Hello,
This is A La Faye of Sylvanosity,
And this evening I wanted to talk to you about the monster under the bed,
Or anything that may give you slight pause or concern when the lights go out.
Does it scare you?
Make you nervous?
Made you to wish you might have a flashlight under your pillow?
Well,
I'm sure you've gone through the ritual.
Your mom,
Dad,
Caregiver has shown you that when the light is on,
You can see the outline of the shapes where you sleep,
And when the light goes out,
Those outlines haven't changed.
But what has changed is your ability to see the details.
And it's that lack of detail that makes you a bit nervous about what might be lurking there.
I understand.
So,
What do we do about that?
Well,
We do the very same thing we would do if our drawing lacked details.
We would fill in the details ourselves.
For instance,
When you're lying in bed and thinking about the monster beneath you,
You may be thinking,
Oh,
Let's not go there.
Let's go somewhere else entirely.
What if the monster tended to pass gas?
And it didn't stink.
It made music.
So,
When you are scared,
Make the monster under your bed fart.
It works every time.
I promise.
But maybe,
Just maybe,
That little trick doesn't work for you.
So,
Is there a particular corner in your room that gets darker than any other and makes you nervous?
I've seen corners like that before,
And you know what I've done?
I've filled them in.
Let's take an example.
Perhaps what you could put in that corner is a very large,
Fluffy sloth that happens to be bright blue or purple or polka dotted or striped.
All of these things are possible.
But whatever it is,
Make it big,
Make it fluffy and make it friendly.
And,
You know,
Making it funny also helps.
For instance,
Is it a sloth that really loves rubber bananas?
But every time it tries to grab it,
To eat it,
It flies out of his hand and blonk,
Lands across the room.
That'd be funny.
You see,
That's often what we need to do when we have a fear of something we don't understand or can't see clearly.
Well,
Make it something understandable,
Friendly,
Funny.
And before you know it,
The darkness in your room becomes an area to explore,
To fill with things you love or that delight you.
When you do that,
You can find falling asleep much easier.
Of course,
You may be giggling a little too much about that musical farting monster under your bed or that rubber banana off your walls.
So you might want to take a minute to let the giggles out.
And then stretch.
And tell that sloth in the corner,
Shh,
It's time to go to sleep.
And that monster under the bed,
Stop eating so many marshmallows before bedtime.
We need to go to sleep.
Because tomorrow is a new day,
Filled with new adventures and new opportunities to use our greatest gift to make the world a better place.
What is that gift?
Creativity.
So now,
Use your creative mind to picture the most calming,
Beautiful,
Restful thing you can think of.
Is it a hammock swinging quietly between two trees?
Is it resting on a front porch while it rains?
Maybe it's the soft hum of your caregiver,
Your mom,
Your dad,
Your grandma,
Rocking you,
No longer singing because you're tired and drifting off to sleep,
But humming a tune that you can hear in your ears and feel through your skin as they hold you close.
So,
Let's snuggle in,
Let your mind drift and say goodnight.
This is Hayla Fey of Silvernasty.
