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Rebecca Stainton's avatar

Confratulations Maia!!! ❤️

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Maia Duerr's avatar

Thanks so much, Becca!

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Tracee Stanley's avatar

Congratulations. May many more find this important work that has always been timely!

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Maia Duerr's avatar

Thank you, Tracee! I appreciate your words. That's always been my hope, that what I put together in that book would stand the test of time and could offer something to anyone seeking a mindfulness-based way to have work they love.

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hiiragi's avatar

This is illuminating, thank you! Turns out I care more about removing the barriers to education and expression than I do about actually teaching haha

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Maia Duerr's avatar

hmmmm, interesting! does that give you any clues about the next steps in your livelihood journey?

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hiiragi's avatar

Possibly training to be a librarian instead of a teacher. I care much less about what it is that folk learn, more that they are learning what they want to learn, that they have access in a way that is actually useful and accessible to them, that they know how to learn, that they can put that learning into use, and that knowledge from all places, races, spaces etc is preserved. So much of modern teaching is bullshit marking of bullshit lessons for bullshit exams. I'm an assistant teacher now, and kids have grey hair because of exam stress. It's feckless and pointless.

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Maia Duerr's avatar

What a wonderful insight, Hiragi. That sounds pretty accurate, actually, as a critique of what happens in most educational settings. It totally makes sense why you’d have gray hair! It does seem like working in a library might be a better match for your aspirations and intentions.

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Ramona McCloskey's avatar

I love this Maia, a real food for thought. I'll definitely give the exercises a go!

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J Callender Photography's avatar

LOVE this! Such a great prompt and advice for others in a very conventional world.

I think for me, it's to question convention. It's why I struggled for 15+ years of corporate work because it's all so undyingly entangled with convention...and convention that actually makes context and conditions worse with each attempt to make the convention "better."

I love finding viewpoints that throw caution to conventional beliefs and approaches.

So now I make abstract photographic images and make Kombucha from a coffee culture instead of tea.

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Maia Duerr's avatar

Joe, sounds like you really nailed it on your Core Intention: "I love finding viewpoints that throw caution to conventional beliefs and approaches." And right now two forms you're working with are photography and Kombucha-making. Cool! You may also want to consider if that's something you enjoy supporting other people to do, in which case some kind of teaching of facilitating gig might be enjoyable... you could lead a Kombucha-making workshop! But for some folks it's enough to simply recognize that in themselves, and find ways to express it.

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J Callender Photography's avatar

Yes, I certainly imagine teaching kombucha making and ICM photography at some point.

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