Before Mindfulness With Mindfulness

I bet some people still look at the term “mindfulness” as a joke and consider the practice a waste of time.

An article in today’s KQED Mind/Shift newsletter caught my eye: How Making Time for Mindfulness Helps Students. From my experience, mindfulness cultivates grounding, leading to a sense of peace and a reduction in how anxious I feel.

It’s extremely windy here today. Winds like these want to keep things stirred up; they work to pull and twist things out of place. I like the contrast. Our inner world and outer reality can feel just as wild as this windstorm- even wilder.

The KQED article does a great job outlining some keys to successfully putting mindfulness into practice in a school setting. It even mentions the need for staff to have “buy in”. For anyone who agrees with the first sentence I wrote, I’m hoping to increase your buy-in.

To begin, not everyone has the luxury of practicing mindfulness. If you’re reading this, you probably do.

Living paycheck-to-paycheck. Unexpected expenses. Overwhelming debts. Overdraft fees. Payday loans. Chronic medical conditions. Eviction. Loss of utilities. Unemployment. Fear of unemployment. Underemployment. Violence. Bills. Accidents. Hunger. Addictions. Isolation.

People who live with several of these (and other) types of pressures on a daily basis exist everywhere. These are windstorm generators and no one is immune. Some people experience more due to the choices made by others. You yourself may feel drawn to one or more of them.

Imagine being a child with these types of fears surrounding you every day. That’s a big part of the push for mindfulness in schools. Without other options, survival instincts can lead to choices that include lashing out, withdrawing, hiding in past times, making excuses with generalizations, or practicing self-harming behaviors that begin by “feeling good”. Everything we adults do to survive, our children will try.

I’m looking out at all the broken branches littering the snow-crusted ground. I hear the winds moaning outside, wildly whipping the bushes and skeletal trees. But I don’t feel the cold, because I am safe inside a warm house. I’m wearing woolen socks so my toes are toasty and my hands are warm on the keyboard. I smell the coffee still in my mug and the lingering smoky trail of bacon from this morning’s breakfast. I can smile at these truths.

That last paragraph is a bit of mindfulness. It’s what is now (whether I like it or not) and what I have now. It’s an appreciation. From there, I can consider beyond. 

Why bother?

From What's Under Your Cape

Survival instincts can hurt both ourselves and others. They can blind us to others’ pains and to other options that could help everyone involved. We’re capable of so much goodness. We have to be open to working through the roughness, though. These are things that must be noticed, taught, and learned again and again.

How much are we really suffering? How many gifts do we really have? What other options might be out there for us? Who can we go to for help? Who can we reach out to in order to help? These are the types of questions we can answer by using mindfulness instead of simply surviving. If we’re capable of it, we should try.

Yearn, Embrace & Try

I wrote the above tweet on August 16, 2017, inspired by Barbara Gruener, the author of What's Under Your Cape?: Superheroes of the Character Kind. Her blog has amazing education and mindfulness resources, including links to her book. We traded books over the summer and has unofficially mentored me- of which I am very grateful.

The idea of working with “YET” in school is very common today. “I can’t do that kind of math” becomes “I can’t do that kind of math...yet!”, for example. In her blog, Barbara took the word and broke it down into powerful action words: Yearn. Embrace. Try. Those 3 words sparked a quick Twitter-friendly poem from me which I’ve now put into an image for today’s illustration.

I yearn.

I don’t know everything and I don’t know how to do everything. Let’s embrace that. It’s fairly easy to tell someone else that we’re all a work in progress. It becomes a bit harder to admit that we ourselves don’t have all the answers.

I can embrace.

Despite what I lack, I won’t run away and hide. This is another hard one to embrace. It’s so much easier to stick with what we know. Many of us grew up believing we have to be “the best” and to not run the risk of showing weakness by stretching ourselves. We need to be OK with nervous butterflies in our stomachs. The concept of “YET” feeds into that. It reminds us that we have both a right and responsibility to grow. I should embrace learning something new.

I can try.

If I put some effort into it, I may LEARN to be able to do that math. Or get closer to it. I have a duty to at least reach out and try. I should do it proudly, without fear. Why? To show ourselves and others that Fear shouldn’t run the show of our lives. That big mountain of impossibility called Fear can loom up in front of any and all of us, at any given moment. With practice and help from others, we can rise up against it and build something good.

We’re yearning, embracing and trying TOGETHER.

This concept is for us all. Whether it's hobbies, our health, our jobs, even using new technology- we may not be there YET, but we can yearn, embrace and try. Let’s remember that we’re all in YET together. We can move forward in YET, together. We can grow stronger in YET, together. YET covers it all: our minds, our hearts and our bodies. Together.

Where are we on the journey? What kinds of encouragement can we offer ourselves today? I’m thinking YET is a great place to start.

Mountains of Life

Everyone has mountains to climb, and if we have good people around us, the climbing is easier and the elevations we’re able to reacher are higher.

Here’s a cool bit: Those people around us? They can be in our faces, in our pasts, or thousands of miles away.

The people “around” us are in our hearts, minds and histories.

I was reminded of this fact in a number of ways this weekend. Firstly, we had a great visit from a friend whom we haven’t seen in a number of years. Physical separation and lives branching with growing families pulled our focus away from each other. It was a pleasure to express and witness everyone’s evolution and current selves.

Next, I received a copy of What’s Under Your Cape? from the author, Barbara Gruener. I knew of her work, but conversations on Twitter led to some great connections forming and an exchange of both thoughts and life facts. Turns out, we both have deep ties to the state of Wisconsin on top of our interests in human development and education! It was a real pleasure hearing her initial thoughts on my own book, Dear Teachers.

Lastly, I read The Healthy Toolkit’s blog for July about journeys. This is a cool group with a strong presence on Twitter (#JourneyJulyHT, #SayYes2Wellbeing and #FFInspirational) that I encourage anyone with interest in education to check out. In addition to a great review of their history and plans,  I was especially drawn to this line:

“Our concept of ‘Healthy’ has grown with us, from our initial thoughts about healthy eating and proper hydration, to healthy attitudes to colleagues, to healthy use of social media and digital interaction.”

We’re on a journey. We connect. We move on. We grow.

We aren’t supposed to drag our journey’s mountains behind us. I could feel guilt and regret for losing immediate sight of a friend. I could be shy and nervous of all the great books out there by people with much bigger ideas than my own. I could choose to ignore the online resources of thoughts available across the digital landscape as too big or overwhelming. But I don’t.

I choose to cherish what was, enjoy what is now and look forward with hope for what is out there waiting to be. We’re all in this together.

We all color and are colored by a multitude of lives over both time & space.

That’s a potent fact with far-reaching implications. By relating genuinely and in unity, we can climb and not carry our mountains.

Summer is reaching its peak. As we journey forward, I hope you consider purchasing a copy of my book, Dear Teachers, for yourself or someone you know who is on an educator's path. Essays, nature photos and space to reflect for an entire school year of support. PLUS a closed Facebook page I will be supporting. Contact me directly at dearteachers2017@gmail.com for signed copies, bulk pricing or to discuss speaking opportunities.