As I trained as a teacher of Biology and PE I have always been fascinated with how the body and the mind are linked. Getting into your body gets you into your mind.
I have taught thousands of children over the last few years as a supply teacher. As a Postgraduate I find it really hard now teaching in a system that doesn’t recognise the brilliance of all the children on the planet but perhaps that’s for another blog or my book! I have taught in about 150 schools over the last few years and have a good snapshot in my head as to what this education system is doing to the children of this country.
I took up tai chi, yoga, meditation and chi gung about 8 years ago and have been blown away with the power and the effects it has on the mind and the body. If you think about all the elderly people you see in China early in the morning doing these kinds of exercises it’s surprising that we don’t do it every morning too. In fact I can remember going to swim in a pool a few years back not having swum for years and I was able to do 30 lengths effortlessly that’s when I started to realise the power of both yoga and tai chi, chi gung and meditation.
I made it my mission to teach as many children as I could some of these techniques even just for a few minutes. Sometimes I have taken whole schools and sometimes I have just done a few weeks of simple exercises, meditation and affirmations. The results have been powerful. Children with special needs, especially with ADHD and Autism, have responded with amazing results and it’s blown me away how the children who are the most angry have been the ones who calmed down the quickest.
I took 70 children earlier in the summer on an incredibly hot day and I was told “they won’t do it they won’t listen”. I thought “watch” It was wonderful. Children who had earlier been off the wall calmed down. Even the teacher who had been so stressed started joining it.
I have also seen adults with ME and brain injuries do chi gung and tai chi and their whole worlds have been turned around. A friend of mine was told by a hospital years ago that he would be permanently in a wheel chair. He’s not! He’s defied doctors and has won medals for teaching tai chi and he has helped hundreds of people.
Blessings,
Sally Francis
http://www.sallyfrancis.net/
Sally Francis 