A day of focus

That crazy sound you hear is my head spinning so fast I think my eyeballs will melt from the inside out.

In other words, today blew my mind.

I left the house at 9 a.m. for a workshop with healer Dr. Claudia Welch on breath, Ayurveda, and hormones.

I left that gig an hour early to attend a 4:30 talk by progressive educator Alfie Kohn on parenting and teaching children in an achievement-crazed world.

Little did I know these two fascinating speakers would essentially say the same thing.

Do what you love.

Don’t do what you don’t love, even if other people say you should, or even if you have come to think you should.

If your goal is to feel healthy and at peace, let go of whatever is not part of the life you want. Change your context and change your health and your life.

If your goal is to raise a child into a happy, confident, curious, independent child, think about that with everything you do. Don’t use strategies that will take the joy out of his very being. Don’t say things that make it sound like you care more about her success than her happiness.

To combine the two, I would add: model for your children the very qualities you hope they will possess. If we hope for our children to be resilient and compassionate and to feel fulfilled in adulthood, perhaps they should see that from us. Now.

In the coming week, I will write in more detail about each talk (Welch’s continues tomorrow), but suffice it to say that I came home smiling and inspired to be at peace, lest my children grow up not knowing what that looks like.

And so that I can regain my health and be present for them all along their journey.

Beautiful mosaic at Beloved Yoga in Reston, Virginia