Two Inconvenient Women

All of us are former children: a fact so often forgotten and yet so powerful when we remember just what is waiting inside all of us to be re-ignited. Within the wide threads of a conversation on childhood is the desire to tap beneath the cultural stories of modern childhood to re-ignite the essence of wonder that sits within us all and that is being threatened by so many of our modern problems.Growing up in our modern world is so frequently encased with pressure. Beyond the increasing pressures from school, family and the modern world, young people are navigating the hugely fracturing world of social media and - ever increasingly - feeling the weight and burden of the climate and nature crisis. All too often, children are being asked - sometimes tasked - to take on mental responsibilities and concerns well beyond their emotional capacities to hold; and the symptoms of burnout, anxiety, overwhelm and depression are skyrocketing.Knowing that the cultures we're living in shape the way we think, feel and act in the world helps to see and explore why so many different cultural experiences of childhood exist - and by digging beneath the cultural stories, we can start to tap into the essence in all of us that is filled with wonder waiting to re-emerge.So how might shifting the cultures we're living in help keep childhood alive and re-awaken the inner child in us all?In this week's conversation we reference the following:Innocent Child Well-Being Index - UNICEF (PDF)Dutch kids declared the world’s happiest (again) - Positive News (Article)Seven-year cycles of growth: Rudolf Steiner (website)The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt (book/website) There's an inconvenient movement growing...It's not rebellion, exactly. More of a quiet refusal to look away. We're inconvenient. And if you feel it, then maybe you are too. Join us.Join The Inconvenient Club from £5 a month. Find out more at www.thoughtboxeducation.com/the-inconvenient-club Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Singing is a deeply healing and cathartic experience for humans - mentally, emotionally, neurologically and spiritually. It is a primal quality we all possess, and something that has formed an innate and constant part of human culture since the dawn of our species. Singing is a birthright, yet many of us have been told that 'we can't sing'. We often mention singing on this podcast as both Holly and myself (Rachel) are members of our local choirs. Both of us have had very different routes into singing - and perhaps represent some of the different ways that singing has shaped - or absented itself - from our lives.In this week's episode we dive deeply into the many different ways that singing is good for us - from the way it makes us feel, to how it helps soothe our nervous systems, to how it helps forge our connection to others and the wider world. We explore some of the science of singing, the qualities of song in different cultures; the resonance of singing in harmony with others and dabble a little in the profound and extraordinary mystery and magic of where and how music shapes the entire universe.In this episode we reference the following:Wednesday Lunchtime Fun Choir (event / website)The Universal Frequency (website)How flowers talk to bees - David Attenborough (video)Harriet - biopic of Harriet Tubman (film trailer)Spirituals - protest, sacredness and song (website) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There has been a lot emerging in the media recently about countries making decisions to ban social media for under 16s. Australia has been leading the way in this movement, with many other countries now passing legislation through government and widening the public discourse. So why social media? Why 16? Why now?In this week's podcast we begin to untangle many of the complexities that living in an online world is having on our mental, physical, emotional spiritual and social health, in particular how it is influencing the development of children and young people. Drawing wisdom from the depth research of social psychologists such as Jonathan Haidt (whose infamous book The Anxious Generation is waking up millions to the 'disconnection epidemic') we wrangle with some of the questions, complexities, possibilities and opportunities of shifting ourselves away from the trappings of an online world and 'rewiring ourselves' back into healthier connections.In this episode we reference the following:The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt (book)The Social Dilemma - Exposure Labs (Film / documentary)No rush to ban social media - Sonia Livingstone (LSE article)How a handful of technology companies control billions of minds - Tristan Harris (TED talk)Is Social Media making us less social? ThoughtBox (inquiries for 5-18 year olds) **COMING SOONDigital Literacy - Ditch The Label (Lesson resources 13-16 years)**We will be releasing our full Learning for Life resources for free in mid-February- keep an eye on the ThoughtBox website for more details: www.thoughtboxeducation.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the world feels overwhelmingly complex, it is often hard to know where to put our energy; which 'crisis' to give our attention to as it were. You may have come across the term 'polycrisis' as it's fast becoming part of the public lexicon. It's not a particularly cheery term, but it is helpful in making sense of the many interconnected and overwhelming crises that we are facing in our lives. The polycrisis is characterised by feedback loops where one crisis exacerbates another, making simple, isolated solutions ineffective. Which is the greatest inconvenience we face when trying to address them. And yet diagnosing the crisis is the first step to addressing it - and this term is useful in doing just that. In this episode, we wrangle with the complexity of the times we're living in through the frame of the polycrisis; tapping into what we can appreciate from the framing of a 'metacrisis' at the same time, and how looking at changing our perspective on the world is a powerful way to focus on meeting the symptoms and addressing the root cause of a world in crisis. We reference the following during the conversation:Reconnection Retreat - ThoughtBox & Hawkwood College (in-person gathering)The Story of Triple WellBeing - Rachel Musson (free PDF)The Metacrisis is a crisis of meaning - Ernesto van Peborgh (article)Triple WellBeing Practitioner Course (online training course)Tasting the Pickle: Ten Flavours of Metacrisis and the Appetite for a New Civilisation - Jonathan Rowson (essay) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.