What can I do about the economy?

Anyone who is alive in the developed world will know that there is a problem with the world economies at the moment. Most people feel powerless about what is happening here.
There are however certain things we can do to help the world at this time.
One good thing to do is to refuse to tap into the mass consciousness of fear. But how do we do that? Mantras are a good way to change our consciousness.

Here is a good mantra along with an interesting visualization.
The mantra calls on the name of God - I AM THAT I AM. This name was given to us when Moses saw the burning bush that was not consumed by the fire. He asked who shall I say sent me?

God replied "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh." Exodus 3.14. The English translation of the Hebrew used is I AM THAT I AM.
So when we say "I AM...." we are really saying 'God in me is....."

This mantra also refers to the US economy. Of course you may wish to substitute the name of your country in that phrase or you may wish to say it as it is. In my opinion the US economy is so important to the world economy that it is wise to pray for it to be upheld.

The Little School

I came across this video at homeschooling ideas.com
It is about a School in Denmark where the children learn autonomously. It looks like it was filmed in the 1970s. It is black and white and crackly but well worth spending 35 minutes to watch it.

Do schools kill creativity?

This guy talks so much sense and he does it so entertainingly too! One of the stories he tells is of a successful and famous dancer/choreographer who couldn't sit still at school. Fortunately someone realised that she didn't have a learning disability but was in fact a dancer. She had to move to think. As he says, it is a good job she wasn't given medication and told to calm down!

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Validation

Here is an interesting film about the power of validation.
I'm sorry that the music is jazz, but it is worth watching nevertheless.

Sebastian

We have a small black cat called Sebastian. I must admit that I often refer to him as 'her'. This is probably because he is small and thin like a female. He is under two years old so I hope as he gets older he will fill out.

He was meowing at the back door this morning and so I picked him up for a cuddle before I put him outside. He immediately turned around and came back in the door. It is cold outside so I was not surprised he didn't want to go out. I picked him up again and he enjoyed another cuddle. (Apart from the rubbing around the legs when he is hungry this is the only contact he likes as he never comes on laps. When he is curled up he will bite a person who strokes him more than twice.)

When he wanted to go down I left him and he sat at the door meowing again. This time I opened the door and let him go out on his own. He sniffed the cold air and backed away from the door.

I picked him up and told him I could not change the weather, and if he wanted to go out he would have to brave the cold. The next time he meowed at the door, a few minutes later, I gently nudged him out with my foot. He hesitated then walked away.

About 5-10 minutes later I saw him being chased by another cat in the garden and a silent fight ensued. It was not vicious so I did not intervene.

I wonder now, that it may not have been the cold that caused him to not want to go out. If the other cat was already in the vicinity he would have smelled him.

Before Sebastian came to live with us there were several cats to be seen wandering about our garden so they probably think that Sebastian is intruding on their patch.

I did intervene once in a fight in the summer because it was vicious and noisy. I went out and shooed the other cat away but I'm not sure that was the correct thing to do for Sebastian's sake. Maybe he needs to establish his ownership of the space.

The Fire Dance

Well, I couldn't show the videos of fire to the class (of 5-6 year olds) because not only was You Tube site blocked (as I suspected) but the blogger site was also blocked. There was no provision for teacher override so I checked on the BBC (which is not blocked) and found none there. We just had to talk about it, which was very unsatisfactory for the 2 children who are just learning English. I didn't even have a still picture of a fire because the picture searches are blocked too. And by the time I had found all this out it was time for the lesson.

However, these two unfortunate boys aside, the lesson went really well. All the children had had some experience of a fire. There was a lively discussion giving descriptions of fire and one girl said the flame of a candle acted totally differently to the flames in a bonfire.

We went to the hall and they showed me how their bodies could interpret flames. The children suggested that sparks and smoke acted differently to flames so we interpreted them too.

When they had all practiced their interpretations, I called out different groups for the rest to observe. One girl asked if they could comment on the children's performance that they thought good! So they did and came up with great comments.

They then modified their interpretations and that was the end of the first lesson. This was without any music.

At the beginning of the next week's lesson we listened to the music, Trisch Trasch Polka by Strauss ( 2.45 minutes) and freely interpreted the 3 elements of the fire - flames, sparks and smoke.

More watching groups and commenting on good interpretations.

They then talked about shaping the dance. Lots of good suggestions were incorporated into a beginning of an unlit bonfire, gradually catching fire, then sparks flying off around the room, then smoke, then the flames dying down.

It is wonderful to work with a class with good imagination and good communication skills. My planning for this series of lessons was minimal because I wanted the children to shape it. This has paid off and they have exceeded my expectations.

The next lesson will be refining the shaping, giving people 'roles' and talking about costumes.

My plan is to peform this at an assembly.

The Fireplace

I just love real fires and was so pleased to find a few on you Tube.
Actually the real reason why I am posting a fire on here is because I am doing PE with a Year 1/2 class on Tuesday and we are doing Dance this term. The teacher is doing the theme of fire all term and wants the children to do a fire dance.
I wanted to show the children a real fire in case they have never seen one. So this is the introduction to the lesson. The You Tube site may be blocked for classroom use and hopefully this blog site will be OK.
I have nearly decided to use the music Trisch Trasch Polka by Strauss as it is so lively and short. but we will not be using the music this week. Just introducing the movements and getting ideas from the children.

It is a shame that the one I liked best had the embedding information disabled. So this is the second best one.

Mens Brains, Womens Brains

Have you ever wondered why men and women sometimes have trouble communicating? In this hilarious video from Laughyourway.com, comedian Mark Gungor gives you one theory having to do with the differences between men’s brains and women’s brains.

Surrogate Tappping

Surrogate tapping is a very useful form of EFT. I have been able to help loved ones living in a different timezone to me. It was impossible to arrange a time to have a phone session.

Well, I was on the bus going to work the other day and a teenager was talking loudly in an angry way to her friends about an incident that had happened to her. I didn't hear her words because I was listening to my ipod. I turned it up to try and tune her out but I could still hear her tone and felt the agitated waves of energy she was spreading throughout the bus.

I wanted to ask her to stop but knew that would be futile. Then I realised what I really wanted to do was to help her so she didn't feel so angry. Then I thought of tapping for her surrogately. So I did. After doing the set up phrase silently whilst tapping the side of my hand I touched the different points on the face slowly whilst breathing at every touch. (It is called 'touch and breath' technique and does not look weird like tapping does, especially as my elbow was resting on the window, with my hand on my head.) Very soon I heard her laugh and her tone changed and she stopped dominating the conversation with her friends.

Our Inner Children

There are not many people who give their inner child the time and attention that he/she wants and deserves. Even those people who know about their inner child are often guilty of neglecting him/her.

I know I am and have done for years.

My daughter Claire and I write daily in our gratitude book. This is a ritual we have recently installed into the evening mealtime. We have a little book and each write about 10 things we have been grateful for that day. I instigated it but Claire is diligent and reminds me when I forget.

The other day we were talking about our neglected inner children after an EFT tapping session together, and so I suggested that we add something to our gratitude ritual. I'm very good at suggesting things. ;-) I wrote on the front of the book "Have I asked my inner child what she wants today?"

Well, neither of us have done this because we both thought that it would mean taking time out of our busy schedules to pander to them. However I think the fact that we have this question out in the open has helped us. Our inner children are actually talking to us and we are listening.

On Saturday I knew my inner child wanted to have lunch outside in the (rare this summer) sunshine. And again today. I realised that this did not actually take up extra time because I needed to eat anyway and the adult Patricia really enjoyed being in the sunshine too.

Claire's inner child wanted her to get a certain task 'off her back' today. This was a task that she had on her list for a few weeks and not completed and it was weighing her down. So again her inner child did not actually require extra time, but in fact suggested an activity that greatly benefited the adult Claire too.

So the lesson I have learned is that our inner child can greatly enhance our life if we let him/her and this dos not necessarily take up more time than we think we have available.