The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about the diversity of clients I work with and the need to have an individualised approach for each, with an age range from 5 years to 65 years from mild learning difficulties, attention deficit disorders and autism, from mild to severe physical disabilities.

This means varying my approach to meet the needs of each individual even if the overall outcome is the same rather than a one size fits all, being happy with small steps and achievements whilst keeping an eye on the end goal.

One of the most effective tools is leading by example; this is especially useful for the setting boundaries and expectations it is easy for them to follow by example than being told this is what you are to do whilst a poor example is being followed.

The other day one of my little charges a bright young 5 year old was getting into my car and knocked the small picture of Nrsimhadeva, turning around he put his hands on his head then to the feet of Nrsimhadeva with a sorry.

Later on I asked twhy “well that’s what you did a few weeks ago and you told me it was a nice way of saying sorry” Ok so it could be said I over simplified things a bit their only five after all but I was amazed not only that they had picked up on but remembered and when needed respectfully said sorry.

This came up in the same conversation that I have found for some reason a majority of the young children I work with are very much attracted to the picture of Nrsimhadeva, even though I have a small picture of Radha Krishna in my car.

I take the time to relate the pastime taking into account age, ability to understand and time to or from were we are going which could be limited, They love the story so much that they then relate it to their friends and parents, one parent told me how they had missed me over the past month as he had not come home bubbling over with some story I had told him.

There is always an opportunity to share love of Krishna in some way or another, if we are willing to look but we need to be able to have some flexibility to adapt our approach, there is no barriers to those we can reach or engage in appreciating Krishna only the barriers are those we put there ourselves.