Making Friends With Ourselves

ISBN: 9781847477309
Published: 2008
Pages: 160
Key Themes: meditation, colouring work book for children, preparation for adolescence, exercises, mental health

Reviews

“Caroline Sherwood provides a valuable service to children in helping them weather the thought-storm of adolescence with the ship of meditation built in childhood.” - By Dan Millman, author of The Laws of Spirit

“I became engrossed in Caroline’s book at a time when I was just going to flick through for a quick impression. It’s a lovely and important idea and she has done it beautifully. Please convey my congratulations.” - By Hamish Miller, author of The Sun and the Serpent

“I particularly enjoyed your very friendly and accessible For the Grown Ups – it made a lot of sense and I would read it again before trying out any of the games…I also particularly liked the second part of the Warm Up & Growing Straight…This would be an ideal exercise to use in the Spring Term.” - By Amanda Tildenwalker – Middlesex Teacher
(Amanda also introduced the children of Yellow Class to the Magic Meal exercise and she sent me the pictures they painted after doing the exercise with detailed comments about the children’s responses.)

“I used the book on several occasions with the children aged 7-11, and the activities were generally met with enthusiasm and enjoyment…The Smiling Sunflower was the easiest exercise for them to do…One child commented that she really felt as if she was there…I can definitely say that I observed a willingness in the children to settle down to work more quickly when the activity was preceded by one of your exercises…Really sitting still and really listening are very important skills to learn in the Primary classroom…I would welcome your approach as a way of increasing sensitivity and awareness among children and I believe it has far-reaching connotations…I look forward to seeing your book on the shelves” - By Ann Clayton – Somerset Teacher

“It is great to see work being produced in this area – which as you will know is quite sparse…I like the fresh quality of the book. It has a lot to offer adults as well as children in its sensitive understanding of the child in all of us…The exercises/games are laid out in a clear and simple format which makes them easy to follow…I particularly liked the Purpose/Focus section for clarifying the exercise…I very much like the way you suggest drama and art activities to develop the children’s experience” - By Maureen Treasure – Director of Activities at RIGPA

“Excellent stuff which deserves to be widely read and used by parents and teachers. The meditations are great and the introduction gets right to the true meaning of spirituality. School R.E. these days is stale and uninspiring - little more than facts about different myths and practices, lacking any real spirituality. I was a teacher for 20 years and used to introduce meditation into school assemblies and P.S.E lessons. I often had about 300 kids meditating in the school hall. Many of them loved it. I would certainly have bought a book like yours.” - By Steve Leighton - Former Head of Science, Millfield Preparatory School

Description

Five years elapsed between writing the first edition of this little book and its publication in 1995. It literally dropped into my mind in its entirety during an afternoon’s walk ‘round the block’, over stream and down track in the Somerset village of Stoney Stratton where I was living. It arranged itself in its basic form on the page within one hour of returning home.

Then began the lengthy process of locating and liaising with an illustrator (I did not meet Susanna Masheder until after the book got into print - it was all done by telephone and letter); approaching publishers, getting turned down, making contacts and finally plucking up the courage to self-publish; followed by months of learning to do just that - from library books!

Since the first edition came out, I have been through many changes and deepening of my understanding about the value and purpose of meditation and spiritual life in general and this is reflected to some extent in the additional exercises in this new edition.

Thanks to a handful of enthusiastic non-professional distributors (all friends and acquaintances) the first edition found its way as far afield as Hong Kong, Australia and the United States, as well as all over Britain.

Once the first edition had sold out the project went quiet for a while, though many friends were encouraging me to bring out a second edition. I was sure that if this was to appear, it had to be professionally published. Interesting and challenging as it was to self-publish, I had to teach myself three skills from scratch – publishing, marketing and distribution, and I didn’t want to do this again.

When I met Alixandra Marschani it was a signal that the time had come to resurrect the project. It was too much of a ‘co-incidence’ to find combined in one talented soul a practising meditator, an icon painter and a primary school teacher!

It seems that sometimes I am ahead of my time and this is now an idea whose time has come. So I offer this second incarnation at a time when the value and relevance of material of this kind are becoming recognized and more widely appreciated. I trust it will sow beneficial seeds for the future in many minds, both young and old.

About the Author

Caroline Sherwood was born in London in 1951.

In 1973, after qualifying from Bristol with a drama degree, followed by a year of various therapies, she met John Garrie, and trained with him for 7 years in Satipatthāna-Vipassanā (mindfulness-insight) meditation. Meeting Sogyal Rinpoche initiated several years of Tibetan Buddhist studies, which included the Kum Nye (Tibetan yoga) training at the Nyingma Institute in California.

She has taught courses and retreats since 1980, on themes such as:

• Meditation for everyday life
• Manifesting the life we truly want: becoming all we can be
• Live this year as though it were your last

This book ‘dropped into the crown of her head’ while taking an afternoon walk. It was written in a few hours. The first (self-published) edition went all round the world and sold out.

Caroline is the author of Naming: Choosing a Meaningful Name and (with Tareth) Alchemy and the Grail: The True Healing Path. She is currently working on a book of spiritual memoirs.

Book Extract

Sometimes we’re so busy chattering away to ourselves in our head that we don’t notice how quiet it is underneath. We forget to feel how good it feels inside – how good it is to be ALIVE. Sometimes we forget for so long that we tie ourselves up in knots and then things start to feel uncomfortable.

Most of the time we’re doing things or learning things – or talking. But it’s also important to know what’s going on inside us as well as around us. This is how we start to make friends with ourselves. Have you heard of meditation? Maybe you know some grown-ups who meditate, or who go to classes – maybe your parents do. Well – meditation is a complicated word for making friends with ourselves, by learning to listen to the beautiful silence inside us.

If you get a notebook and a drawing pad to go with this book, you can put down anything special that you notice or anything you want to remember that happens when you do the exercises. This book is set out so that your teacher can read the exercises out to a class. Some of them you can try with one or a group of friends. You can always try all of them on your own as well.

Sometimes there is a little number above a word. Like this 2. This means that there is a note for the teacher at the end of the page (a footnote). I have put it there, because I thought it might be more interesting for your teacher than for you, but of course you can read it if you want to!

There are many wonderful things you can do to get to know yourself better and to become really good friends with yourself. In fact everything we do can become part of our project. This book is to help you to make a start.