Of cups and learning

Many years ago, I read 'Travels' by Michael Crichton. I was intrigued by his mention of auras. It reminded me of a distant cousin who used to claim that he could see people's auras. Unfortunately he didn't hold the same claim to fame as Michael Crichton and we generally viewed him with skepticism. But when Michael Crichton, my favourite author, with all his books generally well researched, talked of auras, I got interested. Many years passed by and my interest kept waxing and waning with circumstances. So recently when a friend added my name to the Reiki interest group, I finally decided to make some time to explore it. 

I didn't experience any earth-shaking experiences on the first day and talked to a friend who's my sounding board when it comes to spiritual/mental experiments. He said that he too has been to sessions with evaluative mindsets and that I should read about 'emptying your cup', a buddhist concept before my next session.

Surely not the ubiquitous cup again!!! In the last few days I have encountered a number of perspectives on cups.

Last week at new staff induction, I talked about the Loris Malaguzzi (Reggio Emilia) philosophy of children not being empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge. We believe that children come to us with their own capacities which needs to be respected and valued. Their thoughts, knowledge and ideas along with those of teachers help create new knowledge in a constructivist classroom. The concept of a child being an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge is not in sync with our philosophy and it is recognized that all individuals regardless of age come in with their own cups of life experiences, interactions and reflections which make them unique individuals.

This week, I read the 'emptying your cup' story before my Reiki session. The emptying your cup zen story though seemingly contrasting with the Reggio philosophy, offers equally deep lessons. The difference lies in the hat one wears - the teacher's or that of the learner. Where the 'empty cup' concept asks learners to empty their cup and become more open-minded when going to learn, the Reggio philosophy tells the teacher that learners will bring in their cups -not empty- and that needs to be respected. 

The discussion at this point goes way deeper, about learning, about age, about societal structures, about the varying perspectives  and philosophies of cultures on teaching and learning and it still continues to work its way in my head but this is not what I would like to write about today.

Keeping my reflections and mental debates in the back burner during work, I went on a coffee break to the staff room and got chatting with my teaching colleague and friend Catherine, whose son Joseph was my student some years ago. We talked about the cup being half-full or half-empty and she mentioned that Joe had come up with a different perspective. He said that whether your cup was half-full or half-empty depended on whether you kept drinking from it, or filled it up every now and then. He said that the level of the cup would vary at different times!

It always takes the uncluttered  minds of children to come up with the most rational explanations. Simple, beautiful and so rational! The more I thought about it, the more it all made sense.

Each of us have a cup full of positive emotions inside that we reach out to, every now and then. When we experience moments of happiness, we replenish it; when we experience unhappiness, we reach out to it, we reach out for hope, we reach out for strength and we reach out for love, to regain our sense of balance.

Young minds are bubbly and positive! Every day's a new adventure, simple happenings are celebrated and our cups fill quickly. The older we grow, the more often we reach out for our cups. As we get caught in our professional and social lives and have increasingly lesser time for ourselves, the emotions in the cup recede and we find it more and more difficult to get our sense of balance. We get angry, tired, joyless and often despair at the state of events and even wonder why people around us are negative. But we forget that we might not have taken the time to replenish our cup within us.

Joe's perspective has brought clarity. Inspired, I am drawing my own list of ways to help me fill my cup and keep it brimming. 

• Being grateful for and celebrating the little, big things in my life.
• Taking time out to do things I like - cooking, dancing, listening to good music, reading books and recently zentangling.
• Keeping my happy photos handy! My daughter's photo with her bright beaming smile is my phone screen saver and it makes me smile each time I check my phone.
• Planning a new project.
• Keeping a memory or two of completed projects, always brings a wide smile!
• Keeping updated my happiness file, a simple folder where I add all special memories-notes/cards/scribbles/photos from good times.
• Learning something new.... with my empty cup!

As I get on with my Reiki experience I hope to develop the capacity of filling my cup through richer spiritual experiences. I will go with my empty learning cup and shall work towards replenishing my positive emotions cup.

Cheers to that!

Atima

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