Circling The Chaos and Loving Life

Apparently I need a strap line to stay forever with my new blog site! The one above feels the best – what do you think? I feel I have just circled the whole world, as I have just come back from taking QCT to Oz and NZ. At the conferences I met the same leap of energy and warmth from all the delegates. Like anything good and sustainable in education – my model is based on commonsense – and teachers eyes light up with recognition. Children and adults are the same everywhere. We all need the same things – beautifully described in the writings of the psychologists – A Maslow and W Glasser. We need our basic physiological needs to be met, then we need to feel physically and emotionally safe, feel a sense of acceptance and belonging, a feeling of being valued and appreciated, experiences of fun and joy – and then there is nothing that we cannot achieve in life!

The beauty of good circle times is that individuals can ‘taste’ all of the above during a vibrant circle time hour and therefore they experience a real life-boost. In NZ I took a circle of children who had never worked together before. They were aged between six and eleven. At first it was scary for them, especially being observed by adults too, then as the safety of the ground rules took effect and circle times’ five steps created their own magic – we saw the children relax, open up, support each other, take risks…..and most importantly ……laugh together! Laughter tickles away any nervousness, smoothes away worries and unites in a warm feeling of our common humanity.

(N.B. Why don’t you book and come along to a very special Laughter Conference at the beautiful Findhorn Community at the end of May? It is part of a 4-day Patch Adams laughter event – but you can book individual days or the whole event and we can have lots of fun!! For more details please look out for an advert / article on Jenny Mosley Consultancies Facebook account and on our website – coming soon. Or phone 01225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk)

Yes, we have individual differences but basically we all need safety, love and fun! I feel so b……….y lucky that I am well enough to do the work I do – such a privilege

Also I experience a wonderful sense of continuity as I am constantly knocked out by how everything ‘links up’ in the countries I visit. I take my concepts and ideas proudly to places – and they humbly find out that they have been living deep in that culture for hundreds of years (our common needs as human beings make them happen).

Take for instance my Five Wells of Wellbeing. Anyone who has been on my courses or read my books will know about these (they were first published in 1985) then, when I get to NZ I find out about the Hauora – the Maori philosophy for health.

Taha tinana (physiological wellbeing), Taha whanau (social wellbeing) and Taha wairua (spiritual wellbeing) WOW – my wells are almost exactly the same, except I add in one ‘small creative wellbeing’. The Maori model is profound, because each of the 4 dimensions of hauora influences and supports each other. They represent it like a house of wellbeing. This model now underpins the PHSE curriculum. So there is little me basking in hubris, thinking I have created the wells – not realising that any ideas with real depth, truth and wisdom have their own energy – and they chose you! So humility is all really and a sense of gratitude that any good ideas visit you at all – you are just a temporary mouthpiece.

And don’t get me started on the Maori “hooey” – where you meet in a circle and create bonds of kinship with each other.

So lovely reader – I hope you are visiting the wells and have got a real work life balance. People with a life outside their job make the best teachers – because they keep all the daily ambushes in perspective. We are so lucky.

PS Good News!! Jenny will be running a second Train the Trainers course in New Zealand from 1^st to 5^th August. She will be available for training in schools or speaking at conferences in New Zealand at the end of July or in the third week of August. Please phone the office if you would like to make an enquiry 01225 767157 or email circletime@jennymosley.co.uk