My assistant principal does her very best to inspire our little school. I’ve been an elementary teacher for a loooong time! It’s so nice to come to work and know that we will laugh and smile because of something she’s cooked up! She is always dressing up and celebrating special days like national angel food cake, national coffee ice cream day and national chocolate cupcake day. This time she gave the teachers a different Simon Sinek quote on their door. My quote was, “When we help ourselves, we find moments of happiness. When we help others, we find lasting fulfillment.”

Simon Sinek is an author and motivational speaker about life, leadership, and doing the right thing. Sinek’s quote makes me think of how important it is to maintain yourself before you try to help others. My first thought was meditation…It’s like changing the oil in your car! We run better and are more able to help others and do our job when we’ve created space in our heads to focus, de-stress and be our best self. The essence of meditation is kindness…it softens the mind, nurtures the heart, and allows us to reconnect with the people and world around us. 

Sinek reminds me of Andy Puddicombe (the Headspace meditation co-founder). I think that Sinek and Puddicombe are both all about improving relationships and they way we live our lives.

Andy Puddicombe is a former Buddhist monk and the voice of Headspace. He says this about meditation…, “No chanting, no sitting cross-legged but rather just a really a quick and easy way to de-stress, focus and improve your relationships, sleep and overall way of living.”

Meditation is a part of my daily life. It helps me de-clutter my mind. There’s a healing and healthy feeling after I’ve meditated that helps me remember my connection to the universe and recover a sense of peace. I chase happy feelings! I chase them right into a ballet class. After I’ve carved out space to take ballet, I feel elated…like my true self. When I’m dancing, I’m speaking the hidden language of my soul. After this gift to myself, I come home a better mother, wife, teacher, daughter… It’s these moments of happiness that prepare us to help others.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite people, Grace Kelly. She said, “I would like to be remembered as someone who accomplished useful deeds, and who was a kind and loving person. I would like to leave the memory of a human being with a correct attitude and who did her best to help others.”

Grace Kelly had the right mindset and was mindful just like Sinek and Puddicombe.

Have you seen the documentary “I Am?”  It has interviews with prominent philosophers and spiritual leaders (including Archbishop Desmond Tutu) about what ails the world and how to improve it. It’s about how we should be compassionate and empathetic towards one another and shows through science how mankind’s true nature lies in helping one another and how some day maybe we can all be truly happy and help others. Everyone in the world should be required to see it.

Watching Tom Shadyac’s “I AM” can be a transformative experience. Shadyac says “The solution begins with a deeper transformation that must occur in each of us.  I AM isn’t as much about what you can do, as who you can be.  And from that transformation of being, action will naturally follow.”

The quote that my principal left on my door made me think about people like Puddicombe, Sinek, Shadyac and even Grace Kelly…what resonates with me and what I feel is natural is to be mindful to yourself so that you can be mindful to others.