Be a duck...just let the water roll off your feathers.

These past two years have challenged us as humans on both a physical and mental point. Since February 2020, we have had many ups and downs, during such a shift in the world, when was the last time you checked in on yourself?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I checked in with myself and started writing down things I was grateful for during the pandemic. This helped remind me of the joy, love, and light I can find within myself, and my surroundings. As I watched the seasons change outside, the weather constantly shifting, morning to night, sunshine to rain clouds, it reminded me of an exercise I would do with little Momo’s.

Once a week I would have a weather check-in with the class. Not the weather report we see outside, but the weather report we are feeling in our bodies. We would discuss weather patterns and how you can wake up and see the sun and then later in the day a rain cloud may come in and the weather will change to rain. We talked about how this can relate to feelings and emotions we have throughout our day. You can wake up maybe feeling a little “rainy” and tired. You may be moving slow that morning but this feeling can shift throughout the day. You could later find sunshine at the playground while playing with a friend who fills you with joy and energy.

I would invite kiddos to draw what sort of weather they are feeling inside their body and ask them to add detail to where in their body they were feeling this weather. I once had a momo draw out lightening blots shooting out of his toes!

Create a gratitude journal, for you and for your momo. Write or draw the things that you are grateful for, once a day, once a week or once a month. Do a “weather check-in” with your momo. Invite them to draw out the weather they are feeling that day or that week. After, have a gentle discussion about the weather we see outside and how it is always changing, nothing is permanent, seasons change and cycle through. So do our emotions.

What are you grateful for?

The most essential engine of child development is through deep human connection.

What is the art of touch? Holding hands. Hugging a friend or love one. Holding a child close to you during a time of stress. Giving or receiving a massage from someone. I discovered the beauty of touch after receiving my first thai massage in Thailand while traveling the country in 2010. I wanted to learn more about this experience and the art of touch through Thai massage. I found a Thai Massage program in Chicago called Blue Lotus Thai Healing (https://bluelotusthai.com/). During the 6 month program, I grew a deeper understanding for the way the body holds emotions and how it releases these emotions and blockages through the art of touch. Through different movements, stretching, compression work, and letting go, I grew a deeper understanding of how we hold these emotions in our body.

While learning this new practice, I started to notice how we hold our emotions in the body. I started noticing where I held my emotions and how I could let go by doing certain movements, breathing through the belly, massage my hands and shoulders when I felt I was holding stress there, massaging my legs and feet when I felt heavy and needed some grounding. I was still teaching in an Early Years classroom environment while doing my Thai Massage study and became more aware of the emotions little children held in their bodies, especially in the early stages of schooling and the stress and separation that happens while transitioning from family community to school community at the beginnging. There is a huge trust factor that plays into these little momo’s minds and bodies. Can they physically trust this space (the space being the classroom)? Can they fully trust the me, the teacher and caregiver of them while they are away from their parents?

While teaching at an International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand, I had students from all over the world in my early years classroom who didn’t speak English and would struggle with the unknowns of the new environment they were entering. I had one student who’s family had just moved from China to give their daughters a more holistic approach to education. Her initial entry to the classroom was a challenge and she had a hard time letting go of her mother in the mornings. I could feel her struggle, I could sense her stress in her body when she finally felt comfortable enough for me to hold her while she cried. Her mother and I would hold her together until she felt comfortable enough to let go and enter the classroom. It took weeks for her to enter the classroom all by herself but what I reassured her mother was that we work together and allow the process of trust to build within her daughter of me and the new environment. She did finally enter the classroom all by herself and greet me every morning with a big hug. The art of touch and trust was built here by being patient and allowing her to process through her emotions both mentally and physically.

I had another experience at the same school, different child, who wasn’t comfortable eating during lunch time. I would ask her why and she couldn’t really give me an answer. I respected her wish and allowed her to go at her own pace, trusting her process. Allowing her the space she needed until she was comfortable, until she knew what she had to do. It took some time, and then one day I saw she was eating at lunch. Later that day I asked her what had changed, she told me, “My tummy told me I was shy and that it was hungry.” I praised her for recognizing what her body needed but that her mind was also maybe a little fearful of eating in front of new friends. She was shy of eating in front of her peers and recognized this but also knew she needed to feed her body. Trust the process and they will come to recognize what their needs and wants are.

When we can listen to our body and mind and hear what it might need or want, we can allow ourselves to heal, open up, and maybe let go a little at a time.

I also brought my practice from what I had learned from the mat in Thai Massage into my classroom. I taught children how to massage their hands, their feet, and different stretches to help them release emotions. Try it sometime with your Momo. Sit with them and massage each others hands and feet. You can do a little light compression work, cupping and squeezing the arms and legs, moving up and down each limb. You can practice this in the morning or at night. Give each other the art and gift of touch.

The lesson’s we can learn from the Elderly as well as the youth.

One of my favorite books is called, “Moon Walking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” by Joshua Foer (https://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/0143120530). I came across this book at an airport while traveling around. I related a lot to this book in my career as a teacher, as well as dealing with the death of my grandmother months earlier. The book talks about the memory palaces we create as little humans, how we hold on to them as we age, and why we sometimes lose them later in life.

I referenced this book a lot while teaching mindfulness and meditation to 4 and 5 year olds’. I practiced the art of creating memory palaces with the littles through one of their 5 senses, the sense of smell. We would gather on the rug and I’d pass around little bowls full of different scents and ask them to share what the smells reminds them of, NOT what the smell IS. It was beautiful the answers that came falling out, “It reminds me of the orange tree at my grandparent’s house in Arizona!” This was a memory of a 4 year old! It blew my mind how they could recall such detail just from a small sniff of something.

When my grandmother was moved from Santa Fe, NM to a nursing home in Chicago to be closer to family, she started to really lose her memory. She was 87 beautiful years of age, but her mind was that of a 4 year old, unable to recall things that had happened just seconds earlier. So I applied my tool and practice of recalling memory or comfort for her through her senses. I worked a lot with the essential oil, Lavender to help bring calm to her body and mind. Any time I would visit her I would take a wet wash cloth with a couple drops of lavender on it and rub/massage her hands, feet and the temples on her head. During these moments, she was able to give herself some peace and comfort during such confusing times that happen with dementia.

During her last couple of weeks, I watched her transform from this strong, beautiful, independent woman, into a child like form. She needed the extra love, light, playfulness, empathy AND PATIENCE we give to children. I felt so strong and grateful to have had my background and knowledge in working with children, that allowed me to provide the care my grandmother needed during her passing into a new life and light.