Continuing Education

Years ago I attended a captivating presentation given by board-certified child-and-adult psychiatrist, thought leader, best-selling author, and world-renowned keynote speaker Ned Hallowell. I was able to attend the conference through my employer, Landmark School, as part of its program to offer high-quality opportunities for teachers to meet requirements for Continuing Education Units. My deeper interest was personal, however, and lay in my concern for my high-school-aged son who, at the time, was in the messy middle of a number of challenges.

I approached Hallowell at one of the breaks in the presentation to ask a question. I explained that I didn't know if my son was depressed because of struggles in school or if he was struggling in school because he was depressed. How could I sort out what was causing what? Where should I start in my quest to gain traction in helping him resolve the challenges at hand?

Start anywhere, Hallowell asserted. Nothing to sort out. Just start. 

Oh.

Huh.

I'd thought I had to figure out what was chicken, what was egg. That I had to ascertain what came first before I could move forward. In the new light of Hallowell's perspective, it occurred to me that maybe my focus on the what-came-first quandary was just an unconscious way to buffer myself from the pain I was feeling in my circumstances, a fabricated distraction provided by my mind that somehow justified my paralysis and overwhelm.

Indeed, nothing to sort out. Start anywhere. Just start.

As I have today.

very satisfying start;
pencil and posca pen on tissue paper