Think a Thought: A Book About Mindfulness

Think a Thought: A Book About Mindfulness is a self-help book for the early years, with advice presented in the gentlest possible way. We are told that a child’s thoughts can evoke a variety of emotions, that they can range from the fleeting to the overwhelming.

There’s a chance there will come a day when it’s

not just one thought floating by but a storm of thoughts,

LOUD and SCARY.

MAD thoughts,

MEAN thoughts,

very many BAD thoughts.

But the thoughts we have are not totally uncontrollable. The reader is given a recipe for slowing things down and using deep breathing to bring about a sense of order. Employing some of the techniques of psychology’s cognitive behavioral therapy, youngsters are asked to envision the possible outcomes of thinking those ‘bad’ thoughts, and how to turn things around in a more positive direction. These are all eminently sensible suggestions, aimed especially at the anxious child.

Calm can be found in the imagining of a favourite place or colour, an exercise which could be the springboard for banishing negativity.”

Whenever you decide, it’s your space to say

goodbye to those SEEPY, CREEPY, WON’T-GO-AWAY THOUGHTS,

those ICKY, STICKY, GET-IN-YOUR-WAY-THOUGHTS.

Author McGlauflin has presented the simple, helpful text while partner Zisman has contributed airy watercolour illustrations. We see a single child at one turn in the middle of a thunderous scribble of line and colour demonstrating worry and anger. Then the same little person, in her onesie and headband, is riding on a cloud or admiring a rainbow. This human figure appears on every page, but most of the space is given over to the abstract depiction of the riot of different thoughts she experiences and is coming to terms with.

We are left with this final message:

You see, this calming quiet won’t last long;

new thoughts are always passing through.

But what to do is up to you.

Todd Parr’s much more colourful Feelings Book enumerates many of the same emotions, but McGlauflin has offered a basic prescription for dealing with them. Teachers, daycare workers and parents will welcome the book as a means to open up discussion about feelings and how to handle them. A successful exercise in bibliotherapy.