Today I will be teaching a course... ironically about teaching. One of the primary things I will be looking for as a learning outcome throughout the delivery of the course is whether the learner can create a welcoming environment, or in other words, a container for the learners they teach.
What does that mean?
Hopefully, we all have that teacher we remember from our youth who made us feel special. That teacher who made learning seem easy. We all remember that waiter or waitress who made us feel like our presence was important. And we remember those who made us feel the opposite.  

When learners feel threatened or bored, they do not engage in learning. You can offer all the content you want and the learner may get very little out of it. The most important thing any instructor can do is create a space that is welcoming and interesting.

The same is true in our family containers, our neighbourhoods, our political groups, our recreation groups. You will only ever be as successful as you could be when the who is more important than the what. It is why so many feel that gender rights are essential to them. It is why women joined a suffragette movement. It is why when governments told us to stay in bubbles and wear masks, there was backlash. The goals of the Covid rules was to reduce the virus - the virus was the what. Unfortunately the who were not considered as strongly. The result, we all felt unsafe. 

Let me put in an aside here... I do not envy the government trying to deal with the who of hundreds of thousands, millions of people. Even billions. You will never please all of those people. So I say thank you to the government for your efforts to protect us from a global pandemic. But I am also in NS where we had Dr Robert Strang who many fell in love with. Why? Because during a global pandemic, he was a voice of reason, of calm and steadiness. He felt like our Poppop, our Grampy. He made us feel safer. 

Which do you see? The young wife? Or the mother in law?

There is a quote that says, "We do not see things as they are, we see them as we are." This statement has been accredited to Anais Ani, and to others from earlier times. Suffice it to say, it is an idiom that is rich in truth. 

I have been pondering this truth of late. As my mind meanders to judgement and criticism, I am reminded, I am seeing things as I am. I growl with derision about the driver in the car passing me only to meet at the lights, judging the driver's lack of consideration. Where is my consideration for others? Where am I breezing past others in my haste? I realize I do breeze past, not taking the time to say Hello or ask how someone is doing. 

I consider the fast pace of my walk with the dog, not patient while she sniffs the scents along our route. I am getting this walk done, in haste, not in awe or wonder. Not curious about what is different about the day. I rush through emails, missing the misspelled words. Yes, I like the driver am rushing through the world without concern for those around me and how it may impact them. 

Amazing to have the health and strength to shovel my driveway. Yes, there is much to be grateful for and much to appreciate.... but my mind, like the minds of many go to critique, judgement. To resisting what is for what we want more. 

Challenge: Look today for what gives you a sense of awe. I remember standing by a stream at a yoga training one spring and noticing the water run, the flowers in bloom and realizing, these elements of nature do not compete or chase, they just exist without comparison. And they do not suffer as humans with their judgement and criticisms do. Expand your view from judgement to appreciation and see what happens to your stress.