We can heal!

How much do we love our students (and each other)?

I was listening to a very experienced teacher who said that for ten years she would look at each of her students and ask, “How much do I love you?”  If she found some she didn’t love enough, or even at all, she would ask herself, “What is it in me that is stopping me from loving you?”

She never told anyone what she was doing because she thought that she was the odd one, not any of her colleagues.

Not surprisingly, and over time, she was able to love more and more of her students and fewer and fewer things would get in her way.

I was touched by her story for two reasons.

• First, she kept what she was doing to herself for a decade as she thought it would be deemed strange for her to be doing that.

• Second, she transformed her capacity to engage deeply with her students and gradually demolished her own red brain.

Henry Ossawa Tanner - Modern Spirit

We know that everyone – children and adults – learn best when they feel valued – yes, loved – and they learn least when they don’t feel that way.

It is easy to love the children who are diligent and engaged but it is those who are not who need us most.

We have all been brought up with two mind states – a red brain and a blue brain – and the red brain will trigger – which we will often interpret as dislike – by something we see or hear or otherwise perceive in one of our students or colleagues.

But it is not them!  It is in us that something needs to be healed.  We can systematically heal these hurts by seeking them out and sitting quietly and mindfully with them.

Over time we can love everyone and have our best possible impact on their growth.

The Red Brain Blue Brain Reading Club is live.  Download a copy of the ebook and follow a loosely structured 9-week process to get to grips with managing your red brain.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

• To purchase a copy of Red Brain Blue Brain or Student Feedback go here