As he gallops towards the end of his pre-school era he is bursting with joy and excitement at the prospect of going to ‘big school’. He loves pre-school. He has made many friends and has had many life enhancing experiences over the past few years. Yet he shows no sadness or reluctance about moving forward to his next chapter, only pure innocent excitement, and enthusiasm.

I on the other hand can barely keep it together. I’m fearful and resistant of the formal structure of school and whether he will get lost among the school system, whether he will forget that he loves playing in the mud and climbing trees, whether his thirst for learning will be diminished by the education system and every other catastrophic thought I can come up with.

Without a second thought my little boy is practicing two of the nine pillars that mindfulness rests upon – acceptance and letting go (Jon Kabat- Zinn). His worldview has not yet been tainted by judgement or preconceived notions of what life ‘should’ or ‘could’ be like. Fortunately for him his experiences of injustice have not yet exceeded the refusal of another chocolate biscuit.  His four-year-old mind trusts that it’s time to move on and he isn’t looking back.

Mindfulness helps us to stop and to experience what is real in this moment, the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings. 

My four-year-old does not have to practice this. He lives in the moment. 

Unfortunately for us grownups it no longer come so naturally. We can become a little lost along the way and get tangled up in judgements and pre-conceived notions, worrying unnecessarily about things that have not happened yet and ruminating over the things that have.

By practicing acceptance and letting go we too can approach change with positivity and less hesitation.

‘A beginners mind’ is another pillar of mindfulness, this time learning directly from children. It is based upon the notion that by looking at something ‘as if it was the first time’ will enable us to see something without judgement. By practicing this we can see it for what it is, in that moment, and to accept it as it is.

Over the past couple of weeks I have felt my heart strings being tugged by this upcoming transition to big school. However my four-year-old has reminded me that we do not have to hold things so tight that we are afraid to let them go, and that letting things go allows for growth and transformation. 

If a caterpillar refused to spin its cocoon, we would be deprived of the beautiful butterfly.

Through his eyes he has taught me that this change will be ok, he will be ok.