This book was recommended reading in one of the movement lectures with Jane Swain. The full title of the book is : My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. Of all people in this world to have a stroke...this woman, a neuro-anatomist,...takes a stroke. and is actually able to heal her mind and come back from it..not the same person...but dare I say a new and improved person with higher cognitive functioning. And then writes a book detailing her experience. The book was mentioned with respect to the work of Emmi Pikler, the late Pediatrician from Budapest. Pikler's work focused on deep respect of the child...most especially the very young infant...or rather how not to treat the infant as an object or a piece of laundry that needs to be maintained but as a true individual...a soul with flesh. Dr. Taylor after her stroke, reverts in many ways to an infantile state. As her left brain was injured...she lost the ability to speak, her vocabulary, her ability to sense herself as a solid object with boundaries, her ability to decipher symbols representing words or numbers, her ability to perform mathematics. Most interestingly she lost what she terms, "her story-teller" or rather the chattering voice inside our brains which constantly reminds us of who we are, what our likes and dislike are, what time it is, what needs to be done next etc. I was immediately reminded of the "monkey mind" that one is asked to observe without interaction during meditation practice. So Dr. Taylor lost alot of the information or access to the information she had accumulated all her life. She was left in what she describes as a really beautiful place where she felt total oneness with everything she encountered. She was not hurried, she was enraptured by various objects in her environment. She was acutely aware of the vibe present from various individuals. She could intensely feel if someone were impatient with her or if they were ignoring her and just going through the motions of her bodily maintenance. She also acutely felt the warmth and radiance of those that projected true love and caring for her. To save herself from the trauma of the bad vibe experiences, she would just shut down so as not to interact with those individuals. She couldn't get up and leave their presence as she was unable; she could not voice what their presence was doing to her; so she would just shut down from the inside.
We as caregivers to the young child would do well to take these insights into our being. These young children who are mostly sense organs, still experiencing the oneness with all, are so effected by our inner intention. The idea that I need to check in with myself constantly to see where I am is a bit daunting. However, am I changing these three children's diapers in a hurry because we are late for outside time and they still need their fifteen layers of winter gear?...And how dare they have just decided to poop when we were at the bathroom not 15 minutes ago......
This reminds me of some of the writings of Kim John Payne (Simplicity Parenting) where he mentions the hurried harried parents of today. We have our checklists for the day and must drag the children along to our activities and their activities...without having enough time to allow the children to find a pleasant stopping point...a harmonious place where the transition might be easier. I know I have taken his words to heart a bunch this summer. I have really simplified my schedule. When I am alone with my youngest son...or I have him and a few others to care for.....there are no huge outings...just easy transitions from inside to the outside (be it the woods, or the pool, or the garden) with food breaks and rest breaks peppered in.
In Dr. Pikler's philosophy, the time spent on the care of the young child is the most meaningful of our daily interactions with them...That time is when the most eye contact is made, the most loving, soft physical touch is used, the most softly spoken words are voiced...we are filling up the child then with care and love. How did Dr. Pikler gain such insight into these moments with children? And here we have validation of her insights from the insights of a 21st century stroke-recovered neuro-anatomist. Indeed, in the infantile state...those times of physical care can be blissful or traumatic depending on the state of the caregiver.
Dr. Taylor goes on in her book to describe how she so wanted to stay in the state of her right-mind or rather the state of bliss and oneness with the cosmos...but she had to make a great intention to heal her left mind and take back access to those lost information files. While lots of knowledge came back to her over time, lots of baggage came back too. She was in a unique place, a third-person sort of perspective, to recognize that which was not her true being...her being of fluid and oneness...and that which was impatience, or judgement, or anxiety. She made a conscious choice to minimize her neurological stimulus in those areas of her brain and to stimulate the areas that she found acceptable to the new her. She gives information on how we , without a stroke, can access our bliss space...and be aware of our "story-teller's lies" and acknowledge them but give them no energy.
All in all, I found this book to provide a wealth of advice for my work with very young children...And am most glad it was mentioned during lecture.
No comments:
Post a Comment