Last week I was standing outside the door of a classroom waiting for the bell to ring and my next Inner Strength class to start.

I saw one of my former students and we talked. It’s rare that I have a chance to talk one-to-one with the kids who train and he was really happy to see me. Sebastian is usually a little shy. He often looks like he has the world on his shoulders but that may be more affect than fact. This day he looked bright and tall. He started telling me all about his IB oral exams. in the International Baccalaureate program they have oral exams before a small panel, his was on Shakespeare.

“I was so nervous. I really didn’t think I’d be able to do it. My legs were shaking and my mind was filled with all kinds of dark thoughts.

So I started to do the thought bubble practice. I just kept letting all the thoughts go. No matter what they were I just kept letting them go. Then I did the Love & Kindness. I kept telling myself ‘You got this.’”

His face softened as he remembered those moments.

“Then I went in, and . . .  I had a lot to say. I felt so light and relaxed. It wasn’t like a test at all. I was really happy doing it. It was so interesting!”

The bell rang and I had to go in, there wasn’t much more to say but it was so nice just to be together. As the students got settled, I had the opportunity to ask the teacher how things were going. Before I had a chance to tell her what I had just heard, she said,

“Yesterday were the IB orals. Something incredible happened. It was so moving I was in tears, which has never happened in all my years giving the exam. Sebastian came in and blew us all away. He was talking about the literature and his own responses to it at a college level. He has so much to say that was completely authentic, fluent, and original. I’ve literally never heard him like that. It was like he was speaking from a whole different part of himself, a deeper part of himself, a part he usually covers up assuming he’s not good enough.”

I told her what he’d told me, how he’d used the mindfulness. How he felt something just lifted and he was able to be himself and he really had so much of value to say.

The teacher welled up in tears once again.

If we can release the potential of all kids, freed of self-doubt, self-consciousness, and compromise, can you imagine what our schools, and our world would be like?

Warmly,

Amy