A note before we start.

If you are new to this mailing list - welcome! You can find past editions of these e-letters on the Practical Guidance page of the website including how to savour joy, be kind to yourself and find resilience in the world of school leadership. But for now, let’s turn to today…

So come the storms of winter and then the birds in spring again
I have no fear of time
For who knows how my love grows?
And who knows where the time goes?

Fairport Convention

The turning of the school year

Social media has been full of photographs of children and staff returning to schools this week. Whether it was the ‘jitter glitter’ to put under the pillow of nervous 4 year olds, or glimpses of inspiring INSET sessions, it has certainly felt like an outpouring of joy and optimism. At the same time, many of you have shared your thoughts on how you intend to take care of yourselves this year, knowing the challenges and uncertainty to come.

A new book came out this week that caught my eye; ‘Four Thousand Weeks; Time and How to Use It’. It argues that in our lives today we tend to see time not as something to live in, but something to be “got through” efficiently and on the way to somewhere else. Four thousand weeks is roughly the number of weeks you live if you get to 80 years old.

I went for a walk with a school leader this weekend and I mentioned one phrase from the book that struck me, ‘we live in a time of joyless urgency’. “Ah yes”, she said with a wry smile – “I can already feel that creeping up on me after just a few days, that instantly recognisable feeling that everything has to be done by yesterday.”

Sound familiar?

How Mindfulness can help.

Patience, the value of waiting and letting something unfold so we understand it better, and can deal with it more effectively, feels very hard when the need to ‘speed up’ and ‘make up for lost time’ is a very real drum beat to our days.

Mindfulness helps us to notice impatience and a sense of ‘not enough time’. It help us to pay attention to where we feel it in our bodies. Perhaps our heart quickens, we walk faster, our speech speeds up or our thoughts start to spiral. 

Mindfulness helps us to notice our overly rigid personal ‘timetable’ and see the extent to which this is limiting us and perhaps others. It gives us the opportunity to value our ‘to be’ list - with its focus on behaviours and values - as much, if not more, than our ‘to do list’ with its never ending set of urgent tasks.

What is patience after all? Perhaps it's the willingness ‘to be with’ a person, a situation, a feeling and truly understand it before moving on. Perhaps it's the discipline of noticing when we are speeding up and find a speed bump, a pause, a breath. 

Here’s how…

A note on this 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 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!

Finding our speedbumps

WAIT

Explore what you are prepared to let ‘unfold’ today. Notice when you may be feeling impatient about an issue. Quietly say to yourself “WAIT” or;

“Watch. And. Investigate. This.”

As you investigate, what thoughts arise? Hold onto these for 1 or even 2 minutes longer than you might do normally. Sit with them. See how taking this pause before rushing onto the next “to do” allows you that micro moment of space to understand them more.

STOP

S : Stop – yes literally this. Don't rush into the next meeting, conversation, moment of your day. Take one minute to pause.

T: Take a breath. Most of the day we breathe very shallowly. Intentionally breathe slowly and deeply. 

O:  Observe. Ask yourself “what needs to unfold right now?” As you take some good deep breaths feel where you are holding impatience; where are you tense? Where does ‘ high alert’ mode make itself known in your body? Soften it and - as best you can - let it go.

P: Proceed into the next moment of your day with a little more wisdom and a little more patience.

PAUSE

Create a collective ‘speed bump’. Start a meeting with a pause. Invite everyone to sit for a moment and gather themselves. You might then want to do a quick check-in using the chat in Zoom, or a ‘go round’ the table if you are together.

Everyone arrives in a meeting with a maelstrom of thoughts, body sensations, emotions and moods – its in the room already, it’s creating the ‘climate’ of the meeting - it can help to name it.

If you have time to go further, and if you are craving a little more stillness in the midst of your busy day, here’s a 10 minute practice you might try to intentionally cultivate ‘pausing'.

A reflection to leave you with

Want to cultivate Mindfulness further in your leadership practice next year?

Just head to the Courses page of the website. Here you’ll discover bespoke programmes suited to the needs of you and your team, designed to help build resilience, gratitude and composure in times of challenge and change.

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Maggie
maggie@maggiefarrar.co.uk