Contemplate Your Life

When life was simpler and all we needed for fun was an empty 50 gallon barrel!

Good morning Blog Readers

I am in a contemplative mood today. There will be a new feature on this Blog. It will be called:

YOU KNOW YOU ARE 'WOUND TOO TIGHT' IF

I admit to be 'wound too tight' on occasion.

I admit to getting upset over things that really do not matter much.

I want to improve myself so you get to come along for the ride.

Here is my effort to take the sage advice of my dear husband who

says, "NBD". In other words, "No Big Deal".

You can say that about a lot of things and be a lot happier person.

Here it goes--installment #1

YOU KNOW YOU ARE 'WOUND TOO TIGHT' IF--

you start to hyperventilate over the thought of not loosing a pound or two on the 4th week of your diet.

Really! How can we be so concerned about one or two pounds. Most of us have a few pounds [or more] extra weight. Really! Getting upset over going up or down by one or two pounds? What is the point? America spend a lot of time and money on weight loss books, diet foods, diet plans, diet concealing, exercise equipment, gym memberships--yet we are still loosing the battle of the bulge.

What did I weigh a year ago is a much better question than what did I weigh last week--right?

Yet I find myself waiting for my "weigh in day" with anxiety, trepidation, and/or longing, depending on how I "think" I have performed on my "diet" that week.

I, and I assume many others, need to take a "big picture" view of a lot of things--things like: healthy weight, physical health, mental health, and emotional health.

Montessori:

How does this apply to the classroom?

NBD--that is something every Montessori teacher, parent, staff member, and administrator should have in their working vocabulary. Most things that happen in the classroom are really, "no big deal". In a way the opposite is true too. Everything we do in the classroom is, "a big deal". what I mean to say is that if we are doing our jobs well it looks easy.

The classroom runs smoothly, lessons unfold naturally and with seemingly little effort by the teacher. Children solve their own problems instead of running to the teacher for every little thing. These are signs of a classroom that is "normalized".

If we adults have a NBD attitude about most things, the child will have a "can do" attitude about things. If everything they see us doing looks hard for us--they will think life is hard--we do not want that, do we?