"Lion I AM validates and assists children to experience emotions in a conscious manner -- essential to learning and gaining self-knowledge. Scientific research has demonstrated that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life, including family relationships. Abracadabra and Yummy Me Feels So Good will help you and your child learn to be “Lions of Love,” to consciously choose and express effectively what you are feeling. Being watchful and strong like the Lion brings acceptance and maturity in the ever changing world of feelings. Then everyone can share this "feeling of magic” and joy with others."
Harold H. Bloomfield, M.D. N.Y. Times bestselling author
About Lion I Am
The author Lion I Am lives on a beautiful island with lots of trees and animals. He likes quiet spaces in nature just like his animal friends. He enjoys talking to the turtles, dolphins and whales when they're around.
He enjoys relaxing in nature and listening to the sounds of the birds and animals and the wind in the trees. He especially loves walking along the beach by the ocean surf. One of his favorite things is swimming in the strong waves in the ocean.
Lion I Am loves playing with children and animals. They help him laugh at all his passing
Me’s and all his funny moods. The children and animals remind him to be grateful
for his life here on this beautiful Earth. On a good day he's like the relaxed
watchful lion who watches things from his resting place of Self love and wonder.
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He loves to visit with teachers and children who read the Lion I Am books together and share their feelings
and play together. The animals at Funny Bird Productions and Lion I AM all really enjoy playing around and relaxing. Some people say they live in their own "island time"
The mop top birds who sing "All there is is Love, Love is all there is. Love is all there is, All you need is Love" know what is really important. They say that sometimes smiling at a passerby and sharing your Love can be the most important thing you do our day .
From Yummy Me Feels So Good
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The poet Hafiz beautifully said “Have fun dear ones in the universe’s divine game of love.” Love and wonder are openings to the infinite. In those moments when we lose ourselves watching a beautiful butterfly, sunset or waterfall our breath is taken away and we rest in peace or “Yummy Me.” Children live in this place of wonder much of the time.
Beyond words it’s the feeling of wonder and gratitude for just being alive. Watch as a child loses him or herself with an insect, animal, small pebble. or even a faraway star. They are lost in the feeling of wonder and joy. We can all remember that as our natural happy place we lived in when we were young. We can reclaim this when we give space to and appreciate our children’s silent moments of wonder and joy.
Animals can remind us of the simplicity of going with the flow. Look into the eyes of animals and they all seem to say “I love being Me.” Love is the only true currency on this planet.
Walrus, Hippos or Orangutans never need to explain why they are the way they are. That is something humans invented to protect their psychological sense of self. We developed this memory based sense of self to try to attract love from others and to protect us from life’s many “owies.”
We all collect little inner Me’s over our lifetime that we hope will protect us from life’s “owies”.
We even unconsciously let them steer us around sometimes. These inner Me’s come and go and but in the end we all can rest in our own Yummy Me place of self love.
Looking up at the night’s sky or looking at photographs of our far away galactic neighbors millions of light years away can momentarily release us from our sense of self by immersing us in wonder and silence.
A mystic poet once said “We are all born of love. We come out of love. All of us are nothing but vibrations of love.”
We are sustained by love, and in the end we merge back into love. . . . This world is nothing but a school of love. Our relationships with our husband or wife, our children and parents, our friends
and relatives are the university in which we are meant to learn what universal love truly is.”
Flip through the pages with your children. Have fun with the animals. Let them help you laugh at all your passing Me’s Let’s acknowledge them but understand that they don’t oversee life on Earth’s playground. That job is reserved for a strong relaxed watchful lion who watches things from his resting place of Self love and wonder.
Lion I AM
For Therapists or professionals
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From the "Feelings Ocean"
Feelings and emotions are like waves in the ocean which constantly change. Children seem to navigate this ocean and let go of their feelings easier than adults at times . A lot of children's actions and feelings are spontaneous so they have a beautiful innocence to them. ​Children can easily rest in a place of wonder and self love in their “feel good place”. We all remember this feel good place from our youth and we can practice making it our home. "Yummy Me" is that place beyond words. It's the felt wonder, and gratitude for just being alive.
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Adults wanting to bring more awareness to feelings can help children by watching and giving more time before reacting to them. Feelings constantly change, and they are not our true self. When children feel this level of love and attention they feel safer in sharing and expressing their feelings. They naturally know they are the awareness behind these feelings. They are good examples for us adults in how quickly they can let go of these passing energies and forget.
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​Naming feelings and judging them are ways adults try to control the natural ebb and tide of these energies. When we resist feelings by burying them we develop subconscious areas in our psyche. These areas or patterns become subconscious little “Me’s” or the inner children of our subconscious. They are just little survival programs we developed when we were young to feel safe.
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Children are highly sensitive. They perceive energies deeply. They are then strongly conditioned by the people and the world around them. It is through their heart and nervous system that they feel the emotions, thoughts and unresolved energies around them.
​In their feeling body children energetically take on and align with other’s feelings in an attempt to calm the emotional atmosphere, distract the focus and to make everyone feel better. This transmutation feelings by children is a gift of their love. In most cases this is not recognized, understood or appreciated.
As the child mirrors these unfelt feelings they may be punished, rejected, or shamed for expressing them. ​This can cause children to create inner self blaming “Me's” These subconscious patterns then create strategies to make them feel safe. ​In some cases the child's subconscious creates self punishment behavior patterns as ways to make their parents feel uncomfortable or to get revenge.
Children do not always have the capacity to process the feelings of strong emotions or trauma in their little growing nervous systems, so they shut down, freeze, “leave their bodies” etc in order to survive and cope these energies. They then make up rules and beliefs about themselves and life in order to protect themselves and feel safe. Adults carrying traumas in their nervous systems are picked up on by children. Very young children feel the same feelings we do through vibration. It is when we label these feelings right or wrong and don't feel them that they become sticky and don't move through our system as freely as they do in children. We then unconsciously teach our children to hide from uncomfortable feelings and to judge themselves.
​Children have so much energy because they haven’t yet developed the many pain coping strategies that rob them of their life energy. They can create an inner voice that says “it’s not OK to feel yucky feelings” and this feeling bad about one’s self becomes a coping tool. It steals our life force and authenticity. The inner critic is then born and starts plundering our bank account of self love and happiness.​ These voices or patterns can turn into unhealthy complexes - subtle feelings of pleasure associated with self blame that are so rampant in the adult world.
Feelings exist in the collective human unconscious and children are very sensitive to this. They are not these feelings flying around in the environment around them. They are love. This is one of the most important messages loving parents teachers or caretakers can give children. They are not their passing feelings, they are love.
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Challenging and negative emotions have their place. They bring a depth to our human experience, a wisdom and a level of compassion for ourselves and then to others. ​We truly have the power to affect how we feel. Nurturing positive and happy emotions is a skill we all can work on to create more loving relationships and share love and compassion. By consciously remembering positive feelings and savoring happy feelings and times we build up neural networks in our brain that support our well being.
​The Dalai Lama beautifully says
“Negative emotions - like jealousy, anger, hatred, fear - can be put to an end. When you realize that these emotions are only temporary, that they always pass on like clouds in the sky, you also realize they can ultimately be abandoned. The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful. One has to try to develop one's inner feelings, which can be done simply by training one's mind.
​This is a beautiful reminder. We all can learn to exercise our "Happy Muscles" and make magic with our feelings and thoughts.
Lion I Am