada Buddhist monks 🙂
One thing not a lot of people know about you: Almost everyday I find hate within myself.
“Now my interruptions are not only truly coming from the desire to connect with others profoundly, but also caring for myself and my own needs. The journey has only begun for me.“
A participant of Season 4, 5, 6 & 7.
What is the intention of this course?
To work well as a group we have a shared intention and a shared dedication.
This will be our shared intention:
“We treat ourselves and others with care, no matter what the other person does, says or thinks.“
This means we want to come from the place of the green people.
The shared dedication is to…
- Discover, accept, name, feel through and replace our habits that stand in the way of interrupting ourselves and others with care.
- Discover, accept, name, feel through and practice situations in which we would like to interrupt next time.
- Practice interruptions during the weekly class.
- Write our insights and sentences on a practice sheet.
- Practice at least 2 minutes every morning from the practice sheet out loud.
“Thank you so much for the class yesterday. I feel wiser and taller!“
A participant of Season 1,2,3,4 & 5.
Questions & answers #1
What time does Sunday’s class start?
We start at 10am New York Time, 4pm Amsterdam time and 830pm India time. Class takes one hour and forty five minutes. After class, the room stays open for people would like to continue the conversation. We call this “the campfire.”
What does a class look like?
Usually a class look like this:
We start with doing a couple of minutes of meditation and practice to remind ourselves why where here. We then look back on the week in breakout-rooms of three or four people.
After this, two or three people share what they discovered in the break-out rooms.
Then, one of the guides shares fifteen minutes of inspiration on the topic of this week. Two-three people share their reflection of the inspiration.
Then one student offers something lightweight to switch up the energy before we take a five minute break.
Then we go into breakout rooms to do a twenty minute exercise where you practice interrupting with a situation from your own life. If you are emotionally low on energy, you can also stay in the main room and do a twenty minute reflection on the people and the seesaw.
After the twenty minutes, we go back to our break-out room and give another person a chance to practice interrupting.
After you come back from the breakout room, we hear insights from two-three people.
We end class with this week’s interrupting challenge and a reflection question. And that’s what we start the next class with.
Oh…and after the official class is over, we have a campfire for the people who want to continue the conversation in a more casual way for half an hour or so.
What does a week look like?
After Sunday’s class you are usually feeling inspired and have a sense of belonging to a group of fellow interrupters. You take this energy into the next day with a couple of minutes practicing interrupting right after you wake up.
On Monday you get an email from us with our reflection of the class. In that email we also want to pick up the garbage: something that left you feeling unsatisfied during or after class. We invite you to send that to us to learn from and to help clear the tension.
Then on Tuesday you practice again by yourself before you check the messages on your phone and you can join a half hour meditation later in the day.
On Wednesday you receive an email with a story or video from us as inspiration. You also receive the recording of the meditation from Tuesday.
Wednesday mornings US time, we have office hours, so you can also drop by on Zoom if you’d like some urgent support.
Then on Thursday you practice for a couple of minutes again
On Friday you receive another email with some inspiration from us: a cartoon, written story, a video.
We ask you in that email to reflect on the week and send us an audio recording of one of your practices. This helps your integration and it helps us to stay connected, support you better and adjust Sunday’s class to the needs of the group.
On Saturday you receive an invitation for Sunday’s class, where we ask you to let us know if you’re not going to be there. This way, we stay in connection through physical separation.
On Sunday we have class again and get that sense of belonging and inspiration and growth again.
To support you to practice, you can join a Whatsapp group where people share an emoji, a picture, a video or an audio with their practice.
How much do I have to pay?
No money is required to join this class. These five things ARE required:
1. Feeling a deep YES to practicing care towards yourself and others, regardless of what happens.
2. Attending a minimum of 6 out of 8 Sunday classes.
3. Meeting the morning out-loud practice requirement. We don’t expect you to integrate the practice in your morning routine right away, but support you to do so gradually.
4. On Friday, send an audio message with one of your daily practices to the guide. This way the guide can see your growth throughout the weeks and can stay in connection with every person individually. If you want, they can give you suggestions for places where you get stuck or where you can find more relaxation and peace. They will delete the message right after listening.
5. At least two years experience with a daily, spiritual practice like yoga poses, breath meditation, journaling or prayer.
For every returning person that has been part of an earlier season, 2-3 newbies can join. This way we grow gradually and in integrity. We have a connection call with every person who signs up.
We sometimes allow people who don’t yet meet the fifth requirement to the course, after that connection call.
Where is this all going?
We are creating a light-weight interdependent support group of people who share the intention of stepping off and staying off the see-saw. People who support this intention with a daily, out-loud, interrupting practice. The intention of the course is to help you figure out if you want to join this group and support you in developing or maintaining a daily practice.
We usually see these three steps in the development of members of our group:
| Level A | Level B | Level C | |
| Have you integrated a daily out-loud interrupting practice? | Not yet | Mostly | Fully |
Where is your main focus in learning? | Interrupting myself with care when I notice I’m on the see-saw. I’m discovering ways to return to full relaxation in myself after having been on the see-saw. | Interrupting others with care when I notice them being on the see-saw. I support them to get to full relaxation. | Interrupting ourselves and others in high-intensity, high-intimacy and group situations. Our interruptions lead to everyone’s full relaxation. |
| How many stories of interrupting yourself or others do you have that inspire Level C interrupters? | Not yet | Every now and then. | Daily or Weekly |
What kind of inspiration will I receive?
Laura Lee writes stories about her adventures from Rochester New York.
Preparing to leave for a family dinner, I was holding several other threads in my mind after dedicating some hours to more cerebral tasks. I found myself getting overwhelmed. I asked for 10 minutes of empathy from my partner. He had space to hear me express some overwhelm and support me in organizing my thoughts.
While this conversation was happening, and I was still in a bit of stress-mode, my son entered the kitchen. Hearing me, he interjected, “Mama, you don’t have to go to the dinner.” And in that moment I could feel myself tense up.
Then, my practice took over. I said, “Oh… hold on…” and I took a big sigh. I got connected to my need for understanding. Softening then, I said from my heart, “Thank you. Your suggestion helps me see that what I really want is understanding, and to be together. Does that make sense?” His sweet & simple response brought a tear to my eye. With a big hug he said, “Yeah Mama, I understand.” 🥹
He ran along on his way, lighthearted without the burden of taking responsibility for solving my unpleasant emotions. And I was more relaxed and able to collaborate with my partner on our evening plans.
I also want to celebrate the ripple-effect I see from my consistent practicing. More and more often, I hear these connecting questions also coming from my son: “Does that make sense?” “Can you imagine it’s like that for me?” “Are you open to this?”
And, I hear him in his conversations with other people, often responding as if the other person asked him these questions, even when they didn’t. “Yeah, that makes sense to me,” “I can imagine how it is for you, for me it’s…” or, “I’m not open to that right now.” I get the sense that he’s enjoying deeper connection and agency in his conversations as he develops his own fluency in the language of everyone’s needs mattering.
Yves is on the move a lot and creates videos about his interruptions on the road. Here are some of the videos from season one to six.
Questions & Answers #2
What will the weekly topics be?
Each week we focus on a principle you can use in your conversations.
The ten principles we used in the past version will be refreshed during this course. One of the main focusses of this season will be on “interrupting in groups.” Think of of business meetings, family gatherings, dinners, sports clubs, friend groups and volunteer organizations.
To give you a taste, these were the principles we covered in earlier parts of I’m glad you interrupted:
1. We treat ourselves and others with care, no matter what.
2. The response we get is a reflection of our own energy.
3. We don’t talk faster than we can feel.
4. The most used empathy request is stimulating our emotion in others.
5. The way through anger, helplessness and blame is grieving.
6. We don’t blame others for us not speaking up.
7. We end our sentences with a question instead of a period.
8. We fully accept the consequences of our choices.
9. We choose acceptance over reassurance.
10. We simply ask for what we need.
Will there be a recording available of the classes?
No, we want to stimulate people to come to the class to create a team spirit. Also it seems most people change their behavior when they know they are being recorded. We want to stimulate authenticity and belonging in our classes, and that seems to go better without recording.
What happens after the course?
After the course you’ll receive an invitation to join the group of card-carrying members. This is a group of people who dedicate themselves to coming from a place of care, no matter what. You could see this 8-week course as an orientation period, to see if you’d like to join this group of people. No money will be required after the class to join the club.
What skills do I need to join?
Having experience with meditation, yoga, nonviolent communication can be a help…and it can also be a hindrance 😉 What seems to help is some kind of dedication to a spiritual path, although we do not require that and all traditions and self-developed paths are welcome.
How much does the journey cost?
We don’t charge you for joining the course. Instead, we use the “pay-it-forward-model”. This model helps us to prevent money from being an obstacle for people to join and it also helps us to live more interdependently. Growing our sense of interdependence is at the core of this course. Giving and receiving freely; without demands, without expectations, without guilt, shame & blame.
We invite you in one email after the course to pay-it-forward to the next group. Without any expectation of you personally giving money.
To support us in guiding the next group from a nourished place, we are looking for a total support amount of $1,500. This money we give to other people and organizations for food, shelter, transportation, rent, tools, and education
Because this way of working is still a bit unusual, some more context to help you connect to us, to this model and to what you would like to give:
- You are just as welcome to the course with money as without money.
- We will not charge you in the future to get access to this work, anything related to it or to a future course.
- This is our experiment towards a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. A world where we give and receive freely.
- Yves has a part-time job aside from guiding this wonderful group. He teaches Dutch to people with Indian roots, living in The Netherlands.
Please let us know if you have any questions, concerns or suggestions.
Can you explain a bit more about what the morning practice looks like?
Yes, below you see a sample practice sheet. There are usually four columns on a practice sheet.
- One for thoughts that block connection.
- One for feelings, movements and sensations.
- One for needs, principles and movements that support connection.
- One for interrupting sentences and gestures.
During the course we’ll make our own practice sheet to connect to our own voice. We then sit with our practice sheet in the morning and use our voice and body to go through the practice sheet for at least two minutes. You can click on the image to get a better view.
There are three different types of practices you can do with the help of this sheet:
- Warming up for the day: just by going through your columns without much tensions. This way you train your interruption muscle to get stronger.
- Healing after a painful conversation: feeling through the specific blockages from that conversation and coming to a peaceful place. This way you not only train your interruption muscle, but you also shorten your recovery-time after painful conversations.
- Preparing for a conversation you feel tense about: you go through the columns to resolve the blockages to connection and practice the intention you want to come from. This way you prevent any painful conversations and get more of what you need.
We have discovered that these processes are not always going neatly from left to right, sometimes you just follow the stream of consciousness. The only 3 requirements we have when we practice are:
- To say everything you practice out loud: this way what is inside becomes more clear, and you practice your vocal chords. These both increase the chances that you will find the “right words” in the moments you need them in your conversations with others.
- To move your body and use facial expression when you talk through your practice. This is to counter the cultural message to not show all of our emojis, which then in turn seem to get stuck in our bodies. This way we get to know them better and release anything that was stuck.
- That you end your practice with at least 3 interruptions, using your hands. This way you retrain your body to stay alive, instead of freezing or numbing when something happens that it finds triggering.
It can be a bit like acting at first. It’s weird, it’s unusual, but we ask you to give it a try, until you see the results within 2 weeks. If you don’t get any results within 2 weeks, than maybe this practice doesn’t work for you right now or you need some support. We’re here to help guide your through your practice. We ask you to send one of your practices on Friday so we can give you personal guidance and stay connected with you. You can also receive a daily reminder from someone who has already integrated a daily practice to support you integrating this powerful practice into your life.
“I began to communicate from a place of balance, care, and calm. I hope to reach that space in all my relationships and conversations.“
A participant of Season 6.
You have a small magazine?
Yes, for fun and inspiration, we created 9 issues of The Daily Interrupter. It was a 1-page zine which you can print at home. Below is an issue to give you a taste.
We’ve also just starting to publish interrupting stories on Substack, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: https://thedailyinterrupter.substack.com/
Questions & Answers #3
What is the history of this course?
Patricia, the co-founder of this series, sent an email in August 2023 to an email list that Yves was subscribed to. In this email Patricia requested support with interrupting, because Patricia wanted to get better at it. Yves replied enthusiastically because he had done 8 years of research on interrupting. Together they worked for four months to prepare for the first 8-week series called “I’m glad you interrupted.” Because the participants and the guides enjoyed the series so much, Yves decided to ask participant Laura Lee to join him for the second part, as Patricia had already committed to another course. Laura Lee and Yves developed, together with about 12 participants the material further. Together they have given five online series and developed the zine “The Daily Interrupter“.
What is your vision with this journey, why are you doing this?
What we are co-creating is an interdependent, light-weight web of mutual support for people who want to cultivate thinking, speaking and acting with care, no matter who it is or what happens. People who back up this intention with the dedication to practice daily out loud.
We are also seeking support to create an online course, write a book and to go on tour. More on our plans here, click for a larger view.
How do you make the decision who gets accepted to the course and who doesn’t?
We want to be transparent about our decision making process. The essence of the decision is about if we have the capacity to care for a person’s wellbeing and growth during the eight weeks, while also caring for the needs of the group and ourselves. We’ve come to see that these five factors play a large role in our decision making process:
- Does someone already have the skills to integrate a daily practice in their lives or do they still need to acquire this skill?
- How much energy does it cost us to get the meaning of our words across the way we intend them?
- How stressful or relaxed is their life situation?
- How well supported are they emotionally by partners, friends, groups and practices?
- Do we think this is the support they need and do we think we are the right people to support them right now?
If we say NO to someone, we explain in an email why and we put some effort in redirecting them to a place where we think they can get the support we think they need. We also offer to have another connection call to hear any objections, questions or concerns about our decision. This way we want to stay in human connection throughout the process of inclusion and exclusion.
I have another question, concern or suggestion, are you open to hearing from me?
Yes, send a message to Yves.
Pay it forward
To support Yves in giving his care and attention to guide this group, you are invited to donate an amount you enjoy giving. The total amount we’re looking for to support Yves’ physical needs during the next course and his continuous support in between courses is $1.500,00. Below you find the different ways to transfer your gift. Yves’ one-person company called “waarom ben ik aan het praten” will collect the donations. For shared understanding: you are just as welcome to the course with money as without money. We will never charge you in the future to get access to this work or anything related to it. This is our experiment towards a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
Dutch iDeal click here: https://betaalverzoek.knab.nl/Zq92w1uVac-mVkKc
Indian UPI, collected by Adrija, click here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gy7LCKPYapgsJd_yvB2IRGz74rQxxs_q0iuXzlXiDBM/edit?usp=sharing
American Express, Visa, Mastercard click here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=SEHQ4TN8JCYX8
Paypal click here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=SEHQ4TN8JCYX8
Apple pay click here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=SEHQ4TN8JCYX8
Bank Transfer: IBAN: NL58 KNAB 0612 7889 89 Account Holder: Waarom ben ik aan het praten, Amsterdam. BIC/SWIFT: AEGONL2UXXX
We can send an invoice if that helps you.