My Bubble Boat
Hi again.
We're going to go to your magical island,
Where your hidden pool is under the coconut trees.
And this time,
We're going on a boat ride.
Take a deep breath,
As deep down into your stomach as you can.
Now,
Hold it while I count to three.
One,
Two,
Three.
And let it out.
Now,
Take another deep breath for as long as you can inhale.
And when your lungs are totally full,
Let your breath out as slowly as you can.
Those breaths made us feel pretty good.
But we can feel better.
We can feel as good or as lousy as we choose.
But feeling good feels better than feeling bad.
And in our magic island,
It always feels good.
This time when we go,
We're going to step right up to the secret pool in the middle of our tiny castaway island.
The sky is so blue above us.
And the air is warm.
We can hear birds and even a monkey and banana trees full of bright yellow and even red bananas.
We hear the bubbling sounds of our fizzing magic pool of treasure,
The one that's surrounded by boulders and coconut trees,
And that's only as deep as our ankles.
We see the two big boulders where the bubbling,
Brilliant light comes out in waves.
And this time,
We notice a slide made right out of rock with the sparkling,
Bubbling,
Flowing light running down it.
It looks even more fun than water because it's dry and feels like feathers tickling us when we slide in it,
Which is what we do right now,
Climbing up the rocks and sitting at the very top of our slide.
The slide is rainbow colored,
The same colors as the rainbow pebbles in our pool of abundance
that's filled with half-buried treasures everywhere we look.
As we sit here for a minute at the top of the slide before we go down,
We realize how nice it is to be here.
The air smells like honey,
So sweet.
It's peaceful here with the birds chirping and the flowing,
Bubbling sounds.
And so,
We count to three and go down the long,
Slippery slide.
One,
Two,
Three.
Down we go.
As we glide,
The slide seems to go for a long time,
And we feel the funniest sensation as all of our old,
Yucky feelings slip right out of us,
Whooshing away behind us.
If we were angry today,
Or we had our feelings hurt,
Or we fought with someone,
Or we were yelled at or made to feel bad or even dumb,
We see how all those feelings got caught at the top of the slide.
They didn't come down with us.
They came right out of us.
And now,
We're empty of them.
We feel that big,
Nice emptiness inside us where those feelings used to be.
We land with a big splash,
Like landing on a bed of feathers.
And the light and bubbles and sparkles fly up around us.
In fact,
Our splash made so many sparkles and bubbles
that they're now coming together and sticking,
Forming a magic boat.
It's made of strong,
Clear bubbles and strings of light,
Like clear Christmas lights.
Your bubble boat is silver and golden,
Iridescent,
And it shimmers in the sunlight.
And it's just your size.
You peek over the edge and see that it's filled with soft blankets and pillows.
You put out a finger and poke it,
But the boat doesn't break.
These bubbles never break.
They're so strong,
But they feel squishy and bouncy,
Like a bouncy house.
So you climb into the boat,
And inside are all the things that make you feel comforted.
A blanket,
Maybe.
Or a stuffed animal.
Or your pillow.
Or your most favorite toy.
You cuddle with it or hold it,
And as you do,
Your boat begins to move.
You put your hand over the side and touch the bright,
Sparkling light below you.
And you realize right now that you're in a perfect place.
You're safe here and protected.
You feel calm here.
There's nothing to be upset about.
Whatever has upset you today is not here.
It's someplace else.
And whoever made you feel bad isn't here either.
You don't have to carry those feelings anymore,
Those upset or hurt feelings.
You let a bunch of them whoosh out of you when you went down the slide.
But if there are more,
You sense where you're holding them inside you.
Do you feel them in your heart or chest?
Does it feel heavy or sad there?
Or maybe these feelings like to hide in your stomach.
Maybe they like to hide up above your eyes in your head.
You can feel them in you.
The last little bits left.
And they don't belong in your magic island,
In your oasis full of treasure.
And especially not in your magic boat.
So,
You take another big breath in.
In,
In slowly.
And as you do,
You feel the air go in right where those feelings are and unstick them from you.
As you breathe out again,
All those feelings come out of you like gray,
Misty fog.
Out and away.
Because your boat is sailing forward now.
You can feel the soft breeze in your hair.
You breathe in one more time.
Breathing in right now.
And letting the good,
Cleansing,
Clear,
Magical air go all through your body.
And you let it out.
Breathing out whatever remains in your head,
Heart,
Or stomach that might have felt heavy,
Sad,
Hurt,
Or angry.
Now that's better.
Your feelings are not in control of you anymore.
You're in control of them.
How easy was that?
You just let them out of where they were hiding in you.
You just discovered the trick.
When you feel those feelings overwhelm you,
You just close your eyes.
Find where they're hiding in your body.
Whatever part is tight and tense or hurting.
And you let the air breathe them out of you.
Well now,
You can make really good decisions.
And you have a lot of choices.
Because you're smart.
You're really smart.
Maybe not everyone knows that,
But you know that.
And you're also very good and loving.
Your heart is so big and full of love.
You like love because when you feel that way,
Whatever you do feels warm and delicious.
So you want lots more of that.
How do we get more love and good feelings in us?
Do you have to wait for someone else to give them to you?
Nope.
Let's see.
You're smart.
And you have love inside you.
And you know how to find and get rid of bad feelings.
Sometimes those bad feelings come into us very strongly and loudly.
And they can be hard to contain.
And then we can get in trouble.
So,
Let's make a deal with those big,
Loud,
Strong feelings.
The next time they come into us,
We're going to say,
OK,
Feelings,
I feel you.
I feel the hurt or the being mad or the feeling that something was really unfair
or someone didn't understand me or thought something wrong about me.
I hear you,
Feelings.
So,
You don't have to be as big and loud next time.
You can be smaller.
And I'll still hear you and feel you.
Because if you're too big,
I'm going to have to breathe you out of me.
Got that?
Be the right size for me.
Just enough to get my attention.
Be the size that fits my body.
Because I have a lot of love and generosity and happiness inside me.
And those take up a lot of room inside me,
Too.
And you aren't bad for being here.
All kinds of feelings are OK to have.
But I just want more of some and less of others.
So,
You make this plan with your loud,
Big feelings.
Next time,
They're going to be smaller.
And next time,
You know where they hide in you and how you can take big breaths
and daydream that you're going to slide down your slide
and let them all flow out of you.
And you'll feel really good again.
You're feeling pretty good right now in your boat.
But you're getting ready to do something else now.
So,
You step out of your comfy,
Bubbly boat
and tie it up to a big pole by the rocks.
You know you can always take a ride in your bubble boat
whenever you need to snuggle and feel good and comforted.
It will wait for you right there the next time you come to visit.
