Loving Ourselves

This week some grades of the PYP had a special visit by the members of a Dutch Organization, ‘Verkering Met Jeself’, which loosely translates to ‘My Relationship with Myself’. The name of the organization offers insight into the focus of their work area. Two members, Mariette Reineke and Diana Renfurm [mother of 3 students at MBIS] visited PYP 5, PYP 3 and PS 1 with the aim to promote of introducing the concept of “Self Love”.

Mariette and Diana read different age appropriate books to the students which provoked thoughts and discussion on the topic. ‘My No. 1 Job’ was read with the PYP 5 that took them through the journey of one’s important jobs, such as  cleaning their room, taking care of their health, however, highlighted that their NO. 1 JOB remained to love themselves!

PYP 3 heard a story titled, ‘Woops is my Favorite Word’ that focused on the important subject of making mistakes and learning something from them! PS 1 also read a book which spoke about how they may be different from the outside, however, they are all beautiful because of they were born beautiful from the inside!

The concept of loving oneself for who we are, is an important lesson of acceptance of our-self with all the positives, faults and flaws. Understanding that one doesn’t need to wait to become perfect in order to love oneself allows us to reflect carefully on our behaviors and builds the foundation for positive change and growth. Practicing self-love is crucial to develop qualities of empathy, kindness and compassion. It adds to self-esteem and self-worth; qualities essential to lead happy lives.

Introducing a topic which examines our relationship with ourselves at an age as young as four allows one to learn to take responsibility of our own happiness. We look forward to extending this learning into other grades of PYP and the secondary school through our PSE lessons and hope that Ms. Diana and Ms. Mariette can visit us again.