In the August of 1999 I was sitting in on an 11 day Silent Vipassana Mediation course, I was heavily pregnant with my second child Sai-Isa and if he hadn't come 2 weeks late I would have given birth 3 weeks after the course had finished. It was a gruelling time, feeling the heaviness and weight of my big boy growing daily inside of me, all the while sitting, sitting, sitting. In fact we were to sit for 10 hours of mediation per day. It doesn't sound like much, hey we were just "sitting around" right. But it's a whole new challenge on the body and mind! As the teacher Goenka says, "It's like having a surgical operation on the mind"
So here we were, for the first 3 days purely observing the sensations on and around the nostrils. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. And how my lovely mind would wander! It would wonder all over the place, thinking of this person and that person and this place that I would like to go, and how I needed to get more nappies for my little baby girl, (I was so sure that He was a girl!) and on and on my mind would go! And then, oh that's right I've got to observe my nostrils, so back I'd go again to my nostrils and the whole process would repeat itself. Now I am aware that anyone reading this who is not all that interested in mediation, is probably thinking, "My oh My, this girl has really lost it! And it would seem like that, I mean hey just focusing on the nostrils for 3 days is actually, literally enough to make anyone lose it. However having said that, I am ok and thousands of people all over the world do this technique, with great success!
So, as I was saying, with so little to keep the mind occupied, it did wander. Now one concept that my mind kept on coming back to again and again was the idea of wearing my baby in a Sling and bonding with it in such a beautiful and natural way! I was thinking all about it, the fabric that I could use, how it would best fit the body, oh that's right the nostrils, but if I could just design it like this and do that and take this bit of fabric around here, and carry my baby like that, oh dear there I go again, back to the Nostrils! So this was my inner dialogue for those 11 days. Wrestling with my inner "demons" which turned out to be the Baba Slings that we have today.
At first it was going to be something to carry my Baba around in as I was not satisfied with any of the commercial carriers on the market. Then it hit me, no one was doing anything like this on the Sunshine Coast where I live. That was it! I had found my Calling. I was going to serve the community in one of the most sane ways that I knew how. To make Baba Slings available so that people could wonderfully Bond with their Babies. My life was finally starting to make sense! I so strongly believed that if we connect with our children at the deepest level, especially when they are so little then they will shine throughout their lives and have that sense that everything will be ok, even in troubling times. This was my gift to share with anybody who understood the importance of carrying.
It was just going to be a little pocket money in the beginning, something to do in my spare time while looking after the children! But then the more Baba Slings that were sold the more that people would want them and every year our sales doubled. Today, it still gladdens my heart sooooooooo much when I see a little one being carried safely in their Baba Sling snuggled up close with Mama or Papa! And the emails and letters that we get about how their baby had such terrible colic and didn't stop crying, who now sleeps like a "baby" in it's Baba Sling. And how Mum can finally do all the infinite chores that need to be done, because she has her hands free. They keep coming in. Anyway needless to say I feel incredibly happy that so many people are benefiting!
I would like to thank everyone along the way who has helped in the conceiving of and giving birth to Baba Slings. Including all our valued customers and all the people in future who will become involved.
I would especially like to give all the credit to the inspiration behind it all, and you know who you are.
With Love in my Heart to Humanity.
May this world become Heaven on Earth
Shanti & The Baba Slings Team!
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