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3 Steps Towards Manifesting What You Desire Out Of Life

Life

Lauren

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February 18, 2017

3 Steps Towards Manifesting What You Desire Out Of Life

“Reality is a projection of your thoughts or the things you habitually think about.” ~ Stephen Richards

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a bit of trouble swallowing the law of attraction. I admit; this is largely due to my own disbelief that it is ever possible to have everything you desire. Everything you say? I mean… Are you sure…? That sounds pretty implausible.

For many years it seemed that life was about struggle, or at least struggling until you had put the work in and then the universe would answer your call, also known as God answering prayers. I found that when I threw a tantrum and said that’s enough!

I can’t take any more of this, this is bullshit! Or that’s the end of that then was the only time I ever got what I wanted.

It’s only now that I see what was actually happening. Having done a fair amount of ‘accidental’ manifestation in my life as well as a lot of mindfulness during meditation; dissolving negative thoughts and successfully observing the ego, I finally realize that it takes a balance of both of these two in order to create a successful and happy life.

Meditation on its own may lead to calm and for you to be able to appreciate and become one with the inherent love of reality or the presence of the Whole, but without actually manipulating the law of attraction you’re probably not going to go anywhere. And let’s face it; most of us aren’t wanting to become gurus or hermits dedicated to walking the lone spiritual path.

Similarly, manifestation on its own is akin to greedily assuming you will win the lottery just because you imagine a waterfall of gold showering down on you every night before you go to bed. It just doesn’t work like that.

So how do you create this balance in life; opening up the space inside of you during meditative states and creatively and proactively discovering and working towards your life purpose?

Here are 3 Steps Towards Manifesting What You Desire Out Of Life

Ritual and Intention

First you will need to draw up or arrive at a daily routine that honors all aspects of presence and manifestation, but also enables you to find where the energy lies. You will need to do about a week of dedicated practice in order to connect with the Whole; the loving and intrinsic feeling of belonging we uncover when we pull back the illusion of the ego; but also discover what the energy of what you desire feels like.

Here is a good template that is similar to one you would find on retreat but can be incorporated into daily life:

5.15am: Mindfulness or Vipassana Meditation. Focusing on observing the mind and thought forms. Close this meditation by setting an intention: for example, ‘today I chose joy’, or ‘today I will try to remember to come back to the breath every time I catch myself over-thinking’, or ‘today I will name my thought forms as soon as I recognize them’; i.e judging, criticizing etc. to allow you to stay as the observer.

6am: Yoga or Qi Gong on grass/outside to connect with inner energies and ground self. Any exercise or outside work will actually do, connecting with Gaia and developing a conversation with her is the goal here.

7am – 7pm: Normal life. Cutting out sugar and addictive foods will help with your mindfulness practice. Staying aware in your interactions with others. Taking deep breaths throughout the day and staying centered, pure of intention and as the observer of mind chatter.

But also, and most importantly implementing manifestation exercises. Kind of like active imagination or intentional daydreaming, manifesting your desires will take a bit of creativity. See step 3 for more detail on how to approach these.

7pm – 7.45pm: Evening chant followed by chakra clearing meditation and manifestation exercises. As you close this meditation give gratitude for everything you have and send those you love (or hate!) good vibes.

8 pm or before bed: Set your intention as you go to sleep.

Archangel Michael, Money, It's a Matter of Energy

Pure of Purpose and Synchronicity

One of the biggest blockages for manifestation is whether you are pure of purpose or not. This comes from poverty vows or monastic oaths you might have made in past lives, or perhaps it is your poverty consciousness that you have been conditioned with since birth by family members.

A quite prevalent belief nowadays is that these negative thought forms and poverty consciousness have been pumped into humankind purposefully for millennia to subjugate the human race. This pumping of disempowerment through negative media, vaccination programs, chem-trails, etc, is believed to have kept us from blending with our higher aspect and discovering the God within.

The cycle of Samsara could be seen as engineered by forces who haven’t had our best interests at heart. But that time is coming to an end now and our higher aspects are ready to come into the fore. This is why putting yourself in alignment and staying vigilant against negative thought forms daily is essential.

The blockages you may have experienced so far in your life can also be attributed to your higher aspect’s fear that in having money or power you will repeat patterns of greed from lives before or become the tyrant you may have seen or suffered from.

Rather than fork out loads of money to have a past life regression, do your own work.

Simply visualizing the blockages and where they exist in your body during meditation or connecting to your timelines, ancestral, past, etc. will give you clues as to what you need to face.

Facing or embracing your ‘monster’ as you might in dream work can be arrived at by taking an inventory of your life in order to see the patterns you are repeating.

Rather than analyzing them, simply connect with that energy in meditation and visualize them dissolving away. Or imagine yourself stepping through them; out into the other side to see what it would look like if you were to overcome them.

This is a crucial part of manifestation and you will find that when something is not kind or will negatively affect another then your higher self will block it. Synchronicity comes into play when you have completed your daily routine for a week or two and are able to see how your microcosm reflects your macrocosm.

For example: If notice you are constantly letting your kitchen fall into disarray and never take out the trash on time this is probably reflecting how you are not facing up to certain responsibilities and it is effecting and blocking your manifestation goals.

Through awareness we can see those microcosmic habits we are performing and we will only discover the next step on our manifestation paths if we tackle what our awareness has led us to. This then feeds back in to our ‘monster’; the big macrocosmic block that is keeping us from our true life paths.

Manifestation Exercises

And so, finally, we are ready to begin really implementing some manifestation exercises which should be practiced as much as possible during ‘normal life’ (7am-7pm).

This is actually the fun bit and can be anything you can imagine. Say you want to be a successful singer; every time you sing imagine you are singing to a large crowd who are smiling lovingly back at you.

Explore the reasons behind your desire to sing; do you want to rise to expectations from someone, do you want to be the center of attention or do you just love singing no matter what response you will get?

Say affirmations to focus the energy you want to attract and say them in the present tense: the audience loves me, I am a well-loved singer-songwriter, I am going down in the history books etc.

You will feel silly, but really what you’re doing is experimenting by finding the correct energy for what you want to manifest and bringing it into your body. That way you can call on it (without needing the words, they’re just a tool) anytime in the day, anytime you remember to.

Take an attitude of wishing, praying and asking and experiment with which one hits the spot. Try looking up at the stars every night before you do your evening meditation and pray for what you want, shooting up a rocket – as Jim Carrey said – of intention into the sky and persisting with it.

Imagine yourself signing fans’ album covers every time you sign your name, take each compliment about your voice and make the agreement with yourself that this is a sign it is your destiny to do this. Do a gig in front of 100 and agree with yourself it was 1,000.

Each time you playfully create a new attitude or way of looking at your life and what you do in it you can intentionally let it feed in to your goal, and even things that have nothing to do with singing (for example!) can hold and manifest your intention for where you are steering your life whilst detaching from any set outcome.

This video has some further ideas for manifesting what you desire out of life

8 Manifestation Rituals You Haven’t Tried Yet

This really is the opposite of victim-hood. It’s taking responsibility for what you want and creating it. You will find that this process can heal all of your wounds and past problems because it is like you are creating a portal of intention where every blockage or self doubt reveals itself to you as it becomes swept up in the current.

You can face your relationships with your parents, your peers; everything that is holding you back and put them to rest with an air of finality. It is also how we can create heaven on earth and there really is enough to go around. The illusion that there isn’t is lifting; and this incredibly empowering understanding could be the most positive healing you’ll never look back on.

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Flower of Life
Art by Cameron Gray

More than Just a Trickster: The Many Faces of the Coyote

Culture

Jules Ravenheart

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February 17, 2017

2

More than Just a Trickster: The Many Faces of the Coyote

coyote-trickster god in native american culture

The coyote – myths and facts

The coyote has a reputation of being a sneaky predictor and a nuisance. Many fear the coyote and believe they attack and maul humans, because humans have narrowed the land in which coyotes use to roam freely, so they have had to adapt to living in such close proximity. But most coyotes are solitary creatures who keep their distance from people.

Without their territory and food sources, the coyote has migrated into cities and parks. In order to survive, they have stolen beloved pets from their backyards and knocked over garbage cans.

This is the consequence of habitat destruction and is not the fault of the animal. Even still, the coyote does not attack a human unless it is sick or threatened. They are survivors and are present in many different roles in native folklore and medicine.

Let’s look at the 5 roles coyotes play in Native American folklore.

Coyote as a teacher

Coyote is well known in many Native American stories. In some tribes such as the Navajo, he is hailed as a hero. In these legends, he is credited with helping humans by stealing fire and killing monsters. Stories involving coyote always depict him as male and are told during the winter months.

His willingness to help humanity is always beneficial to himself as well and involves deception and mischief. In these stories, the purpose of the coyote is to teach sacred and spiritual morals; he can be both funny or fearsome and is said to have been an ancient being that existed from the beginning of time.

In contrary, the Navajo also believe the coyote to be a bad omen. If coyote crosses your path, you must not continue your journey as he is considered a symbol of unfortunate events to befall you in future.

Coyote as a trickster

“This coyote was just like a real person in the old times. He was two-faced; he was evil, but he was also good. The people often use him in the evil way; and in the good way too. they use him for he has power to help as well as to harm.” ~ Coyote in the Underworld, Apache

In the Hopi myths and legends, the coyote is more of a trickster. His antics and adventures can serve as moral teachings for social interaction and tribal etiquette. Coyote is more flexible in these tales, taking form of either male or female, hunter or sorcerer and can travel into any realm or landscape.

The coyote is often gullible in these stories and defeated by many of the animals he interacts with. His playful nature is often his downfall thereby teaching lessons in greed, recklessness and disobedience. The depiction of coyote in Hopi folklore reflects the impact the animal had on their livelihood. He was considered useless, neither providing fur nor food and wasn’t considered a spiritual guide at all.

Coyote as a villain

In many Lakota Sioux stories, the coyote is represented as a male human. In these tales, his inappropriate behavior gets him into trouble. Whether it is lying, cheating or chasing women, the tales are usually humorous and sexual in nature.

Coyote narrowly escapes death or returns to life after being killed. The lessons learned are cautionary ones; be careful who you trust and who you associate with.

Coyote as the divine

In some tribes such as Crow, coyote is worshiped as a god of creation. It is said that coyote learned the secrets of creation from Old creator and ran him off after his anger over Coyote’s theft of knowledge destroyed mankind. Coyote rebuilt the planet and humanity. He is known as the trickster god, AKBA-ATATDIA, Old man coyote and First Maker.

Coyote medicine

For the Cherokee, coyote represents loyalty, adaptability and the ability to find humor in dark times. Coyote teaches us to be mindful of our actions and the consequences that follow. He is a shape shifter and transformer and therefore brings about ends and new beginnings. Finding purpose through enjoyment and the simplicity in life is one of his greatest lessons.

The coyote is a powerful being throughout native folklore and medicine. In moving through many disasters and adventures, he tricks himself into spiritual conquests. His lessons, whether good or bad, remind us to pay attention to thought, word and deed.

He reminds us of the consequences of our behavior and teaches us to enjoy life through his humour and wit. He balances us with his intelligence and childlike nature. Most of all, coyote shows us how to laugh at ourselves and adapt to whatever life throws our way.
https://youtu.be/98vhIC8Eg1k

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Coyote art
Coyote trickster god

6 Signs you Need to Slow Down

Self-Development

Bhavika

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February 16, 2017

0

“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.” ~ William Henry Davies

If you live in a city, you probably would have heard a lot of people say how busy they are. Most of the times the response to a question, “how are you doing,” will be, “I’ve been very busy, super busy, life’s been hectic.” Most of the people I know are busy and am sure you do too.

We feel proud that our day is planned and we are keeping ourselves busy with endless activities, meetings, shopping etc etc. In running the rat race, trying to keep up with deadlines, attending meetings, working on weekends, answering work calls late in the night, we forget what it’s like to sit idly doing absolutely nothing.

Busyness is an addiction, and we might not know what to do in its absence. We have this impression that if a person is busy, he or she must be doing something substantial or important. But is this really the case?

Studies indicate that multi-tasking often results in taking longer to get your projects completed — and that the quality isn’t as high as it could be if you focused on one thing at a time.

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” ~ Socrates

It goes against conventional wisdom but busyness is an illusion. Its like putting on blinkers and running the race, and the world goes by hidden from your sight. We forget that sitting idle is not a sickness and that we don’t need to be doing something all the time.

Here are six signs you need to slow down –

1) Don’t get the time to connect with yourself

We all have our routine to get through, things which we do or are expected to do on a daily basis. Amidst all the chaos that surrounds you, do you make the time to spend ONLY with yourself? Use the time to do whatever your heart desires, introspect, paint, draw, cook, dance or enjoy solitude.

We need to do things we enjoy without following any agenda, other than having fun! We need to disconnect to be able to reconnect with ourselves to get a better perspective on life. We can all use a fresh approach and perspective!

2) Find it difficult to stay in the present moment

“Busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to.” ~ Rob Bell.

Do you find your mind wandering often when you are eating? Are you staring at your phone most of the time in the presence of others? Being busy takes away the ability to stay in the present moment, to be mindful in your day-to-day activities. Its like a wandering mind, always hopping from one activity to another, without getting the chance to actually enjoy what you are doing.

Slow down, close your eyes and take few deep breaths. Focusing on your breath is an effective way to bring the mind to the present moment.

3) Family & friends take a back seat

At the end of a tiring day we all need that warm hug or a loving shoulder to put our head on. But with a busy lifestyle, family, friends and loved ones take a back seat. There is no time or will to meet them.

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.” ~ Dolly Parton

Fortunately, our work gives us the flexibility to meet friends or loved ones but most of them have packed schedules during the week and weekends are possible, only if we inform them in advance.

4) You fall sick often

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~ Jim Rohn

When we are stressed, our body’s defenses are down and it becomes easier to catch an infection or fall sick. Stress equates to an unhealthy body and mind. When you fall sick often, it’s your body telling you to slow down and put your feet up.

The first thing to ask your self is whether you are eating the right kind of food? When you are faced with loads of work or if you are constantly on the move, your body needs energy to keep up, and binging on unhealthy food certainly doesn’t help.

Here are few ways to start eating mindfully.

5) You don’t know the reason why you are doing what you are doing

When things are moving too fast around you and you struggle to keep up, what are the thoughts that cross your mind? Do you repeatedly question yourself why are you doing this?

May be it’s for the money, career, lifestyle or to pay off that crippling loan or whatever reason it may be, when you find yourself doing things you don’t want to do, then perhaps it’s time to move on. Its time to tread new paths, explore new horizons, shift your perspective.

When you don’t enjoy what you are doing, not only will your productivity drop, but you also don’t tend to experience that inner satisfaction of finishing a task. Instead you dread the routine and that attitude rubs off in your daily life and the other chores you do through the day.

Life is too short to waste it grinding away at a job you don’t love, or going through the motions at a job you like but aren’t appreciated at.

6) You think you have time

Don’t we all assume that we have lots of time in our life? One of the top five regrets of the dying was “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” You don’t want to end up like that on your death bed.

Do what makes your heart sing and enriches your soul. Travel. Dance. Paint. Do Yoga. Meditate. Stop procrastinating. Stop putting off things you ‘want’ to do for the things you ‘have’ to do. Get your creative juices flowing and always keep time aside for yourself.

I am not saying that you can’t be busy doing the things you love or working at a job you like, but don’t allow it to reach a state where you suffer in the different aspects of your life. Life is too short to be wasted being busy. By filling up every moment you are missing the opportunity to live life!

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Slow Down

5 Meaningful Teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh to Live by

Spirituality

Clyde

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February 15, 2017

0

5 Meaningful Teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh to Live by

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist Peacekeeper, dedicated his life to spreading peace, joy, and love for Mother Earth. His teachings on mindfulness, walking meditation, can guide us on our path to self-actualization. Let’s delve deeper into the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and how we can apply them in our daily lives.

Truth be told, there isn’t much that is needed to light up the path, for example just two words like “I Am” Nisargadatta Maharaj’s philosophy is enough to change your life when you persevere and apply it.

Similarly, I’m going to focus on a few teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and hopefully give you ways to apply them in your life.

1. “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”

A friend of mine was in a toxic relationship, she was in love with a guy who would cheat on her and she would blame all the women for creating the problems. Months went by she tried to buy his love by offering unconditional support, monetary and more.

She just couldn’t let go of the relationship, she said who would love me, who would accept me after staying with him for all these years? She willingly chose to put up with his behavior because of her fears of what life would be like, perhaps it was her insecurity or the lack of self-esteem, but I would never know. In the end, the guy dumped her for another woman and she was thrown into the storm.

“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” ~ Haruki Murakami

Boy did she come out of the storm, not only did she manage to get him out of her system but she also managed to find her worth and build her own life, she’s now an air hostess 🙂

2. “Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”

I hope that song got you inspired, life without hope is like a voyage without a compass, hope is what helps you overcome your the most arduous situations. Hope is what helps you dream a better life, hope is what pushes us on to overcome the obstacles of today.

Through the toughest of times, you’re allowed to break but never stay broken, use hope as a tool to come back together better again.

“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.” ~ Bernard Williams

Stay focused on the solutions, not the problems crawl towards the light if you have to, but move, tiny steps makes the journey longer but allows you to walk with heavier burdens. Hope is the fire in you lighting up your way and keeping the daemons at bay.

3. “Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Did you wear your smile today? For those of you who are like me, I like to wake up and even before I brush my teeth put on my smile. I wasn’t always like this but now my smile is a source of joy and it just comes naturally. Its hard to find me without a smile and there really isn’t a reason why.

I tried this experiment once, I’m not sure if you have traveled via the local trains in Bombay, India. For you to gain perspective of what I’m talking about, its a can of sardines that overflowing with sardines and you can’t even close it. This obviously leads to a certain amount of frustration, the joy of someone else’s sweat falling on you or the smelly underarms that are just besides your face as the person tries to hold on as the train moves.

Now what would it feel like if someone from a train smiles all the people at the train station? I was at the door smiling at each one, most people had blank reactions, some ignored and then a smile back, which made my smile even brighter and vice versa.

There was hope, there was joy, what you send out may not always come back but when it does not only have you brought light to a little dark corner of the world but you also managed to replenish your own energy and trust me when it comes back its in multiples. The one random smile felt so joyous, it gave meaning, purpose and feelings that words can’t really convey.

So not only can your smile cheer another person and perhaps find its way to you but its also a way to train yourself to be happier, seriously there are a million reasons why I smile, being alive is perhaps the best one on the list though 🙂

4. “For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”

During the peak of our psychedelic experiences my closest friend starting sticking to perspectives that he gained from his trip. The sad part is that he completely believed his hallucinations and even off the trip held those same perspectives. He started getting into loops and in the end had to wind up in a rehabilitation facility.

This is an extreme case scenario, but while he was dealing with his psychosis I was coming to terms with mine. When I had a fixed negative perspective about someone, I realized that no matter what they did or what they said the good would just fly by me. While the little wrong they did stuck out like a sore thumb.

When people were talking to me I would judge them continuously and this was biased due to my perspective about them. It’s not when I started consciously working on myself with the help of Ayahuasca that I managed to get freedom from overthinking.

How many of us actually have perspectives that we’re so used to that we not only don’t question them, but fail to even acknowledge their existence. To actually change your life we all need to clean up our doors of perception once in a while to see things with a fresher perspective and find the beauty in everything.

5. “Compassion is a verb.”

Your kind words, do not fill a hungry stomach nor do they hold the door open for the old woman carrying her shopping bags. We’ve all heard that actions speak louder than words, but we’re obsessed with words. We keep reading, self help, self awakening content but how much do we apply?

To become compassionate first, one needs to be compassionate with yourself. You can’t pour from an empty cup, the second and equally important thing is awareness. Perhaps while you’re reading this on your mobile device someone around you is having a little bit of a problem, a flat tire, or a heavy shopping bag or even a difficulty while crossing the road.

While your walking, enjoy your walk, listen to your favorite music but always keep your heart and mind open to what’s happening around you. As they say if you have to begin, there’s no better place to start than home, could you be of more use while you play your game or watch your favorite tv serial?

By no means i’m saying don’t watch it but rather balance between entertaining and helping others entertain themselves too by assisting them with the daily chores. Help your wife do the dishes or your mum lay the table, you don’t need a reason to help another.

There are so many more beautiful quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh, that I would love to elaborate on, but these 5 are good enough to completely revitalize and replenish any soul on the path. It’s time to put the words in action, slow and steady wins, there isn’t a race, you’re an infinite being who carries endless energy transforming in this circle of life.

Choose love, choose compassion, choose to help and make a difference, this will not only completely change your life around but also help build a better world, one soul at a time.

Here’re 5 More teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes for you to ponder on ~

“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness.”

“Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want to learn to love everyone and all species. If I succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on Earth… This is the real message of love.”

“Our own life has to be our message.”

“We do not need to throw away anything, we need only to know how to transform one kind of energy into another.”

“My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.”

Teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Harmonize Yourself | Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh

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Six Children’s Storybooks and their Esoteric Meanings

Life

Lauren

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February 14, 2017

0

Six Children’s Storybooks and their Esoteric Meanings

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” ~ Albert Einstein

Children’s storybooks have the fabulous ability to be the most unpretentious and charming stories you’ll ever lay your hands on. They also happen to echo the category of higher concept parable and allegory without being overtly didactic or dull.

In fact, they thrive on humour, and the best usually expose that knife-edge between survival and bliss which reflects the realities of life in their purest form. Less Oliver Twist or The Jungle Book, these classics heavily rely on their illustrations, but I believe that at their heart is an enlightening story, a story that has the potential to connect us to the divine as much as a Sufi poem or Zen Koan.

Here are six children story books with esoteric meanings

Green Eggs and Ham by Doctor Seuss

Although Theodor Geisel didn’t begin his books with a moral in mind, he also didn’t mind admitting he was ‘subversive as hell’, and many of his other books carry themes that might be familiar to somebody well-versed in anarchy. Green Eggs and Ham however, despite being fourth bestselling hardback children’s book of all time, did not appear to have an ulterior motive.

The story centres around Sam-I-am, who gets it into his head that he must convince an unnamed character to try the repulsive-sounding dish of green eggs and ham, a familiar and apparently innocent thematic of ‘you won’t know until you try it’ that plagues both adults and children during childhood.

Far from being political, Green Eggs and Ham can be likened to more spiritual and high concept themes which depict a Doctor Faustus shoulder angel-type scenario or the polarity between the ego and our higher aspect. The latter is represented by Sam-I-Am who lovingly guides us to try something no matter how much we resist.

The impressive use of just 50 words (the result of a bet between Geisel and his publisher that he could write a book that used less words than The Cat in the Hat) does nothing to curtail the lengths the book’s unnamed character goes to resist this offer to try something new; he goes from dismissive, to angry, to downright aggressive before finally giving in to discover that he likes it after all.

Room on the Broom

Julia Donaldson’s hugely popular books include The Gruffalo, Stickman and Tabby Mctat but one of the classics has to be Room on the Broom.

Subverting the archetype of the evil or mischievous witch, Donaldson has this one so kind she can’t help but accept the appeals for help from every creature she comes across which leads to her broom being broken and a tryst with a dragon, but rewards her in the end when those she helped come back to rescue her.

The moral of the story could also be seen as the need to modernize and be flexible to allow more to come on board with you, a message we are probably all feeling with the recent changes in global events.

Perhaps because it is so delightful to read, one can’t help but wonder why exactly this storybook has sold so many copies worldwide, but it might have something to do with the more the merrier theme, or the aesthetically unpleasing but heart of gold figure of the witch. Whatever it is this is definitely a classic.

Giraffe’s Can’t Dance

Two million copies sold worldwide, Giraffe’s Can’t Dance draws on a familiar school-or-work-like setting where the majority tell us we can’t do something because they have been conditioned into thinking that Giraffe’s can’t dance without ever giving poor Gerald the opportunity to try.

OK so he’s clumsy and has knees that bend the wrong way, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be able to join in the jungle dance, right?

The climax where Gerald discovers he CAN and IS dancing is enough to stir up even the most solemn of adults reading this delightful story and is akin to an enlightenment or Eureka moment – I CAN do it!

And the guru-like Cricket who urges him to ‘listen to the swaying trees’ is definitely performing some sort of meditative technique on Gerald. The result is that Gerald is able to calm his critical mind, representative of the crowd, long enough to hear his own brand of music thus connecting with the Whole and wowing everybody! Gerald becomes the Pioneer or rebel and proves the conditioning of the jungle to be dead wrong. Read it even if you don’t have children.

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

A lesser well-known Dr Seuss book, this sequel to Cat in the Hat has the apparent function of teaching children their A-B-C when the Cat in the Hat requires help to tidy up (yet another) mess he has made.

He proceeds to pull ‘Little Cat A’ out of his hat and goes on to get the whole alphabet (who grow smaller with each letter) until he finally pulls out an invisible Z (so small he’s impossible to see), who has ‘Voom’ in his hat, which then explodes the mess away and does all the work Sally and Dick were trying to accomplish (and were being distracted from) in the first place.

The charm of this book, as well as the usual poetic meter of anapestic tetrameter which makes it so pleasing to read aloud, is the message to go with the flow. A step up from the first book, the Cat in the Hat Comes Back resists Dick’s fears about the fact they are trying to get rid of the pink cat ink instead of doing their work.

It’s like the boy has his whole day already set out in his head and is resisting the Cat’s ploy for fun. They still get it all done in the end and more, showing children that sometimes they just need to trust and the universe will sort it out for them. Even if they take the long way around something, the goal never changes, but we might as well have some fun (and make more mess) along the way. Everything’s going to be OK.

Stickman

Another Julia Donaldson, Stickman spans the seasons from early spring when a ‘stickman’ gets lost and becomes increasingly desperate as he is mistaken for everything other than what he is.

A message to not let others tell us who we are, the story comes full circle when Stickman appears to be facing death (asleep in a fireplace) when he rescues Father Christmas who then sees him rightly home.

A slightly bizarre twist I’ll admit, but the book successfully carries the themes of having compassion for all creatures and never assuming that something doesn’t have feelings just because it appears – to you – to be an inanimate object.

Where The Wild Things Are

I felt compelled to add Where the Wild Things Are to the list because it’s so popular, although I personally much prefer the illustrations to the story itself.

Voted as the number one picture book in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, you can’t dispute its huge appeal to children.

Perhaps it’s the idea of becoming a beast – no, King of the beasts – for a few hours, honouring that inexplicable of feelings we all entertain from time to time when we just feel prickly and like submerging ourselves in our own world in a reverie fit for any hermit or child itching to be free of confines of their parents.

English author, Francis Spufford suggested that the book was “one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate and beautiful use of the psychoanalytic story of anger”. Whatever the reason for the books success, I think we would all like to explore our shadow side from time to time by dressing up in a wolf onesie and commandeering a pack of monsters, riding them through the jungle until we are so tired we go home…. to bed.

And what better way to enter the world of the subconscious than reading a children’s storybook? Is this what they’re designed for; to fire off the child’s imagination or gently slip them into the night-time hour by exhausting their final fling of creativity until another day? Despite the need to be present with children, I still feel the storybook has a place on the family bookshelf… for now at least.

Fractal Enlightenment