Knowledge is Power
Photo by Clay Banks
Now that the month of April is almost behind us, I'm finally taking a bit of a breather to write this month's reflection from Thrive. It's been an unusually busy month with our final 3 Empowered Parenting Workshops for the year. Creating, delivering and facilitating these workshops takes an enormous amount of time and energy. Plus there's often a fair amount of frustration thrown in for good measure as I grapple with decisions over focus, direction and pacing. And yet, I've come to love giving these workshops. Yes, even more than I love the music side of things.
Why I Do This
Because knowledge is power. Because without knowledge and self-awareness, our thinking is subject to biases and prejudices that go unchecked. Because without knowledge, we can allow our judgements to "other" anyone who does not conform to our way of thinking and see them as less than.
Ignorance creates chasms. What we need instead are bridge-builders. People who can make room for other points of view without feeing the need to destroy or humiliate. Life doesn't have to be a zero-sum game where we pit ourselves against one another in our race to be right, to be number one, to be seen as worthy of love. Our Empowered Parenting Workshops are about providing parents with the knowledge they need so that they can begin building bridges at home.
In Search of Meaning
For some time now, I've been asking questions about what life is about. Questions too about the kind of world I want to live in and how to ensure that future generations get to experience more joy, love and compassion. These are concepts that in my distant past I would have seen as nice-to-haves but things that only well-meaning, airy-fairy types would care about. There was little in my formal education (science and music) and my own upbringing that placed much emphasis on these notions. But life threw a truckload of curveballs at me in my 20s and 30s that turned my entire world upside-down and made me realise that there was a lot more to life than getting good grades, doing what I was told and gaining the approval of those who wanted me to conform to their wishes to serve their agenda.
Worth Fighting For
It turns out that given the right set of conditions, music can be an ideal environment in which to nurture your relationship with your child. When you are mindfully present with your child, exploring, discovering, playing, dancing and singing together, your child feels deeply seen and valued. This is the basis of what child development experts call secure attachment.
Secure attachment is the biggest predictor of cognitive, social, emotional and physiological well-being for all of us throughout our lifespan. Securely attached children grow up confident, curious, caring and engaged. They also end up having heathy relationships with themselves and with others. Imagine how different our world would look if we could all give the children in our lives this unconditional love.
The Light We Share
Peace cannot come from conflict, intimidation and power. Peace is only possible when we sit at the same table, prepared to listen with compassion and open to seeking out the light that we have in common. This is what our Empowered Parenting Workshops are all about and this is why they've become an integral part of Thrive.
And in case you're wondering what our Spring workshops covered, here's the list:
Peaceful Parenting 101
Unlocking Motivation
Collective Effervescence
Enrolment into our Kindermusik and Collaborative Piano programmes for 2024 - 2025 at our Markham studio will open up in late-May / early June, so stay tuned. I look forward to having you join our community of Bridge-Builders. Until then, keep shining your light.
