SHOSHANA CHAIM is a former kindergarten and physical education teacher turned wellness expert, who concentrates on helping health practitioners, their families, patients, and clients make healthy lifestyle choices. She is a founder of Plant Trainers, hosts The Plant Trainers Podcast and works with an advanced health biotechnology company. Her new book, I Am A Peaceful Goldfish, teaches children the importance of mindfulness and taking big breaths in a fun and imaginative way. She lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
How mesmerizing and relaxing would it be to watch a peaceful goldfish in its goldfish bowl?
As a parent, nothing is more exciting than thinking about your baby growing and finally arriving to you at the end of nine months. As a kindergarten teacher, nothing is more exciting than fostering both academic and personal skills in your students for 10 months and seeing how they have changed by graduation. As a retired teacher turned health consultant, I never thought that I would have the opportunity to help more children as I did during my full teaching career. I feel as if I have been birthing a book over the last 6 years and it is finally going to be clutched in tiny little hands belonging to tiny little bodies in a time we need it the most.
Quite a few years back, my son was having a hard day. I was having a hard day. All I wanted for him at that moment was peacefulness. As I immersed myself more in the plant-based and vegan lifestyle I became more interested in mindfulness and meditation as a way to help me settle my mental wellness. I tried to reach for a book that would teach him to take deep intentional breaths when he felt his mind and body get out of control. But there was no book to be found. So, I created it.
When I would feel my own pulse rising or hear negative self-talk in my head, or even racing thoughts, I would picture positivity sweeping into my body with each breath in and I would envision the negativity leaving my body, with each breath out. But that was a little too abstract for young children. So, I thought about the day-to-day objects children love and what brings them comfort and familiarity. I pulled from imaginative play and how many children enjoy running around breathing fire like a dragon. Or how they run out into the yard and blow on every dandelion creating a summer flurry. And I finally came to imagine a quiet, content goldfish, floating in its bowl as calm as calm can be. While I did not want this to be my children all the time, I wished they could achieve that state when the going got tough.
My visions came alive when I was blessed with the opportunity to work with publishers. That meant that children and parents everywhere could walk into a bookstore and interact with the book and, hopefully, take it home. That meant that children would have the ability to practice taking deep breaths while they were calm so when they were coached to do the same during tantrums or anxious times, they would have more success. And not only that, they could anchor the act of taking deep breaths to their favorite animal or object from the book and receive verbal cues from their parents and caretakers. And maybe, most of all, that meant that they would be exposed to mindful breathing at a young age which could positively impact their life as adults. I think we can all agree that we wish we had learned some stress-relieving techniques earlier in life.
This book conveniently comes to the world at a time when we need it the most. More and more adults and children are living with anxiety, looking for ways to simply get back to the calm state of a peaceful goldfish. I thought the magic was creating a tool to teach children now so that they did not have to find out about this technique as an adult. But, the magic is that families will come together, learn together and breathe together and be lifted through the repetitive text, colorful images, and breathe while mental health is most likely at its lowest.
Many tools should be in a mental health toolbox. That is one of the reasons I eat a nutrient-dense plant-based diet, get outside in nature, and surround myself with good people who I love and who love me. Positive self-talk and making the effort to be grateful every single day are part of my secrets to success. Are some days hard? Of course. But having the tools in the toolbox not too far away does help.
Sending love, light, and caring thoughts to families of all shapes, numbers, and sizes right now. Be safe, be happy and be calm like the peaceful goldfish.
