Ah, to breathe. To calm down. To rest easy. Not always easy to do. And at this time, even more difficult. Wouldn’t it be nice to lower our own cortisol levels and, maybe even more importantly, help others to do the same? Social scientist Gregory Bateman said, “It takes two to know one.” I don’t know about you, but I certainly need another at this time to help me come back to my center. To ground. To breathe. To know myself.
I have been spinning. I had a book chapter that was growing too big for my brain to get its hands around. Yes, I did mix a metaphor. Whatever. I told you I was spinning. Laura Lipton, my colleague and editor, listened to me and ultimately said, “How about we try not to write THE book that you feel would solve THE WORLD’S problems and just try to think about four or five ideas around this topic that would help an audience of educators?” Oh. Okay. Smaller bite. More manageable.
Bob Garmston and I spoke the next week about another chapter. Now, I have been known to be like the famous actress (and drama queen) Sarah Bernhardt. (Shocker. “Oh, me, oh my, sigh, hand in scarf on forehead starting to faint. Withering.) Yup, that’s me. A MASTER at coaching (Hell, he wrote the book on it), Bob paraphrased me for about 30 minutes and voila, I was able to remember I had a pre-frontal cortex. Ah, oxygen! What a concept. Okay. Moving on….
I realized at that point (as I do again and again and again) that we all need someone to bring us down off the ceiling now and then. For those of us working in education and/or have children who are ‘going back to school,’ things this month are going to get a little busier and more frenetic, internally and externally. We will need others with whom we can be in partnership and community and who can hear us “into being.” Just a few reminders if you start thinking that it is all too much and you don’t have the bandwidth to help yourself, not to mention another human being.
- Remember that a paraphrase is a wonderful gift.
- Remember that being present and sitting with someone in his or her anxiety is a gift.
- Remember you might not be able to fix it. That’s okay. Breathing with someone is a gift.
Just be with someone in whatever way you can. Be that someone who is offered this compliment, “You helped me close 100 tabs on the desktop of my mind.” How cool is that? Inhale. Exhale. Join me.
If you have any questions, comments or topic suggestions, please feel free to email me at Jennifer@jenniferabrams.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
*Jennifer Abrams, “The Desktop of Your Mind", August 3, 2020,https://jenniferabrams.com/the-desktop-of-your-mind/
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
