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Conversations | Day 129 of my 2023 Journal

Cecilie Conrad·May 9, 2023

In the flow of life, as it goes, we rarely stop to think about how much effort goes into conversations. Communication is crucial for human life; we need to communicate to survive and thrive, we learn from communication and we share so much more information than the spoken word when we communicate. The tone of voice, the timing, the body language, how we carry ourselves, the frequency.

I have experienced with the co-living this past month and how the constant communication has been draining my batteries.

I am here to do it, to make friends and to have conversations with like-minded, but at the same time, I observed how I would fall asleep in the afternoon every day the first week and how my brain sometimes needed a serious reset, how I drink a lot of coffee.

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We are often asked how our children can develop their social skills when they are not in school, and I find it hilarious.

The school is an artificial social field where every single person is under a lot of pressure, and the anxiety level is tremendous.

The risk of falling out of the cliques, of being the one to be mocked, of being laughed at, or of failing the academics is always there, and the consequences are brutal if it happens.

How can you communicate freely and with authenticity in such a context, and how can you learn to navigate REAL social life when you are never exposed to it?

The unschooled life is very much led by communication, by having enough time to talk to people, first of all, each other.

In this way, all angles of communication will be covered and reflected upon, all insecurity can be worked on, and all doubt can be solved.

And as it happens, a lot of learning happens in the conversations.

Stop to think about the things you know. In most cases, you don’t know why you know it. In many cases, you will realize you know it because someone told you.

Communication is hard work, and it seems to me it is one of the most important jobs we have as humans: To communicate clearly and from the heart.

Love and light

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Cecilie Conrad

# 129 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here 


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Unschooling and Parent consulting, conversations, blogposts, and podcasts on family life and learning

Hi, I'm Cecilie Conrad. I'm a trained psychologist, mother of four, radical unschooler and full-time traveller. I have lived with unschooling for over a decade and help other families find their own path – whether it is about homeschooling, unschooling, or the bigger question of how you want to live as a family.

I offer guidance, conversations and talks. I call my work grandmothering – not coaching in the traditional sense, but presence, professional insight and concrete help navigating motherhood and finding your way home to your own values.

Am I the right person to help you? You can book a free discovery call, and we'll talk and figure it out.

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I share my knowledge and curiosity about family life and learning in my two podcasts.

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