I love the backpack activity! What you carrying - what you shedding - what new things do you want space for. Simple, powerful and wondrous, like all of your ideas 🪁 Also, inspired by you, am gonna throw a lil fail-a-brations party, starting in India. Hope to create it in a trail of cities! Will post about it soon. So excited about it. Thank you for flying and helping others fly, Brad. Big love. 🎈
Brad, this is great and so very true for many of us if we choose to admit it or not. Thank you for always challenging me to become a better person. Love you!
Whoa. We just did some work with our backpacks in my 5th grade classroom. IT WAS INTENSE. I told the kids that their backpacks were for them and they didn't have to share anything that they put in them with anyone else (including me). The things some of them did share were pretty intense. WOW! They were all pretty blown away by the things they learned about the kids that sit next to them on the bus, in the classroom, and in the lunchroom.
After we finished our conversation, I passed out a blank backpack paper, and the kids filled it with things they want to carry around with them.
Such a cool tool, makes me wonder what other visual guides we could make to help unpick and unpack so many other things we all struggle with. I’m going to muse on it a bit and see what I come up with. Thanks for the inspiration!
Several years ago I did a similar exercise with a group of grade 8s. I was only supposed to watch them so they wouldn't get up to too much mischief, but instead I told them to take out pen and paper, draw a backpack and identify things they are carrying. They really engaged with the activity, which sometimes seems like a miracle when you're teaching haha. What I also want to add is that I don't think I had ever seen your resource, especially if you're only sharing it on the interwebs now. All to say, isn't that cool. :)
Backpacks are used effectively when teaching kids to dump negative emotions—we use rocks brightly painted with words like shame and blame and fear, etc. When they pick up the pack sans rocks and feel how light it is to carry they begin to learn how to let go using their other senses.
I wrote a poem once about the backpacks that we all carry as we go through life and pick up things and lay other things down! Love to see this metaphor
Beautifully human: simple and deep at the same time. Thank you for sharing the backpack in its original version and the empty version that holds all the potential.
Love this visualization. A tremendous gift Brad.
I love the backpack activity! What you carrying - what you shedding - what new things do you want space for. Simple, powerful and wondrous, like all of your ideas 🪁 Also, inspired by you, am gonna throw a lil fail-a-brations party, starting in India. Hope to create it in a trail of cities! Will post about it soon. So excited about it. Thank you for flying and helping others fly, Brad. Big love. 🎈
Brad, this is great and so very true for many of us if we choose to admit it or not. Thank you for always challenging me to become a better person. Love you!
This is brilliant! Am gonna try this exercise with my students :)
Whoa. We just did some work with our backpacks in my 5th grade classroom. IT WAS INTENSE. I told the kids that their backpacks were for them and they didn't have to share anything that they put in them with anyone else (including me). The things some of them did share were pretty intense. WOW! They were all pretty blown away by the things they learned about the kids that sit next to them on the bus, in the classroom, and in the lunchroom.
After we finished our conversation, I passed out a blank backpack paper, and the kids filled it with things they want to carry around with them.
Wow! My heart is broken and full.
Thank you for work, Brad.
This is so beautiful! Such a useful tool, and how great that it's making its way to so many people! Thank you for sharing so generously!
So, so good! What a gift that this has spread so widely. It reminds me of Robert Bly's description of the shadow: "the long bag we drag behind us." It's a great little book. https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-little-book-on-the-human-shadow-robert-bly/20894427?ean=9780062548474
Such a cool tool, makes me wonder what other visual guides we could make to help unpick and unpack so many other things we all struggle with. I’m going to muse on it a bit and see what I come up with. Thanks for the inspiration!
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it, Brad.
Such a great concept. Thank you for sharing this, made my day.
Several years ago I did a similar exercise with a group of grade 8s. I was only supposed to watch them so they wouldn't get up to too much mischief, but instead I told them to take out pen and paper, draw a backpack and identify things they are carrying. They really engaged with the activity, which sometimes seems like a miracle when you're teaching haha. What I also want to add is that I don't think I had ever seen your resource, especially if you're only sharing it on the interwebs now. All to say, isn't that cool. :)
Brad You are so perceptive and talented. You are a blessing more than you can even imagine!
Backpacks are used effectively when teaching kids to dump negative emotions—we use rocks brightly painted with words like shame and blame and fear, etc. When they pick up the pack sans rocks and feel how light it is to carry they begin to learn how to let go using their other senses.
I wrote a poem once about the backpacks that we all carry as we go through life and pick up things and lay other things down! Love to see this metaphor
Beautifully human: simple and deep at the same time. Thank you for sharing the backpack in its original version and the empty version that holds all the potential.
Wow, a beautiful idea. Feels like we all could use the exercise, especially in these times. Nice post !