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A New Worldview
Some of you have heard me talk about my desire to live in a commune...while many laugh, what it really expresses is my desire to change the way we live and the way we think. To step away from the way that things have been done (which no doubt has worked in the past and brought huge 'progress' to the world - including a great standard of living to me) and start to do things differently. Instead of competition, collaboration; instead of individualism, community; instead of matter, meaning. Here are some videos that illustrate my views.
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Shifting norms
I've always been told that part of my 'problem' and why I sometimes find life difficult is that I give too much and that therefore people will of course walk over me. I've been told I need to learn to put myself first, take more for myself, learn to say no, etc. But my question is WHY? This is not how I am wired - and yes, I may get hurt in the process and walked over and that is frustrating and at times damaging - but I want to be part of another world, one in which more people act with compassion and empathy and in which the world isn't all about putting ourselves first. Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest has been twisted to suit a capitalist, individualist society. Plenty of science demonstrates how collaboration and reciprocity is essential for our survival.
I don't pretend this makes me unselfish - I am sure my close family and friends, who bear the brunt of my emotional bruising and wish I would get tougher, find my dogged belief in such values and ideals incredibly selfish at times. But it is something I believe in with my whole heart. As quoted from Eleanor Roosevelt at the top of this page - we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. After listening to a Radio 4 Woman's Hour podcast entitled Too Nice - How to say no, which spent an hour giving advice to women on how to say no to helping others or to doing things we don't want to do, I was heartened by a fellow listener who phoned in and pointed out that perhaps instead of creating programmes teaching people to say no, the programme might focus on encouraging more people to say yes to helping others and to doing things that benefit others even if they don't immediately benefit themselves. I recently read an article on HBR about bias and if it is fixable. It had this to say on the matter: 'the world we live in today is conceived and framed in a particular way. This shapes our experience. Even the language we use orders and reorders social life. The Old Guard (and for Americans, you might read this to be old, white, male, rich) doesn’t even recognize this issue of frame. And I would build on her idea that, for the Old Guard, the current narrative is more than a frame, it is “just the way things are.” It is, for them, The Truth. But here’s the good news: a world that has been conceived and framed is also a world that can also be reconceived and reframed. This alone is powerful. If you believe that bias is simply an accumulation of culturally accepted norms, then you can recognize your power in shifting those norms.' I want to use that power. I want to stand for a shift in norms. Below are some articles that discuss this in more detail: How to immediately improve your life by improving the life of others. Do givers get ahead? Is Bias Fixable? Finding Meaningful work
“Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation,” said Aristotle 2,500 years ago. Easier said than done, but, nonetheless, worth pursuing. Ronan Krznaric offers his six top tips.
Busi-nough
I hold my hands up to being one of these people who answers 'you know - busy' when you ask how I've been. This article hits home for me when it says 'Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day'. While I've come to terms with the fact that my busyness is a choice that I've made because it gives me meaning in my life (a choice that has helped me come to enjoy long working hours rather than resent them), I have also learned to cherish and respect days of doing nothing, for the very reason that:
'Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done'. As the author of this article concludes, 'an ideal human life lies somewhere between my own defiant indolence and the rest of the world’s endless frenetic hustle.' And I certainly have a lot of time for considering a way of life that values things differently from the way we currently live. Get enough sleep.
My Father has always told me sleep heals most things. We have laughed at him for his blind faith in such a simple cure and for his dogged insistence that we should all sleep more. Strongly countering my Dad's common sense argument was a world in which to get ahead, I felt I needed to do all things, be all things and in which I have been lucky to have endless opportunities. While I am mostly glad of this, it has definitely meant I have not slept enough. After reading The Happiness Project by Gretchin Rubin last year, I spent one month going to bed at half 10, which meant I got 7 hours sleep a night rather than 6. It changed my life.
So I was thrilled to read this Harvard Business Review article calling for the world to place more value on getting enough sleep. For years we've been hearing about the health benefits (and increased productivity) brought by the right diet and exercise. So now let's talk about sleep and instead of glorifying people for not sleeping enough, let's reverse the message so that people realise that getting enough sleep is critical to their success. I'm in! |
Compassion
An interesting article about how we can (and why we should) be more compassionate. It explores why compassion is important, why it can be difficult and how we can cultivate it.
Complexifier or simplifier?
An interesting article highlights how some people have a habit of making things more complex than they need to be. I recognise this trait in me exactly, and while my big-picture thinking has its benefits, there are times I need to follow the advice offered in this article:
Because saying (and doing) nice things matters
My sister shared this article with me (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21900202) which talks about how practicing random acts of kindness can benefit the giver and the receiver.
One of my main reasons for becoming a teacher was the strong desire (as cliched as it sounds) to ‘make a difference’. And for me, one of the ways I felt I wanted to make a difference was in children’s emotional development. I know the area of moral education is a murky one and at times contested, but the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn in life have been social and emotional - how to get on with people (even those I don’t like very much); how to see the best in myself and others; how to cope with failure and learn from it; how to manage my expectations so I strive for things I want but can cope with disappointment; how to see things from other people’s point of view so I can gain a broader perspective. One value I value highly is kindness. It may not always be easy, but, given that these things are learnt through observation far more than explicit teaching, the only way to teach children kindness is to demonstrate it, even to those students whose behaviour can be anything but kind to you or others. In fact, particularly those students. This doesn’t just apply to children either - fellow teachers, parents, colleagues. The whole school culture needs kindness. We’re all only human, with flaws and imperfections and mistakes, but with hope and energy and creativity and ultimately a collective desire to make students happy and successful, those mistakes become an opportunity to learn, imperfections become a reason to forgive and flaws become bearable, if not beautiful. The Treacherous Trip to School
An amazing set of images that serve as a reminder of the lengths people will go to pursue education, seen as the key to a better life.
Click on the image to view more. |