Do you have rules for how you speak to other people? How about, how you speak about other people? How about rules for how you speak to yourself?
And if you did – what would they be??
It doesn’t take much of a look into how our politicians speak to each other, how our soap stars go about their relationships, and how world leaders conduct themselves to make you think, that perhaps, these kinds of ground rules may not be such a bad idea – and may not be just for primary school children!
In our Year 12 wellbeing sessions this year we’ve set the ground rules as ‘Respect. Listen. Be nice.’ It sounds basic, right? But it doesn’t always come naturally….
Respect: Give regard to another person’s feelings
Listen: making efforts to hear what they are saying, and responding to them, not just waiting so you can say something
Be nice: in what we say to people and about people, whether in person or anywhere else.
These kind of practices can be transformational for communities, families (just imagine if they were adopted in parliament and world politics!) Most importantly, these values can massively impact how we feel about and care about ourselves.
We can be our own biggest critics – but while being honest about our challenges is good, our negative inner voice can often keep us down. What if we decided to respect ourselves more – who we are, what we think and feel and how our voice counts just as much as anyone else? We might just feel more free to be ourselves…
In fitness training it’s good to push our bodies, but listening to how stress, tiredness and other aches and pains are impacting us physically and mentally can help us see where we might be caring for ourselves better. If we made changes to look after ourselves, we might just find ourselves with more energy, more hope, more joy, more motivation…
And what about just being nice to ourselves! When’s the last time you truly gave yourself a pat on the back, or allowed yourself to celebrate, or enjoy something you’ve done? When’s the last time you really created space to rest, to play, to just ‘be’ with yourself or others around you who you care about? We might just find ourselves enjoying life a little bit more and having a greater capacity for dealing with the challenges…
So – Ground Rules – not just for kids! I wonder what yours might be for you!
Contribution from Rev Beth Rookwood, our Sixth Form Chaplain who supports our Sixth Form community with; Listening. Mentoring. Coaching. Nurturing Spirituality in School.
