Going BACK to School- A Message for All Adults
As I was coming up with more material for my Strategies for School Success I happened up on a nugget that I found interesting and revealing for myself. I wondered if it would be valuable to other adults as well. When we choose to take the journey of self-discovery, awareness pops up in the most unusual places.
I was driving into work this morning going over this concept of BACK TO SCHOOL and how I wanted to relate that to my audience of parents. Since my children are out of school, except for one in grad school, I hadn't thought too much about how this applied to my life until I asked myself what comes up for me when considering the words BACK TO SCHOOL. I have to say I was a bit surprised at what showed up. And how the awareness from this question has allowed me to connect to my current growth into being more of me.
I was driving into work this morning going over this concept of BACK TO SCHOOL and how I wanted to relate that to my audience of parents. Since my children are out of school, except for one in grad school, I hadn't thought too much about how this applied to my life until I asked myself what comes up for me when considering the words BACK TO SCHOOL. I have to say I was a bit surprised at what showed up. And how the awareness from this question has allowed me to connect to my current growth into being more of me.
The very words BACK TO SCHOOL imply returning to where I was at the time I left. As I explored going back to school what came up for me was the same anxiety that I felt much through school. My anxiety wasn't so much about having a difficult time learning, although I had some of those, it was more about the social aspect of school and my feelings of not belonging or fitting in and very much wanting to. It was in school that I began to believe that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't be like other girls my age.
As an adult some 42 years later, those same feelings come over me in certain settings and I feel much like I did in school. I also see how I avoid certain situations or events because of those experiences from school. This was great information for me as I examined it further. Knowing what I truly know now about the lie for the need to belong and the value of being someone your not so that you can fit in, suddenly became an empowering moment. Now I know how I can change what I believed to be true in the past that was still controlling my present and future so that I can have more of an awareness of who I be and choose accordingly but not because I need to be included or any of that silliness that gets created in school, but because I know that being me is more vital to my life than being someone I'm not. I also now know that I have gifts that wouldn't be available to myself or others if I continued to contort myself to be like others. I see the value of being me. I sense that having this connection with my school experience has allowed me to move more into the target of being who I truly be by allowing all those misconceptions to fall away. More of me has arrived!
The other concept that I struggled with in school that surfaced through my BACK TO SCHOOL question was this idea of knowing what you want to be or do when you get out of school. I didn't know, and people kept telling me I needed to know so I made myself wrong for not being able to have a plan for the rest of my life. Ugh! I still can't make a 5 year plan and I see that this is not a wrongness it is just a different way of navigating through life- by choice to choose what I want, when I want it. Have you ever tried to live your life by other peoples standards? Never asking any questions about whether that would work for you or not? Never being encouraged to follow your knowing, your instinct, your intuition? Never being able to trust yourself? Again this awareness today has opened more for me in this area that will contribute to me being kinder to myself by being in allowance of my differences.
Both of these golden nuggets came from one question that I would have concluded would not have applied to me. Surprise! I am grateful for the awareness that has come up and my current capacity to make the changes that will allow me to expand beyond the limititations that those beliefs created in my life.
I wonder what comes up for you when you consider the words BACK TO SCHOOL. Maybe nothing, maybe you will receive a golden nugget or two. Empowered parent challenge- Feel free to post your aha's below. It may just spur someone else to have an awareness too.
Check out my video about parents and Back to School below.
As an adult some 42 years later, those same feelings come over me in certain settings and I feel much like I did in school. I also see how I avoid certain situations or events because of those experiences from school. This was great information for me as I examined it further. Knowing what I truly know now about the lie for the need to belong and the value of being someone your not so that you can fit in, suddenly became an empowering moment. Now I know how I can change what I believed to be true in the past that was still controlling my present and future so that I can have more of an awareness of who I be and choose accordingly but not because I need to be included or any of that silliness that gets created in school, but because I know that being me is more vital to my life than being someone I'm not. I also now know that I have gifts that wouldn't be available to myself or others if I continued to contort myself to be like others. I see the value of being me. I sense that having this connection with my school experience has allowed me to move more into the target of being who I truly be by allowing all those misconceptions to fall away. More of me has arrived!
The other concept that I struggled with in school that surfaced through my BACK TO SCHOOL question was this idea of knowing what you want to be or do when you get out of school. I didn't know, and people kept telling me I needed to know so I made myself wrong for not being able to have a plan for the rest of my life. Ugh! I still can't make a 5 year plan and I see that this is not a wrongness it is just a different way of navigating through life- by choice to choose what I want, when I want it. Have you ever tried to live your life by other peoples standards? Never asking any questions about whether that would work for you or not? Never being encouraged to follow your knowing, your instinct, your intuition? Never being able to trust yourself? Again this awareness today has opened more for me in this area that will contribute to me being kinder to myself by being in allowance of my differences.
Both of these golden nuggets came from one question that I would have concluded would not have applied to me. Surprise! I am grateful for the awareness that has come up and my current capacity to make the changes that will allow me to expand beyond the limititations that those beliefs created in my life.
I wonder what comes up for you when you consider the words BACK TO SCHOOL. Maybe nothing, maybe you will receive a golden nugget or two. Empowered parent challenge- Feel free to post your aha's below. It may just spur someone else to have an awareness too.
Check out my video about parents and Back to School below.