Faith, the caretaker at the centre invited me to write share a few words about the mindfulness training that is taking place at the Wangapeka Education Centre. Here is what emerged…
Teaching is heroic. My experience of teaching in general is that it is a noble profession where ordinary people give their all to the development of future generations. The link to these bold statements is that I worked as a school teacher in both primary and secondary levels exploring Health Education for over a decade. I came to know first hand the joys and challenges of teaching.
The joys include building connections with young heart minds in a dynamic process of opening, more particularly the visceral magic moments that happen in and outside of the classroom where something akin to unforeseen wonderment occurs leading to fresh understanding and powerful learning.
The challenges are numerous. Exhaustion, curriculum and reporting demands, colleagues competing for resources, attitudes and behaviours brought into the classroom from sugary processed food diets, TV addictions, violence and the unending fragmentation of bells, subjects hearts and heads.
My story is one about burning out. Without the skills of self care and nurture; practises that bring calm to the body/mind; a lack of embodied resources to flourish with strong emotions and the ethos of everyday traumas. While riding high on the passion to make a difference I became cannon fodder to the demands of the job.
What emerged from the wreckage was a deep and driving motivation to discover what are the roots of stress? or put a better way, what are the foundations of wellbeing and refuge? Out of this came a journey that lead to meeting Tarchin, the Wangapeka and the living web of teachers and teachings.
A decade later and with the help of Daniel Burgess-Milne, we are pleased to offer this training for school teachers and I am deeply appreciative to invite their presence to the land of Wangapeka. For forty years the centre has been on the doorstep to about twenty schools in the Nelson and Tasman area and yet almost all the teachers who arrived at the gate in November did so for the first time.
What is the ‘Calm, Clear, Creative training (CCC)?
CCC is an opportunity to offer subsidised and affordable mindfulness training for teachers that is face-to-face, practical with ongoing support.
To the public CCC is a break from the busyness. For many it is the first taste of silence, of slowing down. It is universal. It offers the best we know from the fields of neuroscience to help understand how to bring calm to the body/brain/nervous system.
To the people associated with Living Dharma it is bringing the best of the teachings forth in a universal form to offer spaces where healing and insight can happen naturally.
The response has been heartening. The following article was initiated by the teachers on their return to school. The 2018 CCC training pathway is underway to continue to support these local teachers with face to face on going support and nourishment.
