i fell in instant love with this product i came across online.

i loved the concept of children taking time to pause and experience the passing of time.

what didn’t work for me is the text included on the product:

“A fairy’s magic changes red to green, gone are your worries never to be seen.”

in the past i might have welcomed this notion, after all it fits the same notion that if i just pray enough, hard enough, right enough, i’ll be saved. a message like this would have translated into my child self that i’m wrong, it didn’t work, the fairies didn’t take my worry away and the quiet fear and shame would fester.

but i’ve grown from  my childhood experiences and i see things another way.  i feel the truth that even when we feel fear and shame, we aren’t alone. feeling angry doesn’t warrant punishment.  sadness isn’t equated with loneliness.

and preschoolers feel all of these things, often in one day, maybe even in one preschool session.

so i renovated the board. keeping the same principle of watching time pass with the handprint turning red to green, i made a new slogan:

“feel your feelings with your hand on the ring, watch the light turn from red to green.”

the difference is that they are staying with their feelings. breathing and feeling while they watch the color change. often they’re interrupting the pattern of distress, never abandoning themselves without having someone else save them.

feelings matter, no feelings are wrong, feelings are meant to be felt.

i’ve watched two little friends who were in significant distres: shaking in anger, tense muscles, red faces, tears in eyes, growling and moaning, add the magic ring to their practice.

it’s okay to be angry. it’s okay to be mad. feel that.

click to watch it in action on you tube:

within a few rounds of watching the light change, they seemed regulated. they carried on conversations and landed back in play. the magic is within.

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