Interview with Self-Care Author, Sandy Bothmer

Sandy Bothmer spent 20 years as an elementary school teacher. Drawing from the techniques and exercises from her book Creating the Peaceable Classroom, she offers Peaceable Classroom and Peaceable Living workshops to school communities (teachers, students, and parents) and to non-school groups interested in self-care techniques for creating greater inner calm and vitality for more relaxed, heart-centered living.

What was your path towards publication like?
My path towards publication was actually a surprise!

I received a letter from my original publisher, Zephyr Press in Tucson, AZ, mentioning that they had seen the brochure to Confratute, an educational conference on enrichment in learning held at the University of Connecticut in July each year that listed one of my classes Creating a Healthy Classroom Community and they wondered if I had ever considered making the workshop into a book…

I gave the idea some thought and called the Acquisitions Editor to discuss her question.

I mentioned that the techniques covered in the workshop were non-traditional: yoga, centering, breathing patterns, spirals and labyrinth to mention a few.

Her comment was, “It’s all in how you present it.” I agreed with her.

There was some back and forth and by April, I received word that they were going to offer me a contract, which I signed. The first book came out in 2003.

As is often the case in publishing, Creating the Peaceable Classroom had a few publishers along the way and is now in a new home, Hobblebush Books.

The editor and staff at Hobblebush are right on board with the content of the new, expanded and revised edition. It is richer and fuller offering more techniques and exercises, new charts/tools, and a Parent Connection and Special Ed Connection sections in most chapters. In its new form, it can be considered a resource for school and home for cultivating inner calm and vitality for more relaxed, heart-centered living.


What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to pitching yourself as an author and what steps have you taken to overcome that obstacle?
By nature, I am not a self-promoting person. With the publication of the new edition of my book, I am attempting to think outside the box as to where and whom to introduce my book. Fortunately, my publisher’s marketing person is helping me with that as well.

Perhaps even more important, is bringing to mind each day why I wrote this book in the first place. My mission is to help young and old learn that there are techniques they can learn to enjoy a happier, healthier, heart-centered life. Bringing this to mind helps me pitch my book more readily.


How do you balance your life as an entrepreneur with your duties as a parent or spouse?
Fortunately for me, I have a husband who is extremely supportive of my work and I of his. Our children are grown and on their own so I don’t have the everyday issues that some writers have with young children to care for 24/7.

I try to keep my work hours to what most consider the 9-5 p.m. workday, whether it be writing related or teaching related, though sometimes I get a second wind in the evening after dinner.

We look at our calendars to see what we each have going and see what our common “at home times” are. Also, we enjoy a breakfast out together most weeks which gives us an opportunity to have friendly discussion or talk about an issue that needs tending to without distractions of house related tasks to be done getting in the way. Sometimes, my husband comes with me to an event for support and as a logistics assistant, which gives us an opportunity while traveling to have uninterrupted communication time. Finding time


What is your best advice for getting past writer’s block?
Sometimes, I leave my work for a bit to give my mind a break and come back to it more refreshed. Most often I use a spiritual technique. I stop and call upon my ethereal helpers to give me the best words needed to get my writing moving again. This always works. It may take a few minutes of stillness, but it never fails. What is best is if I remember to ask for guidance in my writing before I start. When I do, the words flow effortlessly; they move through me with ease.


What was the best writing related advice you ever received?
“Keep at it.”

When my children were young, and I lived in a western suburb of Chicago, I was writing picture books for children. I would make a list of the publishing houses I wanted to send my manuscript to. At the top, was the publishing house I most wanted my book to be published with, and underneath, others I would be pleased to publish with as well. I would reach for the stars, but if I didn’t make it to that one, I had yet another star to begin to reach for immediately. Though I never published a picture book, I did begin to receive personalized rejection notes encouraging further stories.

Unfortunately, when I moved to the east coast, my picture book writing came to a halt due to personal issues and the lack of a support group like I had in the Chicago area.


Many years later, when “Peaceable Classroom” was homeless, I kept at the search for another publisher. In the end, a publisher right around the corner from me, whom I had earlier dismissed, was the star that I was able to reach.


What do think is the single most detrimental thing an entrepreneur could to destroy his/her career?
I think the most detrimental thing an entrepreneur can do to destroy his/her career is to stop believing in his/her work and its worthiness. There are always ups and downs.

The ups flow and bring one confidence in himself/herself and his/her work.

The downs often hide or blur one’s confidence and belief in himself/herself and his/her career.

At such times, one needs more than ever to believe in himself/herself and see the down time as bringing a gift, for it is there, if one only looks for it. Trusting that all is unfolding in the most perfect way helps to weather the times of uncertainty or turmoil. Belief in Self, Finding the Gift, and Trusting the Process are food for success.


Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book?
The first part of Creating the Peaceable Classroom offers techniques for creating a nurturing and supportive classroom environment for all who live and work there. I’ve expanded this part of the book by adding new charts and tools including an example of finding a feng shui solution to a classroom issue. It takes you step-by-step through the process of altering the issue so that balance returns to the classroom environment, which translates, into improved student interactions and behaviors.

The second part of the book addresses how the teacher and the other adults in the school-wide community can transform their state-of-being so that they can all do their best work. Exercises and techniques to help relax or energize the body and mind are offered. They include breath work, meditation, yoga, and qigong as well as others techniques to help you move through distractions that make it difficult for you to attend to the matters at hand. It is essential for the adults who work with children to know how to change their state-of-being because their state-of-being has a direct impact on the children in their care.

Eric Jensen, the author of numerous books on brain compatible education has said that, “The best teachers will know how to influence learners’ states and moods; and how to better manage their own feelings.” I believe this is true for all in the school community, which is why this book is so important.

The third part of Creating the Peaceable Classroom is full of techniques and exercises that will help students create an inner climate of clam and vitality so that they can be the best learners and young people they can be. Centering techniques including creative visualizations are offered as well as using breathing patterns, spirals, labyrinths, mandalas, and yoga to name just a few. If our children can learn how to adjust their state-of-being at a young age with the help of caring adults, they will enter adulthood more balanced and empowered than those who have come before them. This outcome will not only be good for them but for the world as well. Their world will be more heart-centered and at-east than our world is now.


What was the most difficult aspect of writing the book?
Cutting text was probably the most difficult thing for me.

In the new version, I was not given a specific page count and so I wrote, and wrote, and wrote… adding numerous beneficial techniques and exercises to the old text as well as enhancing some of the original sections. When I turned in the manuscript, I was told it was longer than expected, and that I needed to cut at least twenty pages.

Determining what to exclude was very difficult. It was a matter of carefully examining the techniques and determining which ones would be the most useful.

I also wanted to introduce the reader to the work of a couple of practitioners whose work I endorse and use frequently in my own work. As a result, I cut a few of the exercises from the original book and found places where I could tighten my writing. It wasn’t easy but thoughtful consideration and carful editing brought the page count down.


Did you have to do any special research for your book?
I did not have to do special research for my book. My research involved a search for existing research that supported the efficacy of some of the techniques I recommend in the book.


If you could choose just one thing for your book to accomplish, what would it be?
My hope is that those who read my book, young and old, will become empowered to take care of themselves. That they will learn that there is much that they can do on their own (Young children will initially need the assistance of their care takers.) to transform their states and moods for a happier, healthier, and more fulfilled life.


What’s ahead for your writing?
At the moment, I have a picture book in the works that speaks to some of the relaxation and rejuvenation techniques described in Creating the Peaceable Classroom. It’s about a little girl who answers her visiting grandmother’s question, “What have you been doing in school, Rosie?” Rosie has lots to share with (and teach) her grandmother about what happens in Ms. Smiles’ class!

You can learn more about Sandy Bothmer at www.peaceablepathways.com

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This post was sponsored by The Dabbling Mum.

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