Some news before we start….

There is a new blog on the website! 'Simply Witnessing; An Exploration’ shares some guidance and thoughts on how, as leaders, we can truly see and fully know those we lead. Whether it’s our team, our students or our school communities, it includes plenty of practical tips to help us build on the resilience, the learning and the growth that the pandemic has granted us.

You have to sniff out joy. Keep your nose to the joy trail.

Buffy Sainte-Marie
Cree First Nation Indigenous Canadian-American singer & activist

Joy was in the air on Monday

The spirit of welcome was everywhere. Daffodils in small pots on the school path, hundreds of teddy bears lined up to join assembly, ‘Welcome Back’ banners and teachers in fancy dress space suits and clown outfits. ‘Lockdown Heroes’, everyone.

Whether it’s post lock down, in a refugee camp or a war zone, the return to school for children is a universal and joyful expression of our world returning to normality. This sense of joy connects us more powerfully than any other human experience - it is the antidote to stress, builds resilience and psychological wellbeing. However, over 95% of us expect to experience joy at work and under 40% of us actually do (Harvard Business Review). I suspect this ‘joy gap’ is different for schools, but nevertheless, it’s food for thought.

As school leaders, ‘closing gaps’ has always been high on our agenda, and we know it requires attention if we are to succeed. So, how do we experience and cultivate joy on a day-to-day basis, as a core part of our leadership practice? How do we close the ‘joy gap?’

Here’s how Mindfulness can help…

Mindfulness and ‘cultivating joy’.

As humans we are hard wired to notice danger, and be on high alert for that which we don't want, frequently orientating ourselves toward feelings of ‘insufficiency’, and ‘what’s wrong?’. This can lead to a pervasive undertone of general ‘unsatisfactoriness’ in our lives and our leadership.

Mindfulness can help us notice this and instead builds our awareness of the present moment. It helps us come into balance, deliberately orientating ourselves away from these negative feelings and instead toward noticing, opening up to, and indeed ‘sniffing out’ joy.

You might be thinking ‘this all sounds a bit ‘unicorns and rainbows’, after all, the steady work of leadership is a serious business. However there is a scientific basis behind the personal and organisational benefits of cultivating more joy and happiness at work courtesy of UC Berkeley School of Management which you can read here.

So, this week - try this…

A note on practices. These are very simply an opportunity for you to try a practice and see what happens without expectation. Self judgment and doubt may arise in the form of thoughts such as “am I doing this right?” or “I am not sure this is for me”. Notice these thoughts and, as best you can, be curious, be kind to yourself and let them go!

The practice of ‘cultivating joy’

Open up your senses

Schools have a very special smell, different year groups and key stages sound different, the school environment is full of visual delights. Pause long enough to notice them and feel the extent to which they gladden your heart.

When you notice thoughts arising such as ‘this needs tidying’, ‘that looks tatty’, ‘that's not good enough’, try to come down from your ‘headspace’ and stay open to your senses and to delight. The tatty display will still be there and ready to claim your attention later. 

Savour joy when it appears

When you notice something that ‘gladdens your heart’ savour it. 

Feel it in your body, notice what happens to your breathing, your heart rate, your mood? What happens to your thoughts? Maybe they are they less scattered, less judgemental, less busy?. This ‘savouring’ practice  intensifies the experience, imprints it on our body and helps to regulate our stress hormones.

Cultivate an innocent perception of the ‘ordinary’

Come into the school as if seeing it for the first time.

Open up your peripheral vision. Practice the art of simplicity, whilst noticing our tendency to over complicate things. Release yourself from ingrained habits of thought that can lean toward the negative.  Look through the eyes of a child. Play at making the familiar, unfamiliar and see what awe and wonder it might evoke.

A joy jar

Maybe this is a slant on the question ‘are you a glass half full person?’ but I know of schools who have introduced the ‘joy’ or ‘happy’ jar to children during the lockdown period.

The children are invited to put a small object, drawing or slip of writing into the jar that reminds them of what helped them feel joy that week and share it if they wish to. Even as a very grown up school leader - maybe its worth a try?

In the meantime, if you have time to go further, I can really recommend this article taken from ‘The Art of Happiness at work’ by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It reminds us that joy is our natural state. We don't need to develop it, we have it already – we just need to give ourselves the space to orientate towards it or, as they say -

Joy is our essential nature, it’s who we are in our best state of being. Cultivate and nurture joy in your leadership. Let’s dance.

A poem to leave you with…

Want to develop your leadership practice further?

Just head to the Courses page of the website! Here you’ll discover bespoke courses suited to the needs of you and your team, designed to help build resilience, find gratitude and better serve the adults and children in your school.

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Maggie
maggie@maggiefarrar.co.uk