Martin The Octopus Gets Real - Children's Sleep Story

I made a story many years ago about Martin the Octopus. Martin is very shy and has learned to change to suit everyone else, he just wants to fit in. He meets Lexi another Octopus, and he sees himself in her. Lexi acts just like him. In this story Martin changes his ways, he learns how to get real, how to learn to love himself. He teaches Lexi how to do the same, and together they learn to love who they are when they are being real and true to themselves!

Transcript

Are you ready to meditate with Corrie?

Make sure that you're all snug and quiet and warm in your bed so that you can relax and listen to this story.

Hopefully you've had a really good day,

Maybe a busy day,

Maybe you're super tired.

Even if you didn't have the bestest of days.

Now it's time to let all of that go because tomorrow is a new day.

Martin the octopus was a really really shy octopus.

He'd always been shy.

From being really really tiny he remembers being shy.

He remembered that first day of preschool was awful.

So many other octopuses,

So many other sea creatures.

It was just overwhelming.

Now I don't know whether you remember but I told a story about Martin the octopus a long time ago.

Martin met someone at school called Lexi,

Another octopus.

And Lexi happened to be just like Martin.

She was shy,

She was very reserved and also Lexi did all the things that Martin did.

Martin had a habit of changing for other octopuses or other creatures or whoever it was that he was in contact with,

He was talking to.

He changed all the time.

He changed his colours,

He changed his behaviour,

He changed his texture.

He just wanted to fit in.

It was like the most important thing for Martin.

He was so frightened that if he was just Martin,

If he was just himself,

Then no one would like him.

So from that really early age when he went to preschool and he was surrounded by all those other octopuses and he was completely overwhelmed,

He learnt that if he was interacting with a certain group of octopuses and he acted just like them,

They accepted him into his group.

Or if someone talked to him and he responded with what he thought they would like to hear,

Most of the time he was right and they would maybe smile or think that Martin was okay or Martin was cool.

But at the end of the day Martin was so frightened to be himself that lots of times he forgot who he was.

Lexi came along and she changed that because Martin got to see exactly what he was doing when he watched Lexi.

In that first story a long time ago Lexi behaved just like him.

She would change all the time to please other octopuses.

She would never act like herself.

She was always scared,

Always shy,

Just didn't really believe in who she was.

And when Martin saw Lexi do this he realised how sad it was and then he got sad for himself because he saw that he did the same thing.

All that time ago Martin also realised that he would like to know the real Lexi.

Who is she really?

Maybe they could be super good friends.

They obviously have a lot in common.

They both do the same thing.

They both are so frightened of being who they are,

Pretending to be other characters or other types of octopuses just to fit in.

Maybe together as a team.

They could figure out who they were and maybe eventually even like themselves.

Because that was the problem you see.

And even though we all do it at times we change who we are to fit in so that we feel like we belong or we feel like we're normal,

More like everyone else.

But the problem with that is you're not being true to yourself.

And when we're not being true to ourselves it gets tiring.

Martin was so tired of pretending to be other octopuses.

He literally was tired.

It was draining.

It was difficult and hard because he had to remember all of these different characters.

He had to remember different ways that he acted with different groups of octopuses.

And sometimes he would get mixed up and sometimes he'd forget.

And he noticed when he was watching Lexi that she did the same thing.

Because in that story a long time ago that's what Martin did for the longest time.

He just watched Lexi.

And Lexi watched him and they wanted to be friends.

But they were just both doing their own thing,

Pretending to be something that they weren't.

Until one day Martin decided enough is enough.

He decided that he was going to stop pretending who he wasn't.

He wasn't going to pretend to be like any other octopus other than himself.

This didn't happen overnight.

This was something that he'd noticed about himself since that very first day he met Lexi.

And he wanted to change.

He wanted to be okay with who he was.

He wanted to be happy with who he was.

Let's say Martin even wanted to love himself.

And he couldn't do that by pretending to be something else.

He had to love all the different parts of who he was.

Accept all the different parts of who he was.

Otherwise who would he be loving?

Who would he be liking?

If he was pretending to be something else how would he know he even liked himself?

Martin had to get real.

No more switching colours.

No more talking different or acting different or being different around other octopuses.

He made a list of all the things that he liked about himself.

He got super brave.

He wrote down all the things he could think of.

Every single little thing that he liked about himself.

It was a long list.

He was surprised.

Then Martin got even braver and he wrote down all the things he didn't like about himself.

And at the top of the list he wrote down he didn't like that he wasn't being real.

Martin tried really hard to work on all the things on the list that he wrote down about himself that he didn't like.

He worked really hard on facing those things.

Maybe accepting those things or changing them if he could change them.

For example Martin didn't like that he instantly changed his colour and his personality to suit someone else.

He didn't like that he never just gave himself a chance.

He could change that.

He could make a promise to himself that he wasn't just going to quickly change and morph into something else.

He was going to be really brave and give every interaction with a different octopus at least one minute.

One minute of being himself completely.

This was difficult for Martin at first but he'd been practicing.

His plan was he was going to go over to Lexi and be totally himself and help Lexi to be herself if she was ready to do that.

And he thought that she was because like I said he'd been watching Lexi from afar.

He could see all the similarities inside of her that he had and until he talked to her he wouldn't actually know for sure if she was unhappy just like he was.

So he practiced.

He practiced being himself for a minute and then he got really good at that and he realized that it wasn't terrible being himself.

Sometimes the minute was really really long.

It felt like 10 minutes.

It was hard to stay being himself.

He felt uncomfortable.

He felt different.

He felt shy all over again.

Felt like he didn't belong.

All of those old feelings running through him.

But he promised that he would change this and he had to try.

He tried and tried.

And every day little by little Martin made changes.

His minute went to a minute and 30 seconds and then eventually to two minutes and then eventually to three minutes.

Three minutes is a long time when you're talking with other octopuses to not change into who they are.

But what happened was magical because Martin realized that by three minutes of being himself if they didn't like him they didn't like him and he was okay with that.

It didn't kill him.

It didn't explode into a million pieces.

It didn't die of embarrassment.

None of his three hearts didn't just fade away because of the sheer torture of it.

None of that stuff happened.

He was okay with not everyone liking him because he realized he didn't particularly like all the other octopuses.

Some of them he did but some of them he didn't and that's because we're all so different.

It's okay to not like everyone and when he discovered that he accepted that not everyone would like him.

That was magical.

He couldn't contain himself anymore.

He needed to share that magic with Lexie.

He swam over to her one day.

She'd been sat at a table at school with three other female octopuses chatting away and he could see that she was struggling.

He waited until she was alone and then he went over and introduced himself and Lexie knew exactly who he was because Lexie saw herself in Martin and she'd been watching him for the longest time.

They chatted a little bit awkwardly at first and Martin noticed within 10 seconds of talking to Lexie she quickly changed colors.

Martin said,

I like all of your colors.

I just wanted you to know.

I'm sorry I haven't been brave enough to come over and make friends with you.

I was really shy but I've been doing this exercise and now I feel much braver and I just wanted to say that I would happily be your friend if you want a new friend.

Lexie was intrigued.

She was thinking about what Martin had just said.

He'd been doing this exercise and now he felt braver.

She liked the sound of that.

Without realizing Lexie switched back to her normal color and she looked at Martin and she said,

What's the exercise?

Martin told her all about his one minute challenge.

He told her he started by making a list of things that he liked about himself.

This really helped him to see all the good qualities,

All the awesomeness about Martin that he'd not even noticed before.

And then he made a list of all the things he didn't like about himself.

That was hard but it helped him to see some of the things on the list,

He said,

Weren't even that bad.

But the ones that I wanted to change,

I decided to make a plan and change them.

And that's how he explained the one minute challenge.

That went to two minutes,

That went to three minutes,

That eventually taught Martin that he could just be himself.

Lexie loved that idea,

Yearned for that idea.

She was tired.

She was tired of pretending to be different characters.

She just wanted to be Lexie.

She knew inside that Lexie was cool.

Lexie was actually really awesome.

But she just got so used to pretending and not being herself.

She asked Martin if he would help her learn the exercise to start to practice.

They did it together all around school.

Every recess,

Every lunchtime,

Every class they had together,

Martin helped her.

And eventually Lexie got super brave,

Got to three minutes and figured out herself that hey,

In three minutes,

If I don't like the octopus or the octopus doesn't like me or I don't like the situation I'm in,

Then I can just leave.

It's not the end of the world.

Lexie and Martin were like twins.

They were together all the time.

After one day,

Martin went on vacation with his family and Lexie was alone at school.

It wasn't until that day that she realized she'd been relying on Martin so much.

She knew she was a lot braver,

A lot more confident,

A lot more comfortable being herself.

But she didn't realize how much she'd been relying on Martin's company and how confident she was when Martin was with her versus when Martin wasn't at school anymore and she was doing it alone.

She was really nervous again.

And for a while there she kind of slipped back into her old ways and she found herself changing colors and changing characters and changing her personality.

But the good thing was that Lexie saw that she was doing it.

She was really patient with herself,

Told herself it was okay,

It's to be expected.

When you're trying to learn something new you always make mistakes or maybe go backwards a little bit sometimes.

No need to be angry at myself.

That won't do anything good.

Which was very,

Very smart of Lexie.

Because when you get angry at yourself for making a mistake then now you're just angry and you made the mistake.

Instead of just saying it's okay,

I'll just try again.

That was a much more positive attitude.

Don't take yourself so seriously.

Everyone makes mistakes.

And then when Martin came back off his vacation Lexie was even stronger,

Even braver,

Even more real.

It did her good being alone.

It made her realize that she could do it eventually without him.

She was brave without Martin.

And she was confident and funny and some days she was shy and that was okay too.

Some days she was quiet and that was okay too.

Some days she was moody but that was okay too.

And both Martin and Lexie realized that it's good to have different days.

It's good to have different parts of your personality.

It makes you interesting.

They liked when they had their moody days because they would just sit quietly together.

They didn't have to talk.

And that was totally okay.

And then some days they both found themselves in really silly funny moods and they would play all different games together.

And that was okay.

The most important thing about Lexie and Martin was they got real.

They became authentically who they are.

They weren't so tired anymore.

They weren't exhausted pretending to be something else.

They could be themselves.

Whether they were liked or whether they were not liked,

It didn't matter.

What mattered was if someone did like them they knew that they liked them because of who they truly were.

And that was a good feeling.

That felt real.

It was worth more than all the fake friends that they had before.

Real true friends that like you for who you are are so much better than fake friends that only like you when you're acting a certain way.

When Martin and Lexie were having quiet days they would find a place all to themselves at recess.

They would both sit as if they were going to meditate.

They would both close their octopus eyes and just relax.

They would relax all of their legs.

They would let the motion of the ocean sway their bodies as if they were just floating there and the movement of the water would gently rock them back and forth as if they were being held.

Or they were laying in a big soft blanket gently rocked back and forth.

They would think about all of the wonderful things that they liked about themselves and as the ocean held them and rocked them it was as if they were being accepted by the whole world.

Loved,

Protected and kept safe just for being special.

The embrace of the ocean and as the water just rocked them and gently swayed them it was so peaceful and quiet.

It was like they were plugging into the oceans energy and recharging all of their cells filling them up with love and acceptance.

That was it.

They felt completely accepted by the ocean.

Accepted by each other but most importantly they were accepting themselves.

The end.

Reviews

Loved 🥰 it I absolutely adore all your stories this is up in favourites thank you so much for making the stories they really improve and brighten my day

~cherry 🌺

Cool

I fell asleep! Good job! 🤗🤗🤗
P. S. Is the other story posted on this app?

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Goood job