Surbhi

For years I worked as a data scientist. But alongside my career, I had been practising mindfulness in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. A wish kept growing in me: to pass these seeds on to children, so they can learn early in life how to deal skilfully with the richness of their inner world. So I changed direction, and became a children’s mindfulness trainer.

The children have taught me more than any dataset ever did. One girl used to roll her eyes and pull faces during my lessons, and at first it unsettled me. Everything changed when I started seeing the fearful child behind it, using those reactions to protect herself. Slowly she opened up, and one day she shared with the group that some children at school were not kind to her. I thanked her for her trust.

During the story about the boy who invites everyone to his birthday party, one child protested: he found it scary to think of inviting unkind people. I asked him: “It’s always your choice who you invite, but is there something this story teaches you?” He thought for a moment and said: “I learnt that I could let them be. I don’t have to be bothered by them.”

What I’ve learned above all: children feel your energy. When I am stable in my practice, the space feels stable for them. And what I want to offer them, I want to offer myself too, that gentleness is where the real work begins.

If there is one thing this work has confirmed, it is this: I love doing this. Next, I’m learning Dutch, so that one day I can bring mindfulness into Dutch schools as well.