As a developmental psychologist, teacher, coach, consultant, and professor of Early Childhood Education, I have spoken to hundreds (thousands?!) of educators and parents over the last 15 years.
Regardless of background, city, state, or even country, most want the same thing for the children they raise, nurture, and teach.
They want their child to be happy. They want to see their child play, create, and explore the world around them.
They want them to keep loving themselves, and respecting others.
They want them to keep that spark; that fire and beauty inside them. They want their child to grow up in a world that sees them, and helps nurture that light, so that they can become everything they are meant to be.
I hear parents and educators say this all the time - and I know they mean it.
I also know that many of these adults buried their own spark long ago.
I know I had.
Here I was, a researcher writing about the importance of nurturing children’s curiosity and play while working so much that I lived with daily stomach pain, back pain, and hair loss for a decade.
Here I was, a 2nd grade teacher, delighting in the imagination and creativity of my students while not having picked up a paintbrush in years.
Here I was, a student teacher supervisor, helping educators bring mindfulness into their classrooms while knowing that the educators themselves exist in a constant state of overwhelm.
Here I was, a professor being asked to teach early childhood educators how to be anti-racist while surrounded by faculty that had no idea how to talk about our own internalized white body supremacy.
The hard truth is, we cannot create what we do not embody.
If we want children to keep their spark, we have to ask ourselves the hard question of where our own went, and what we can do to reignite it.
If we want children to delight in the world around them, we need to make our way back to our own wonder, awe, and reverence.
If we want children to practice mindfulness and emotional regulation, we have to commit to our own centering practice.
If we want to live in a world that affirms all children in their full humanity, we need to take an honest look at how systems of dehumanization live within us.
So, how do we do this? Is it even possible?
Thankfully, the answer is yes! It really is!
As for the “how” - it comes back to the body.
When we reconnect with our own bodies, we reconnect with our humanity.
When we reclaim our right to skip and play, we dismantle the programming that our productivity is our worth.
When we become aware of how our conditioning has shaped our posture, nervous system, and world view, we are able to release it and to choose a different shape.
When we find our way back to our inner peace, power, and joy, we don’t just affirm our own humanity intellectually; we embody it.
And when we embody ours, we teach our children that their inner beauty, inner light, and inner worth has a place in this world too.
If you are a parent, educator, or caring human that wants to shift from “knowing” who you want to be to actually embodying it... if you want to keep your child's spark alive by reigniting your own...let's talk!
Whether you are a mother, an educator, or a caring human looking to reclaim your own humanity, peace, power, and joy, I would love to work with you.
With love,
Irena
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