Welcome, this is A Glimpse Inside. I’m Wendy Perrotti, and today we’re starting a brand new, four-part series that feels especially important right now; finding peace and living a peaceful life.
So many people believe that living a peaceful life is determined by the circumstances that surround them. A chaotic world yields a chaotic life. And right now, that belief is pulling so many of us deeper into that feeling of chaos. And it’s affecting our children. Here in the US, the CDC and the National Institutes for Health report ongoing increases in anxiety disorders among our kids.
We’re stressed out. Our kids are stressed out, and that’s why I am over the moon about today’s guest. So much so that I broke my rule about having our episode one guest be a casual conversation with somebody I know in real life. Full disclosure, I never met today’s guest before today. But when I read about her, I really couldn’t think of anyone better to help us all start leading a peaceful life.
Shelley Astrof is a doctor of meditation and peace pioneer, which I love, peace pioneer, with extensive training and education. She’s the author of The Knower Curriculum, Timeless Tales, and the co-author of the Ultimate Guide to Self-Healing Techniques, contributing the chapter, Simple Meditation.
With four decades in association with a meditation master in the Himalayas of India, and that’s right, she’s coming to us all the way from the Himalayas, she offers a unique perspective on meditation. By combining her education and meditation experience, she developed a holistic approach to learning, to expand the mind, spirit, and body awareness in children.
Her goal is to help children and adults. One of the things that I read about her, she calls adults grown children or something like that. I’ll ask her exactly what that phrase is, but I loved it. Because I don’t really feel like an adult all the time.
She helps us get grounded in self-awareness and connect with inner-guidance and a sense of wellbeing. The knower of who we are. Shelley, I am so excited to have you. And now that you are my episode one guest on a series, we are officially old friends.
I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much. And the phrase that I’ve always used is children and grown up children.
Children and grown up children. I love it. I love it. I can’t remember where I read it, maybe on Medium, and I absolutely love that. So, you’re here. We’re talking about living a peaceful life. Tell us about all of this incredible work that you do, Shelley.
Well, I was very involved in education for many years. I was an elementary school teacher and I taught curriculum at university. And then I became very involved in meditation. And that started when my husband saw a sign in university that said, improve your marks, learn to meditate. And it, this was the 1970s, and I started to teach my class to meditate.
And it was the inner-city kids, and they weren’t expected to really have the same academic standard. And by the end of that first year of meditating, they were on-par with the school board curriculum.
Wow.
So, all I can say is that whoever put that sign up, learn to meditate and improve your marks, it taught me that meditation makes you smarter and spearhead living a peaceful life. And I developed a program based on all those years of teaching with children, and working with parents, and then meditating and studying philosophy in India.
And I combined what I would say my two loves, which would be one was education, and the other was the theory and practice of meditation. And I wrote a book called The Knower Curriculum, Teach Meditation To Children With Timeless Tales. And I have a children’s book called Timeless Tales, Stories From The Knower Curriculum, which are all the stories that are in the Knower curriculum. And it’s a story book coloring book for the children.
But the knower curriculum, well, the curriculum is a series of subjects that you would have in a program. So I have the theory and practice of meditation, where you learn about the mind, the knower, and meditation. And then there’s the subject on breathing techniques for children. They’re very simplified. And then sound and mantra and yoga, which is the whole-body experience. And then school-type games and activities.
And then each story has a very specific theme that’s very relevant to children today. Or actually, of all times. And with each theme is introduced a different meditation focus. And then discussion questions and vocabulary, and then different breathing exercises that would go with the stories.
If the Fox was doing something for Fox would have done well if he did this breathing exercise and mantra and physical exercise and the activities. So it’s a full holistic approach using the mind, body, and spirit of the child. And of the grownup child. Because actually, a good friend of mine uses this book when she teaches her teacher training classes to adults.
So, it’s quite versatile, and I guess it’s me in words. I was just thinking, when I’d watch these cooking shows, they’d say, “That’s me on a plate.” Well, this is me in my book.
I love that.
It took very, very many years to develop it and to finally get it into words and onto paper. And now I feel like it’s a kind of, it’s a time of blossoming. And it’s wonderful when I hear that a friend whose daughter took the book to her daughter’s class, and she read one of the stories and helped the teacher, and they did some activities.
She said they had the class divided into three groups, and each one had to make a commercial according to one of the stories, and the theme of that particular story. And each story, and each element, and each subject, it’s all based on the noa, which is that internal guidance inside of who you are. And mostly what we do in the program is, you watch your mind and you see that your mind takes the input from all the senses.
And your input comes from your family, and your friends, and your experiences, and everything they’re changeless. And then the way that you come to meet the knower is, when you close your eyes in meditation and you can watch your thoughts, you can watch your breath.
But then if you pause for a moment and you think about who is watching the thought that changes? Who is watching the breath that moves? That is who you really are. And who you really are is that delight, it’s that freedom. And as you watch that in meditation, it’s the source of your power.
So, when you open your eyes again and you come into your daily life, you’re bringing that with you. And so as you meditate, you refresh yourself and it clears your mind from any kind of confusion. Because you really have a chance to look at your mind from a distance. And it gives you a chance to really find that peace within. Because it’s there.
One way that I always talk about The Knower is, if you can remember when you were a baby, or a toddler, and then you grew up and you went to grade school, and then you were a teenager in high school, and you became an adult, and maybe you had family, and we get older.
Now, at whatever stage you’re at, at this point, if someone shows you a picture of you as a baby, everything about you as that child has changed. The body has changed. The mind has changed. The experiences have changed. So who is it that has been you throughout all those changes?
And that is The Knower. That’s who you really are. And you can get in touch with that source of power of who you are through meditation. But it’s not just meditation. It’s also bringing that into your daily life.
Oh my gosh. Okay, Shelley, you know what? I just realized that I’m listening to you, I’m so rapt with what you’re telling, that I forgot to take a break. The network’s going to kill memes.
We’re going to take a really, really quick break here, and be back in just a couple of minutes to learn more about living a peaceful life. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say. This concept of The Knower is fascinating to me. So, we’re going to take just a couple of seconds. When we come back, we’ll dive right back into how you can lead a more peaceful life. And if this stuff resonates with you, if you really love it, Shelley, tell us how we can find out some more about you.
I have a website and it’s knower.ca. And the books are available on Amazon or through the website. We also have, on the website, I started a knower club. It’s called The Knower Club, and it’s where you become a member and there are videoed activities or audio activities of different lead into meditations.
All the poses are little animated features where you can do the exercises with the character, and all the instructions are there, and I’m saying them. And all the breathing exercises and the mantras are said, and a number of the activities, it’s still growing. And all these stories, I read all the stories with all the character voices for people to listen to.
Okay. That is fantastic. So that’s at knower.ca, is that right? So login at knower.ca to get into more of Shelley ‘s world and how to start living a peaceful life. Stay with us, we’ll be right back. We’re going to keep diving in.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
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