The Two Butterflies by Emma Mitchell

A sweet little story written entirely by Emma Mitchell (on her own) when she was four years old)

Once upon a time, there was a butterfly and her name is Rosey and she has a friend called Kate.

Rosey and her friend Kate went on holiday and they had a good time,

but when it was time to go home they were sad.

But they still went home and they were happy they were home together again.

Fairy Sparkles and Sally the snail

Fairy Sparkles loved rainbows, she loved colours, she loved glitter, she loved dew drops that glistened in the sun.
She loved the light that sparkled through the trees on a hot afternoon, she loved the way the road sparkled in the heat like a mirage............... she loved............... well anything that sparkled!

Fairy Sparkles would awaken early in the morning and begin her 'walk of wonder' looking in amazement at the way the earth sparkled.

Fairy Sparkles and Sally Snail

Have you ever woken early in the morning, in the middle of winter and looked out at the sparkly ice all over the grass tips, well Fairy Sparkles had ................ and she loved it. It was her favourite time of the year.

One morning, she awoke early to begin her 'walk of wonder' to see what sparkles Mother Nature had created for her today, when she came across the most beautiful delicate path of sparkles.

Well........... she was intrigued (intrigued is a big word that means very curious, maybe even fascinated). Looking down Fairy Sparkles noticed how the light played on the sparkles, it was as if they formed a thin sparkly path that weaved and twisted around the garden.
Hmm, most curious Fairy Sparkles thought - her eyes opened wide and her tiny fairy tippy toes began to walk along the silvery path.

Her tiny body shivered in delight as her feet touched the sparkly path, it was wonderful, the most delightful thing in the world to discover a sparkly path that you could even walk upon. You would have loved it too.
Stepping carefully her feet moved along the twisty line of sparkles that shone in the morning sun. Fairy Sparkles noticed she could see little flecks of silver and a faint blue, even a tiny shimmer of purple............ she thought it was wonderful.

Stepping ever so carefully Fairy Sparkles made sure her tiny feet did not leave the sparkly path. As she walked you could even hear the tiny crunch (if you listened very carefully) of the icy grass under her feet.
She could smell the fresh morning air and fee; the warmth of the morning sun.

The sparkly path twisted and turned and she followed it in delight ............... over the rocks on the path, around the big old tree where Ollie the owl hooted at night, across the grass, over a very large rock, around a fallen branch, over the hard knotted wood of another branch, around the side of the ants nest, past the edge of the burrow where Ernie the Echidna slept soundly...............

Fairy Sparkles could not believe her luck at such a long and sparkly path, she was so delighted in her adventure that she almost didn't see Sally the snail who was also following the path right in front of her.



Sally loves the scent of the frangipani flowers

 Slowing down, she patiently waited for Sally also to continue along the path.
Sally was moving soooooo very sslllllooooowwwwllllllyyyyyy..................
Fairy Sparkles began to jump around from one tiny foot to the other and back again, she started to wiggle and jiggle, her arms twitched and her forehead went up and down.
She desperately wanted to get back to following her sparkly path, she was determined to find out where it went.

Eventually she couldn't hold it in any more, bursting out, she exclaimed "Oh, please do hurry up Sally snail, I do so want to get past".

Sally slowly looked back at her and said 'then go around me my dear, there's no trouble here".
Fairy Sparkles looked down at the sparkly path she so wanted to walk on with Sally directly in front of her and she just couldn't leave the path.
She had an idea - "Sally would YOU please go to one side so I can get past you, pretty please".

"Well, since you asked so nicely - I suppose I could" replied Sally.
She ever so slightly began to turn  to one side, Fairy Sparkles eagerly stepped forward but then realised the silvery sparkly path went off to the side that Sally was on and she still couldn't follow it.
"Oh Sally, I am so sorry" exclaimed Fairy Sparkles, "but it appears you have moved to the side I wish to go, would you be so kind as to turn to the other side".

"Yes, my dear" said Sally and slowly turned the other way.

Fairy Sparkles leapt forward, but alas, the path now turned to the other side where Sally had just moved.

"Oh, gumdrops", sighed Fairy Sparkles.
Looking down at the sparkly silvery path, she had an idea.
"Sally, I am very tiny and gentle - would you mind if I carefully stepped over your shell?" she politely asked Sally.

"Well, I suppose a fairy's weight won't do any harm" shared Sally
"that will be fine - go on then".

Fairy Sparkles carefully tip toed over Sally's shell as careful as walking on water so as not to hurt Sally, her face lit up with delight at the sparkly silvery path and she gently stepped down in front of Sally.
Smiling down at the path, Fairy Sparkles was surprised to find that the path was .............. completely gone!



Sally Snail

 Fairy Sparkles was astonished.

She shook her head and looked around and then noticed that Sally had turned off to chew on a leaf and there underneath her was the sparkly silvery path.

"Sally", she exclaimed, "would you be so kind as to move off to another plant". "Certainly" replied Sally as she slithered off in another direction.

there underneath her was the most beautiful shimmery, silvery path.

"Oh, Sally, it's you" Fairy Sparkles exclaimed.
"It is YOUR sparkly, shimmery, silvery path you are leaving everywhere, how truly wonderful. What a beautiful creature you are to slither around and leave beautiful sparkly, silvery, shimmery trails everywhere".

Fairy Sparkles leant down and hugged Sally saying "thank you so much for making my world even more sparkly, I love your work".
Sally looked down at the ground and then at the trail she had left behind her, she slowly realised what Fairy Sparkles was saying and the cutest smile you have ever seen, broke out all over her tiny little face.]

Fairy Sparkles and Sally have been perfect friends ever since and I am pretty sure that sometimes if you go out into your garden, you may see some sparkly, shimmery, silvery paths that Sally (or one of her relatives) have left to make your garden even more sparkly.

Guided Visualisations - stress related illness and benefits (for parents)

Never too young to enjoy reading
or quiet meditation / visualisations

STRESS RELATED ILLNESS VS HEALTH AND HARMONY:
In our modern society medical Doctors now recognise 'stress related disorders' as a very real part of illness and concerns.
More & more we discover that children either directly or indirectly are now also often suffering these same symptoms. As life speeds up, people rely more heavily on e-communications, we often find ourselves lost on our life path.
We often feel out of touch with ourselves and mother earth, many people feel they have no one that is 'there for them'

Guided visualisations allow a calming point, a point to reconnect with ourselves and what is important to us.
They create stress releasing hormones and assist us to cope better with day to day life. Through the use of angels or guides, we also develop a sense of not being on our own, of having someone who loves us share any burden that may come our way.

BENEFITS OF VISUALISATION OVER MEDITATION:
For so many people who have busy lives, when they try to meditate their thoughts gradually switch back to life / work / shopping / concerns and troubles and it becomes increasingly more difficult to meditate. Guided visualisations (especially for children) make this process so much easier. Rather than excluding thoughts from the mind, the visualisation provides creative thoughts for the mind to focus on, which in turn create a calm, peaceful outlook and the ability to cope more easily with life.

Studies in China have found that when the mind is calm and focused, illness disappears and many ailments are calmed or even removed.

Many parents have reported that through the use of guided visualisations their children allow them to calmly leave the room at bedtime, sleep more peacefully and deeper and are often excited in the morning to share the wonderful adventure they went on in their visualisation the night before
(*Parents tip - be excited with your child(ren) if they wish to share this with you, encourage their creativity and their stories, always acknowledge their experiences as OK even if some may concern you or seem troubling, over time they will allow you to glimpse what is going on for your child and how to best assist them)

All of the visualisations we create for the children have different endings, however they all begin much the same.
We find through the continuity of the scenes the children are able to remember what is happening, this creates a sense of comfort and safety in what's to come and allows them to create their own visualisations once they become familiar with the techniques.

HOW TO SET UP MEDITATION/ GUIDED VISUALISATIONS FOR CHILDREN:
To begin, get the child warm and comfortable, make sure they have been to the bathroom, cleaned teeth, said goodnight to whomever they need to.
Explain the rules which are:

• Lay still (don't worry about a few wriggles and jiggles, especially in the beginning)
• No talking, only listening to the person giving the visualisation. (Some times, something so exciting will happen in the visualisation that the child simply'must' immediately tell you about it, allow this to be OK, yet ask them to whisper and remain very calm and then gently state "quiet now, stay with your meditation" (Meditation is an easier word than visualisation for children, yet it doesn't really matter which you choose to use
  *If a child continues to talk, wriggle, jump around, quietly get up and say, well I guess we won't be able to do our visualisation tonight, you'll need to wait until tomorrow to discover the magical world that I was going to share with you.
  I have found that generally this will only need to be done once or twice and the child(ren) will calm down immediately and listen.
  The child(ren) look forward to the journey they are being taken on and their special time with you and don't want to miss out and once they have heard a couple (you may need to just push through the wriggling and talking the 1st couple of nights so they know what is in store) they will quickly quiet down to listen.
  I usually give 1 or 2 warnings and then quietly leave - this produced much screaming and protests the first time but once the children realised I would calmly leave and not come back - it never happened again.
• The nice thing with guided visualisations is that although the children are listening to the same story - it is filtered through their own minds and imagination, therefore the same storyline can produce 2 entirely different stories to different children. In this way, we often shared visualisations with our (then) 5 year old and 11 year old at the same time and both immensely enjoyed them.
• Explain before you begin that at the end you will be calmly leaving the room and allowing the child(ren) time to imagine their own outcomes, however, you will never disappear without letting them know you are leaving (this way they can relax and know that they are in control of the situation and will not have any nasty surprises of a parent quietly disappearing)
  Explain that the reason you are leaving is so that they can fully explore these magical worlds with their special friends and guides. Let them know that you are eagerly awaiting to hear their stories in the morning and that they cannot tell you that night as the stories may well filter into their dreams and turn out differently.
  I often found this way, when I got up in the morning that a child (or 2) was eagerly waiting saying "you are not going to believe what happened / where I went last night" and then delight in all the wonderful adventures they had experienced.



Even babies will enjoy the tone and peacefulness
of their parents voice even if they do not
fully understand the story

• If you say you are going to do something - you must, ie - if you say "you must stop talking or I will have to finish" and they keep talking, quietly leave & be firm (perhaps give 1 chance the first time)
  If they get to know they can talk over you / get you to stay by screaming/crying it negates the authority you have in giving the visualisation.
  They must feel supported, loved, nurtured and know there is a reason for the rules (perhaps explain it is so THEY will get the best adventure out of the visualisation)
• The next morning, never negate their adventures or brush them aside (this will undo many of the positive benefits you have created), if you are really busy - explain so and set a time (ie- after school) when you will be free to hear all about it.
• I often found that although they didn't discuss their adventures, they had extremely beneficial outcomes and often weeks later would say something like, "yes, in my visualisation, my angel talked to me about a better way to speak/do that/etc"
• Congratulations - you are doing an excellent job as a parent, your child is now finding a space within themselves where they are able to solve their own problems/concerns (granted at this stage, they may believe it is their angel/fairy/talking tree/ etc - but that doesn't matter) - they are becoming self reliant to sort out their own concerns and find a space within where they can find comfort and solutions
• Guided visualisations can be done at any time, although I generally like to do them at bedtime. This assists the child to 'switch off', calm down after a busy day, release any tensions/worries they may otherwise be taking to bed and tossing and turning over. It also provides you (as a parent) the promise of something lovely - which often gets the little ones off to bed easily and assists to keep them there so you may have some quiet time to yourself at the end of your busy day also.
• Authors suggestions: We found that prior to the visualisations a spray of Renascent Emergency Essence and a tab of Renascent Sleep Balm really assisted to calm & produce deep, restful sleep.

Each visualisation has:

• Relaxation - to calm & centre
• A magic well - to release tensions & stress
• A bright light: the starlight / energy ball / light bubble - renewal of energies
• A guardian angel / guide - a sense of companionship & support
• A journey - to awaken the imagination (this is varied and you may choose your own depending on the situation the child is going through, often we make ours about friendships, speaking kindly, completing tasks & the many varied events in life the child may need guided direction in)

Happy children that are well rested cope better with life
and are able to problem solve for themselves

Now you understand the theory and why, join us in the "Guided Visualisations Starting Point" and follow on as we add more visualisations for you to share with your children.