Steve Jobs once said:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.”
Oh, yes, Steve, you were right. Casting my mind back I can clearly see how the big red and green lights in my life are definitely linked.
When I moved to Folkestone just over five years ago, my heart was aching after leaving behind my dream language school in Eastbourne. Not willing to accept my new course of life, I dug in my heels and sunk into a deep depression. It was dark, gloomy …and uncomfortable
But it wasn’t until I allowed tiny specks of light to crack open my wound that I started to heal gradually. It is said that when the student is ready, the right teacher will appear. I didn’t even realise how mindfulness naturally snug into my awareness.
It taught me
to hug myself tight when my soul was shivering
to breathe deeply when I was choking with tears
to take my mind for a walk when it chattered too noisily
to wake up my senses when worries and fears invaded the garden of my mind
to appreciate the beauty I am surrounded by
to find wonder in nature
to cherish my relationships
to express gratitude daily
to savour every moment as if it were the last one
And now I can connect the dots:
*If I hadn’t left EF International in Eastbourne, I wouldn’t have felt depressed.
*Without depression, I wouldn’t have welcomed mindfulness into my life.
*If I hadn’t witnessed the healing power of living mindfully, I wouldn’t have
dared to use it with my students.
*Had I not seen the transformational effect it had on them, I wouldn’t have signed up for mindfulness educational courses to learn more.
*Without all that knowledge and experience, I wouldn’t have become the Mindful Life Coach and English teacher I am today-creating empowering lessons and visualisations for many ESL students.
*Last but not least, I wouldn’t have had the courage to write my book “101 activities to teach English mindfully”.
Sharing my knowledge and experience with other English tutors feels like my duty and I am so pleased to see that more and more colleagues are willing to utilise mindfulness activities in their lessons. The energy in modern education seems rather stagnated and in order for all of us to see a shift, we, educators, need to make the first steps in order to transform our students’ lives.