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Living.UWC Thailand
What would you change about how you were raised? (The stir-sticks will make sense in the end.)
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L
ike many lock-down families, we have begun unearthing long-neglected items in order to provide a new activity on what feels like day 357 of isolation. Most recently, it was a book called “The Book of Questions” by Gregory Stock, published in 1987. It proposes a variety of thought-provoking situations and then prompts you for a decision. Some of them are PG, others need to be skipped when the kids are around, but it has been the catalyst for conversations around morality, integrity, truth, vegetarianism, suffering, career, vanity, confidence, peace, war, death, drugs, sacrifice and a whole host of other big topics. Last night, the question we posed—tongue-in-cheek—to our 8 and 10-year-old daughters was #127: “If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?” Sienna (the 8-year-old) took a moment’s pause and earnestly replied, “I wish that we had learned mindfulness from a younger age so that Paige (the 10-year-old) wouldn’t have had any anxiety in the first place.”
Well then. A serious, well-articulated, and thoughtful answer. I hadn’t considered that. It does make sense, of course. Sienna can be very hard on herself and mindfulness has taught her to give herself, and others, compassion when needed. She has become a mindfulness ambassador for her grade level and confidently led her whole class in body scans during the school’s wellness week. (Did I mention she is 8?) Paige, on the other hand, is a worrier and during this COVID lock-down, our school’s online mindfulness practices (available at www.uwcthailand. ac.th/mindfulness-resources for free) have been a saving grace for our entire family. Trusting in mindfulness has been an experience that’s very contrary to my nature. I’m very pragmatic. I’m not spiritual. I trust science. I like data-driven decisions. I want my kids to memorize multiplication facts and learn how to spell. So I never dreamt, in a million years, that their study of mindfulness would be the thing I ultimately value the most about their education. But times have changed and if there was ever an argument for mandatory mindfulness (an oxymoron for sure), it has to be this pandemic. Because while it may be the first of this scale in our lifetime, it won’t be the last. The ability to forge a deep connection between our mind, body and the present moment has been vital to our family’s positive lock-down experience. It has given us each a reprieve from each other when we needed it. It has allowed us to not just be compassionate with one windowonphuket.com
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