Saturday Morning Musing

 I love Saturday mornings. Fresh coffee and listening to another Big Juicy Creative podcast.

A busy week, working from home deserves a long lie and a slow, gentle introduction to the weekend. The perfect conditions for planning my Random Acts of Living (RAL) for the week ahead, inspired by my friend and Big Juicy creator Suzy.

Listening to the Big Juicy Creative podcast has made me think more deeply about the concept of creativity. I do feel I am an innately creative being. I have a love for music, I have an impressive ability to sing along to lyrics of random songs with little idea on who the singer is or how I even memorised the songs in the first place. I will very occasionally search out my pencils and take to drawing trees again, usually inspired by my long walks with my dogs in the beautiful Cairngorms and distinct memories of a charismatic but slightly unhinged Art teacher from my old school days.

Creativity goes beyond the realms of music and art, it is an act that promotes thinking, feeling, doing and reflecting. It involves creating thoughts and experiences for oneself as well as others, as actor and coach Jennifer Blaine explained in the Big Juicy Creative Podcast, episode 4.

I have always focused on promoting the importance of creativity for children and young people in my work. Inspired by the magnificent Sir Ken Robinson, who will be deeply missed but will continue to further inspire generations of people. Supporting creativity in children and young people involves providing nurturing, loving environments with opportunities to think freely; to problem-solve; to play, explore and discover; to make mistakes and learn from them.

I was heartened to hear Suzy and Jennifer Blaine talk about the importance of creativity in education. With an increasing pressure on children and young people to ‘catch up’ on learning since returning to school after lockdown, there is a concern that the focus on ‘catching up’ may squeeze out opportunities for play-inspiring creativity. With increasing concerns over the mental health of our children and young people, surely now is the time to put creativity at the heart of learning. Numeracy and literacy are embedded in everything we do. As Jennifer Blaine said ‘Children are more than their scores’

I am most inspired and creative when I am out playing in nature. From my early years, growing up in rural Wales, I have felt a connectedness with nature and trees, in particular. I am partial to swimming in Scottish lochs or trail running through the hills and local pine woodlands. The Big Juicy Creative podcast (episode 3) featuring Lynbreck Croft farmer, Lynn Cassells definitely struck a chord with me. It further promoted the importance of being in tune with nature but more importantly having the courage and creativity to take a risk in following your dreams. I was inspired by Lynn and her partners confidence and openness to make a career change and learn their craft by doing. My forester husband despairs at my lack of ability to identify different tree species but I have learned to overcome my ‘FOMOOK’ (fear of missing out on knowledge) as Suzy suggests and I simply enjoy the emotive experience of being in nature.

I often associate creativity with friendship. People close to me inspire me. I can withdraw at times, depending on what my preoccupations are. I have a tendency to be an all or nothing kind of person. I easily loose touch with my friends for periods of time but in my head they are always there. I am lucky to have the kind of friends that even if I haven’t seen them for weeks or months on end, I can meet with them as if it was only yesterday that I saw them last. I am actively inspired when I am with my friends. I find myself working towards goals alongside them – whether that is reading the next book club book choice or training for the next triathlon (you know who you are). Often my creativity is at its best when I am engaged in something fun and playful with my friends.

Another Big Juicy Podcast that inspired me was Suzy’s first interview with the local artist Ann Vastano.  I was delighted to listen to how her artwork is an extension of herself – her feelings, her experiences and connection to place. Ann Vastano embodies colour and grace and her suggestion to ‘dress to how you want to feel’ has inspired me to bring more colour into my life. I have always been attracted to the colour yellow. I think I associate the colour yellow with sunshine and warmth. It has a physical effect on me – it instantly brightens my spirit and makes me happy. I am curtailed by my family however, when it comes to decorating my house. I am happy to retreat to my one yellow room in the house, which is my study, where I currently work from home during the pandemic.

Obviously, my work as a lecturer in Early Years and Childhood Practice is a part of my life that requires me to be creative. However, there are times where we move into automatic pilot, getting the job done in the way it’s always been done. Time constraints and capacity can hinder the creative process. I need to remember to make time and space in my week to reflect and develop myself and my knowledge. I have a tendency to buy inspiring books on play and learning in the early years or on inspiring teaching and learning but many of them end up on the bookcase unread and dusty. Inspired by the Big Juicy Creative movement I officially commit to finding time and space, in my busy schedule, to follow my work-interests and expand my brain on a weekly basis.

Again, I can honestly say that I am surrounded by a team of professional friends and a strong community of practice that inspire and support me (you know who you are). As I write this, the imposter in me is thinking ‘this is not good enough’ and ‘I need to back this up with informative links and  in-text referencing’ but I correct myself and inspired by Dr Alice Mongiello I will put thoughts of imposter syndrome aside, take an emotional risk, don’t over-think and post my thoughts. Anyway, this is my Saturday morning musing, over coffee and is definitely not meant to be an academic piece of work.

Back to planning my Random Act of Living (RAL) for the day. A cold-water dip in Loch Insh it is then.

Emma Sinclair. 26^th September 2020.

 

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High Emotions in Aldi

An interaction I had with a fellow shopper in the local Aldi supermarket had been playing on my mind. 

I was not necessarily cross but I was frustrated enough that I couldn't seem to let it go for a significant amount of time afterwards. 

It had all started when I had duly waited my turn in the checkout queue to return an item that I had bought earlier in the day. I thought this would be a straightforward return and exchange but unfortunately a form had to be filled in before the exchange of chocolate coated rice-cakes could take place. My initial thought, from someone who tries not to be a bother to anyone, was that I was holding everyone up in the queue behind me. My natural instinct to apologise for everything kicked in. I turned to the lady behind me and said "Oh dear, I'm sorry, now I seem to be holding everyone up" It was immediately clear from her verbal response and her body language that she was not happy at all with the inconvenience.

Slightly shocked I could immediately feel my body going into the fight or flight response - I could feel the adrenaline rushing as my hands started to shake. However, anyone looking on would have observed me to be calm, confident and not at all undeterred by the interaction. In my concern, that other people felt the same frustration, I mouthed the word sorry to the the lady further behind in the queue who in return kindly smiled and nodded. Quickly after the rice-cake exchange took place and polite thank yous were given I left the shop. The interaction was so brief I doubt anyone would have noticed however, it was playing on my mind.

As I was driving away I was aware of my thoughts as I was replaying the interaction in my head. On one end of the scale I felt hurt that someone I didn't know could upset me in public and wondered why the response from this person had been so negative when the response from the lady behind her was kind and reassuring - why did she have to be so rude? Especially when I had been so happy, heartily singing along to the radio in the car not 5 minutes earlier. Why couldn't she have shown me kindness too? Should I have said something? Why didn't I say something? However, on the other end of the scale my thoughts were telling me that the persons response was more about how she was feeling at the time and I had indeed done the right thing by letting it go. She must have been having a bad day? Maybe I was going to make her late for an appointment? Maybe she was unwell? Yes I was right, I needed to be kind. 

Funnily enough, earlier that morning while scrolling online I saw and saved a link to a Ted Talk that I thought I would find interesting titled "You aren't at the mercy of your emotions - your brain creates them". The premise being that we have more control over our emotions than we think. Emotions are not hardwired reactions that are uncontrollable. Our emotions are based on guesses or predictions that our brain constructs in the moment that are based on our past experience. Lisa Feldman Barett claimed that emotions that happen to you are made by you and we can teach our brain to predict differently which will change our behavioural response and enable us to be the architect of our own experience. This means we are responsible for our own emotions and although not easy, with significant time and practice we can learn to have more control over our emotions and subsequent behaviours which can lead to more positive health and well-being. (Felman Barett 2017) 

As I watched and listened to the Ted talk later in the day I couldn't help but make reference to my own emotions and response during the interaction in the store earlier that day. Although I was able to rationalise a more tolerant and understanding response to the situation I still felt hurt and mildly irritated when I later replayed the scenario in my head. Was I being overly sensitive? To me the emotions I felt seemed like they were automatic, like my brain was hardwired to feel this way in response to the situation. 

Working in early years and being ACE aware (Adverse Childhood Experience) it made me think how difficult it can be for many children, young people and adults who grow up with varying degrees of adversity and resulting toxic stress to have control over these emotions. Especially if our emotions are constructed by ourselves in the moment through predictions based on past experiences. Although what is reassuring is research does show that over time and in supportive relationships we can work on building resilience which will help us learn to self-regulate our emotions (and behaviour as a consequence) however this needs time, support, patience and tolerance. 

This needs to start in the early years through positive relationships with significant others and continue into adulthood with strategies designed to support emotional self-regulation to mitigate the affects of adversity. Further discussion with my Early Years colleague highlighted the importance of allowing children the opportunity to experience risk in play, particularly the type of thrilling, risky play inspired by the outdoors (climbing, balancing, jumping, going fast, using tools, building fires) which can in itself help children to develop resilience by learning to deal with emotions such as anxiety, fear, stress but in a safe, reassuring environment. We need to allow children the freedom to take risks in their interactions with others. To do this we need to step back and give children the opportunity to sort out difficult social interactions for themselves, enabling them to learn valuable life skills such as compromise and negotiation, better equipping them for such challenges in the future. 

I'm happy that an inconsequential interaction in a local checkout queue inspired me to think a bit more deeply about our emotions, our behaviours, how they affect ourselves and others. But more importantly to consider how we can promote the development of resilience and emotional self-regulation in early years.

I'm sure the lady was just having one of those days (as we all do) and if she were to pass me in the street I have no doubt she would smile at me and I would smile back.