What is a Mindful School Bag ?

It is a busy life. For most of us because we are busy chasing dreams today, so our future is safe and worry free for our children. None of have control over future and its offerings. Yet it is the most crucial force in driving our life at present.

How many of us give a thought to the present, even so to the moment, the now ?

Well, I am still diving into this area and exploring as I seek answers to a lot of questions. I feel fortunate that coinciding with my state of mind looking for answers came this great opportunity my way, the SINGAPORE MINDFULNESS CONFERENCE 2020, Enhancing Resilience and Performance. There is still an opportunity for those looking for post webinar discussions on 29 August 2020. I am thankful to Brahm Centre and A/Prof. Angie Chew for giving an opportunity to attend the webinar.

I was fortunate to listen to some of the world's best speakers, neuroscientist, professors, doctors, authors, teachers and psychologist at a common platform. It was of particular interest to me to listen to A/Prof. Craig Hassed, who shared his thoughts on how mind and body relation work in a pre webinar post. I found his reasons for survival of Thai boys in  the cave very relevant and validated the importance of mindfulness in our daily life. I also found the talk on Mindful Learning: reduce stress and increase brain performance for effective learning. I enjoyed the talk by Richard Burnett, who shared his views on Mindfulness in Education and Dr. Sara Lazar, on How mindfulness reshapes the brain?

So as we still pursue with our dreams, how do we find a foothold, handhold and mind-hold to our present?

I would like to share my observations for today morning. As my daughter was re-checking the bag to see if she had her homework - a sheet about herself, I noticed that sheet was crumpled and insignificant in the bag. And I had my mind running over the folds of tiny little piece. I wondered if it is the compulsive order of my brain or just being aware of sensations, objects and feelings around. This was followed by another image in my mind where I have seen countless school bags with loose sheets of papers squashed by disoriented books, pens, colors and many other objects filled in with what mostly parents think is needed at school?

So what is a mindful school bag, I ask?

I am reminded of a beautiful quote here, " If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what then is an empty desk, sign for ?", by Peter Lawrence, sometimes mistaken as a quote by Albert Einstein. As might the quote instantly suggests, that a cluttered mind is not a clean mind, I would like to disagree as the opposite of cluttered is uncluttered and not clean or empty. I came across this writing and found it relevant particularly with two blogs included in this.

Lets us together create a MINDFUL SCHOOLBAG

1. Mess of Papers, Books, Stationary Vs. clarity of thoughts , knowledge and tools.

2. Bits and chunks of lessons taught or notes of lessons learnt.

3. Burden of future possibilities or enjoying the present accomplishments.

4. Hormonal turbulence or emotional balance 

5. Distracted attention vs noticing walks and talks 

6. An attractive junk loathed Lunch box or sensing body cues and appreciating food.

Thinking of having a perfect bag will leave you with disappointment. If you think mindful bag will turn your stormy child into a saint, you might be in for no luck. The purpose of this bag is not to make your ward calm, quiet, obedient or even a saint, although there might be transformations. The idea of mindful school bag should be to make children aware of their physical bodies and how emotions manifest in them, tools that can help overcome dealing with stress, anxiety, wandering attention and navigate effectively and happily through the gateways steering the way to reach their goals.

This bag is a reflection of their personality, identity, existence and prudence and deliberation in making choices.

Mindful School bag should not be loaded with stuff that has no value add to cognitive, physical and emotional well being. It should feed on positive memos, counting on goodness and releasing what is toxic.











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