Month: March 2012

 

This may seem like an easy practice but it essential to being on task- open to the present moment and receptive to the information nature is providing you right now. Most of the time. we think, and in that dream we believe that we are attending… however.. if the mind is making comments, or subtling shifting from liking to disliking the task.. that cloud of words and feelings actually block your availablity.

Try a simple task such as chopping carrots. As you place the knife against the skin of the carrot- what really happened? How does the carrot feel in you fingers? Does the carrot snap or do the cell part when the blade touches it. Is there a sound? How much pressure is needed? Where does the sound come from, the carrot or the surface at the bottom.

When we are really challenged by a task and go deeply into it. We are able to solve problems and recognize appriate strategies with that sustained concentration. It amounts to bringing your self back and back again to that one thing. But it is far from stagnant. that space , place contains the entire universe.

I once fell in

to the point where

infinity begins

at the tip of a needle

the sky opened up

an moutain yielded to

the still core

of he who is the watcher

But I

was frightened by the light

and turned away

I don’t know why

Sassy Teacher wanted

One of the most successful strategies for dealing with kids in the middle school group is a pretense that you don’t really like them much. They will then try to find evidence to the contrary, that you do actually like them. The joke ran like this. After a student did something a little obnoxious, I’d say, “Oh I hate kids”, with lots of eye rolling. ( published by lee@cognitiveyoga)

The group would look at me and giggle. “So why do you work them then?” they’d ask.

“I need a steady supply of victims”, I’d counter.

Did you actually lock someone in the closet? They’d ask. “Uh huh, over the holiday vacation, you know, the kid who disappeared last year? “

Kids love this kind of teasing but your alleged behavior has to be so outrageous that they know it’s a joke. It may be a little extreme to put a jar of ashes on your desk labeled, “Kids who gave me a hard time” but I did see such a thing in a gift shop in Ogunquit Maine.

 

Student that have Aspergers syndrome do not get sarcasm, tone, body language and other non- verbal cues  You need to avoid this kind of joke or be sure that if  the little girl with Aspergers eyes go wide… when you say you hate kids, the othere kids can say… It’s a joke.  Don’t worry.