How you become brave

Last night Shanna had a nightmare. The rat from Lady in the Tramp, yo. She was really freaked out. So I explained to her that the pictures in your head that look like movies when you are sleeping are called dreams. I told her that in her dreams she gets to practice saying and doing brave things because when you are dreaming you can be as big and powerful as you want. I told her it was how you learned to defend yourself. Because when you are a kid you are small so you have to dream about being big and powerful. If you do lots of practicing in your dreams, when you grow up you will know how to be big and powerful.

But the most important part is knowing that if something upsets you, do something about it. Tell me to delete the movies. Talk about your feelings. Because that is how you fix the problem. And she told me she needed some water first. So I got her some water.

When I came back with the water I asked her what things make her smile. She started telling me about some of them. I told her that if she falls asleep thinking about the things that make her happy and strong she will have better dreams. She didn’t wake up again.

One thought on “How you become brave

  1. Sarah

    This never fails to amaze me. You have this amazing ability to stop, think, and give an amazing and deep response of the sort that will stick with your kids for the rest of their lives – in language they can understand where they are right now. This is truly giving them the tools to be amazing, strong and fantastic people. Not that I’d ever want bad to have happened in anyone’s world, but this is a case of something good growing out of those things and times, and of you putting thought and effort into your reactions and the effects they will have. You give her feelings space and show her how to react in ways that will cause change – and allow her the power to cause change.

    Reply

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