Accepting Yourself

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Document personal strengths from a shared project and collect peer-observed affirmations without requiring the speaker to write during their turn.

Use it when: After a completed project, program milestone, or intensive workshop where participants worked closely enough to observe each other in action.

Skip it when: When participants have not observed each other working, when group trust is fragile, or when formal performance evaluations are underway.

Group arrangement: Individual silent writing, followed by structured peer turns in small circles of 3 to 5 participants.

Timing: Playmeo suggests 10 minutes for individual writing followed by sharing rounds. UWT establishes a 35-minute total running plan using parallel small groups of 3 to 5.

Materials and tools

• One printed Accepting Yourself Worksheet per participant
• One pen or pencil per participant

Before participants arrive

1. Print one copy of the Accepting Yourself Worksheet for each participant.
2. Arrange seating into small circular clusters of 3 to 5 chairs with writing surfaces.

Say this to open

Take the next eight minutes to reflect on our recent work together. Fill out Section 1 of your worksheet with strengths you used and one situation you handled well. Leave Section 2 blank for now. In small groups, you will speak for up to one minute about what you wrote, and your group members will offer additional strengths they noticed in you. A peer will scribe for each turn so the speaker can simply listen.

How to run it

1. Introduce and write individually 8 minutes

   Distribute the worksheets and pens. Direct participants to complete Section 1 in silence. State clearly that Section 2 remains blank. Explain that participants control what they write and what they choose to share.

2. Form circles and assign roles 4 minutes

   Divide participants into circles of 3 to 5. For 4 to 6 people, stay in one circle. For 7, make groups of 3 and 4. For 8 or more, make groups of 4 or 5. For each turn, one person is the speaker. The person to the speaker's immediate left scribes into Section 2 of the speaker's worksheet. Remaining members offer feedback. After each turn, the speaker role moves clockwise, and the scribe role shifts to the new speaker's immediate left.

3. Run feedback rounds 18 minutes

   Run timed turns of 3 minutes per person. The speaker takes up to 1 minute to share reflections from Section 1. For the remaining 2 minutes, group members share additional observed strengths. The scribe writes these affirmations directly into Section 2 of the speaker's worksheet and may also speak observations. Rotate roles clockwise after each turn until every participant has had a turn.

4. Conduct whole-room debrief 5 minutes

   Reconvene the whole room. Ask two or three volunteers to each choose and answer one debrief question from the list. Focus on the contrast between self-perception and peer observations. Do not ask participants to read aloud private worksheet entries.

Debrief questions

• What was it like to hear strengths that others noticed which you had not listed yourself?
• How did having a peer write the notes change how you listened to the feedback?
• What is one strength identified today that you plan to carry into your next project?

Finished output: Each participant holds a completed worksheet containing their personal self-reflection or peer affirmations recorded by a teammate.

Remote

Distribute editable digital copies of the worksheet before the session. After individual writing in the main room, split participants into breakout rooms of 3 to 5. During each turn, the speaker shares orally without typing. The assigned scribe for that turn types spoken observations directly into the speaker's shared document.

Hybrid

Run the individual reflection and small-group rounds in parallel cohorts: remote participants work in a dedicated video breakout room with shared digital documents, while in-person participants work in physical clusters using printed sheets. Reconnect both cohorts into a shared room audio-video setup for the final 5-minute debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may opt out of reading their personal reflections aloud and instead invite peers to share observed strengths directly from their general observations.
• Participants who prefer not to receive spoken feedback may pass entirely or hand their worksheet to the scribe to collect silent written notes from group members.
• A participant who cannot write easily may dictate their individual reflection to a partner or use voice-to-text before groups assemble.

If the session gets stuck

Feedback becomes generic praise without specific substance.

Intervene briefly to ask the peer to name the specific moment or behavior that showed that strength.

The speaker talks past the 1-minute mark, leaving insufficient time for peer feedback.

Remind groups to assign a timekeeper or watch a room timer so they transition to peer comments after 1 minute.

A participant finishes writing Section 1 early and looks disengaged.

Prompt them to silently jot down specific strengths they noticed in teammates to prepare for the group rounds.

Terms used here

• Scribe: The group member assigned for a given turn to record peer feedback onto the speaker's worksheet so the speaker can focus on listening.