Using my skills

Any human act that gives rise to something new is referred to as a creative act, regardless of whether what is created is a physical object or some mental or emotional construct that lives within the person who created it and is known only to him.

(Vygotsky, 2004, p. 7).

I rarely talk on here about what I used to do for a living. Initially when we moved to France I wanted to distance myself from it. Part of that was about allowing myself to heal. I had over worked myself into a breakdown and couldn’t face any of it. Part of it was about creating a new identity.

However I am actually quite proud of some of what I was doing. For those of you who don’t know me I was a senior lecturer in a university. I worked with students in education and in particular in early childhood education. As part of my role I was expected to conduct research and write and publish. Much of my research looked at children’s play behaviours with a particular emphasis on well-being and supporting children to flourish (this can be seen to be an academic term for which a colleague and I developed a clear definition).

This summer when my youngest son came over he brought with him some copies of a book that I had edited in 2019. At that stage I hadn’t actually had a copy. He also brought a copy of another book with him which had been sent through by the publisher. I couldn’t understand why I had a copy of that book. It was only when I looked inside I discovered I had written a chapter in it. I had forgotten, which is a reflection of how I was when I stopped working. The book is entitled: Childhood Well-being and resilience Influences on Educational outcomes, and my chapter is: The flourishing practitioner. In this piece of work I look at the ways in which those who work with our children are often overlooked and their own well-being is ignored. In reality if we want children to flourish then those that care for them and teach them need to flourish too.

In many ways this has been a very long introduction to today’s blog. I met today with the person who will be leading some of the sessions on the mindfulness retreat. We discussed the timetable, the activities and particularly what participants would gain from attending. I needed to consider what I bring to the party, particularly in terms of supporting creativity. Of course I use creativity in my life now with all that I make in the she-shed; equally I came to recognise that I have spent many years looking at how creativity benefits young children and the ways in which creative opportunities support their understanding, their learning and development and their notions of self in terms of both identity and feeling of positive self-worth. Many of these notions become lost as children mature and age. As adults we do not talk about engaging in play. However the total absorption in an activity or play that we observe in children can be compared to the mindfulness activities that we witness in adults. Likewise we do not as adults necessarily recognise our ability to be creative and this is often linked to feelings of self-esteem. These are things that I am very aware of and can draw on in running a mindfulness and creativity retreat. So I do feel as though I might be better qualified to organise such a retreat than I had at first thought. I have transferable skills that can be really beneficial in this situation.

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Now I am off to crochet something because at the moment I want to do something just for me. Have you made changes in your life and failed to recognise where the skills that you previously learnt could be used? Do you wonder how you could make better use of the skills that you have?