Lucy’s Story
Let’s say 9 year old Lucy is ill and needs to spend several weeks or even months in hospital. It is a frightening and overwhelming experience for all involved. There may even be an unknown outcome or prognosis ahead. Instantly, how the adults perceive and cope with this situation is also going to be a factor in Lucy’s life. We conclude things (at a sub conscious level) about life, others, ourselves and God through our experiences and it is the traumatic experiences that are particularly impacting.
So, what Lucy tells herself her experiences such as: her time in hospital, her daily highs and lows, her future, injustice, missing out, illness, doctors, her friends and so on. This self talk now has the potential to influence her way of thinking forever. We don’t realise when we are doing ‘sick thinking’, we usually believe our thinking is normal and appropriate so it will go un-addressed and keep producing more poisonous thinking. My Life Rulz
My Life Rulz in Action
My Life Rulz helps children identify stinking thinking and these deep beleifs have been specifically chosen because they are common and destructive. So, Lucy finds herself in the book and discovers she believes that she can’t be happy until life is back to normal (or she may discover she believes another of the misbeliefs within the book).
Below is the ‘question’ and ‘stinking thinking’ from Rule two.
The misbeliefs are depicted in grey, dull, charcoal drawings to imply that when we think like this life is grey, dull and difficult and pretty colourless.
Now you can help Lucy replace that ‘poisonous’ thinking by flushing it out and replacing it with the insights and truths we have designed as an antidote. This is done by the My Life Rulz insights being read regularly to the child and the child memorising them so that they can pull them into their mind easily when needed.
Why My Life Rulz insights?
It can be likened to putting sandbags in place so that when the (emotional) flood hits the flood waters don’t break the banks. They are deep persuaders, real answers, comforters, missing trace elements and personal trainers for the mind. You see the mind will just keep going down its destructive groove until it has another option.
We want to intentionally dig a new healthy option into the mind, thus giving it hope and reassurance to hold onto. Having this option will develop resilience, a good attitude and a mind that will look after the child rather than tyrannise and frighten. Thus our minds can be taught how to become our friend rather than our enemy.
The ‘truth’ pages are full, bright colour double pages depicting the concept that when we tell ourselves the truth life is colourful, easier, brighter and better. The situation doesn’t necessarily change but the way we think about the situation is what is so vital for us because our perception is our reality over time.
The book goes through in this manner giving 10 Life Rulz. After more than 70,000 hours of combined counselling, David and Joan have seen that My Life Rulz provides the vital building blocks for the mind to be emotionally healthy and resilient.