As you all are aware, I’m writing, illustrating, and publishing a kid’s book. What many of you might not realize is that this kid’s book about mermaids and unicorns is also a book for adults. Some of you may be wondering what a kid’s book has to do with an adult struggling in life…
The simple answer is everything! Many adults are little kids in big bodies, still struggling with the same childhood fears, limitations, and conditionings that they learned and saw as kids and carried these things with them through the rest of their lives (knowingly or unknowingly). These things change the lenses we see the world through, they cast a haze over our choices and decisions, and are a driving force in the way we live our lives.
Imagine having a fear of spiders, many don’t know where this came from, yet the fear is there and has a heavy reaction whenever a person sees a spider in a room, car, kitchen, etc. If you have this fear, you scream, run away, or jump around looking for someone to help you. This is a fear we all understand and recognize.
This same concept can be applied to any conditioning or learned behavior from our childhood, whether it be unsupportive parents, abuse, violence, controlling parents, trauma, seeing addictions, being bullied, etc. These fears and limitations may not be as apparent in adulthood as a fear of spiders, yet they are still there. These things that happen to us when we are little, have a running narrative through the rest of our lives if they are not addressed, released, and recontextualized when we are adults to allow ourselves to accept and overcome that which have been limiting us.
My new book The Mermaid Who Found Her Home is a story of finding one’s home of acceptance. If we think about it, our whole lives we are searching for our home, people who accept us, a tribe we can call our own, somewhere to fit in, or a place that accepts us for who and what we stand for in this world. Many of us get beat down over the years, numb ourselves, and choose to do things that are not in our best interest to fit in. Why? Because we think its better to be around people and have friends than nothing at all.
So true we need a tribe, but what if that tribe doesn’t accept us or our unique gifts? What if that tribe is the source of our daily sufferings? And how many of us are questioned in everything that we do by the people around us? When this happens our light and gifts start to dim, we dumb ourselves down trying to fit in, and we start to lose some of that essence and magic within ourselves.
How many of us were told that we talk too much when we are kids? How many of us were bullied? When little we heard and faced this over and over, so that one day we just stopped telling our story, stopped telling our opinions, and stopped sharing our gifts with this world. This happens over and over in today’s society, don’t do this, don’t do that, what will people think if you do XYZ, and we worry if we do XYZ this person won’t like me. So much is driven by our need and want of acceptance (or the fear of losing that acceptance) that we even go as far as to shut down our own dreams and wants in life to make other people happy.
Another aspect of this book is the parents’ act of “passing the baton” to the child to choose the life she is meant to live. I’m not going to give away the beautiful story of the book, but I will shed light on the fact that the “passing of the baton” or “blowing the golden whistle” is an important step in life that is either passed or not passed to us from our parents. If our parents don’t allow us to grow, control us too much, are too involved, too heavy-handed, shame or guilt us in our choices, it stunts our growth into the life we are meant to live as adults.
This kid's book I use with all my clients to dig deep and find out what is limiting, controlling, or holding them back. This story of a mermaid finding her home can be applied to all woes in life to identify the pieces of the story, put it all together to see what has really happened, and help us release and work through these limitations.
In doing this, my clients are finally able to see and let their own inner gifts, beauty, joy, purpose, meaning, voice, and happiness shine through and not be clouded by past experiences, choices, pains, sufferings, or an unsupportive life. When we get past these, we are on our true path home in our lives and find our acceptance where that takes us. We are the main characters in our story and we have the choice to decide the path we take and find our real home of acceptance from within. When we do this, we share our re-found joy in life with the world and make this life the best for us and everyone around us.
Order your copy today for your little ones OR for yourself. Kids will be captivated by the story and illustrations of the book, and adults will be sucked in as well to the multiple meanings overlayed within the book. Link: The Mermaid Who Found Her Home.
If you are ready to dig deeper, get in contact with me to start your journey home.
Link: Art as a Medium to Heal
Thanks!
~Alicia
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