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(#3) Elephant Spirit
Note to Reader: This series will focus on how to encourage children to be more conscious and conscientious of the world around them, both the physical and the non-visible world of Spirit. These columns will initially focus on animal spirit guides found in the Children’s Spirit Animal Cards, which are intended to help children understand the guidance that spirit animals can provide.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” —Michael Jordan
Elephant’s Message: You Can Overcome Any Problem
The image of Elephant in the Children’s Spirit Animal Cards shows a single elephant with a joyous look on her face. Her trunk is raised in a gesture of trumpeting, as if she’d just overcome some unseen adversity—which is the message of this particular card. Given that the elephant is the largest and one of the strongest land mammals walking on the Earth today, it’s safe to say that there are few if any obstacles the elephant could not overcome! Given their size and bulk it’s also no wonder that they have very few natural enemies.
It’s inevitable that we all will confront obstacles in our lives, and an extra boost of encouragement can help us summon up enough courage and persistence to tackle them. We may even realize after surmounting these obstacles that they weren’t as difficult as we had first imagined. How many times have we stretched ourselves to take on a task that was scary and in doing so increased our confidence?
Events such as the first day of school, moving, or things we want to achieve may all seem impossible when first considered. It’s only later when we look back that we realize that in our life we have overcome many obstacles. In fact, you would not be who you
are today if you had not encountered some difficulties and challenges that you successfully conquered through your determination.
As Elephant Spirit says in the guidebook accompanying the Children’s Spirit Animal Cards:
I’m sure sometimes you feel like you’re faced with what seems like insurmountable problems. You had some trouble in one of your subjects at school, one of your parents got upset with you, a friend you usually play with for some reason didn’t want to hang out with you today, you’ve lost something and just can’t seem to find it. Whether it’s one particular problem or one of those times when it seems like nothing is going right, it can be quite overwhelming. When you’re overwhelmed it’s hard to think straight or figure out what to do.
So first thing is, pause for a few minutes, take some deep breaths, tell yourself, “I am relaxed” as you breathe. Remind yourself that most problems you face are not as big as you think they are, and that you have a number of resources that can help solve just about any problem.
The first resource to turn to are your parents and other trusted adults. If it helps to solve the problem, you can use the Internet and books to research ways other people have solved similar problems or specific steps to take to resolve the situation. But you must strongly believe that you can solve the problem. Just remember that you don’t have to go it alone.
ACTIVITY
* When confronted with a difficult challenge, repeat the phrase, “I can do it!” several times and feel what happens in your body before and after.
* Find the good things that came out of facing and solving a problem and write one or two of those down in your journal.
* If you’ve tried solving the problem by yourself but haven’t done so, before you give up completely, ask for advice or help from a relative or friend.
If you start to feel overwhelmed when faced with a difficult task, take a time out. Walk away from it, stretch your limbs, go outside, and as Elephant spirit said, breathe! Even a few minutes can make you feel refreshed and ready to face it again. Often what appear to be obstacles dissolve in the face of your resolve and determination.
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” Booker T. Washington
