Azure Wellbeing

09/05/2023

Gillian is a seven-year-old girl who cannot sit in school. She continually gets up, gets distracted, flies with thoughts, and doesn't follow lessons. Her teachers worry about her, punish her, scold her, reward the few times that she is attentive, but nothing. Gillian does not know how to sit and cannot be attentive.

When she comes home, her mother punishes her too. So not only does she Gillian have bad grades and punishment at school, but she also suffers from them at home.

One day, Gillian's mother is called to school. The lady, sad as someone waiting for bad news, takes her hand and goes to the interview room. The teachers speak of illness, of an obvious disorder. Maybe it's hyperactivity or maybe she needs a medication.

During the interview an old teacher arrives who knows the little girl. He asks all the adults, mother and colleagues, to follow him into an adjoining room from where she can still be seen. As he leaves, he tells Gillian that they will be back soon and turns on an old radio with music.

As the girl is alone in the room, she immediately gets up and begins to move up and down chasing the music in the air with her feet and her heart. The teacher smiles as the colleagues and the mother look at him between confusion and compassion, as is often done with the old. So he says:

"See? Gillian is not sick, Gillian is a dancer!"

He recommends that her mother take her to a dance class and that her colleagues make her dance from time to time. She attends her first lesson and when she gets home she tells her mother:

"Everyone is like me, no one can sit there!"

In 1981, after a career as a dancer, opening her own dance academy and receiving international recognition for her art, Gillian Lynne became the choreographer of the musical "Cats."

Hopefully all “different” children find adults capable of welcoming them for who they are and not for what they lack.

Long live the differences, the little black sheep and the misunderstood. They are the ones who create beauty in this world.

Story Credit: Paraphrased from Ken Robinson’s TEDx

GenMindful.com | Make connection a habit.

07/05/2023

07/05/2023

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up, and never give up.

20/04/2023

CHANGE THE WAY YOU SEE

I don’t have crow’s feet,
I have happy happy memories of laughing with friends until the tears flowed.

I don’t have frown lines,
I have the marks of my frustration and confusion, which I battled through, smiling in the end.

I am not going grey,
I have shimmering highlights of wisdom, dashed throughout my silver hair.

I don’t have scars,
I have symbols of the strength I was able to find, when life got tough.

I don’t have stretch marks,
I have the marks of growth and the marks of motherhood. My womanly evolution.

I am not fat,
I bear the evidence of a life filled with abundance, blessings and good times.

I am not just forgetful,
I have a mind so full of stories, memories and moments there is scarce room to hold much else.

I am not old,
I am blessed, with a life of great length, something not everyone can say.

Don’t change the way you look my friend,
change the way you see,

change the way you see.

Donna Ashworth ©️
From ‘To The Women’
UK: https://amzn.eu/d/i8Xpzmu
US: https://a.co/d/2FaN5Ey

Art by the astounding Jonas Peterson

16/04/2023

Remember, most of your stress comes from the way you respond, not the way life is. Adjust your attitude. Change how you see things. Look for the good in all situations. Take the lesson and find new opportunities to grow. Let all the extra stress, worrying and overthinking go.

02/04/2023

~ Boundaries ~

“If you invite someone into your home and they start breaking things and insulting your decor, you don't have to hate them, but you wouldn't invite them into your home anymore.

Boundaries are doing the same thing except your home is your mind. Your home, is your heart. Your home, is your time and your life. Uninvite the guests who don’t know how to treat your home with respect.”

— Doe Zantamata

[ Artist • Soey Milk ]

08/03/2023

TO THE WOMAN WHO IS SLOWLY FADING AWAY...

To the woman who has lost her spark.
To the woman whose get up and go, has well and truly gone.
This is for you.
This is to remind you whose daughter you are.
This is to remind you, that you don’t have to be everything to everyone, every day.
You didn’t sign up for that.
Remember when you used to laugh? Sing? Throw caution to the wind?
Remember when you used to forgive yourself more quickly for not always being perfect.
You can get that back again.
You really can.
And that doesn’t have to mean letting people down or walking away.
It just means being kinder to you, feeling brave enough to say no sometimes.
Being brave enough to stop sometimes.
And rest.
It starts the moment you realise that you’re not quite who you used to be.
Some of that is good, some of that is not.
There are parts of you that need to be brought back.
And if anyone in your life is not okay with that... they are not your people.
Your people will be glad to see that spark starting to light up again.
So, if you have been slowly fading away my friend, this is the time to start saying yes to things that bring you joy and no to things that don’t.
It’s really pretty simple.

Donna Ashworth
From ‘to the women’

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08LRGWY74/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QXYBP1XQNKBHB07D6QHC

Image by Kevin Carden

04/02/2023

I think this, for me, is one of the most practical ways to heal from a loss. By seeing it ‘big picture’. It helps. My love to all grieving.
My grief poetry book is on sale today. For all who need it.