IT’S A WELLIN WORLD…
Join us for a special adventure!

Garbeadean (pronounced: “Gar-bee-dee-in”) is a neighborhood youngster who has a BIG smile and a very healthy, active imagination.  The boy is getting ready for bed, so he brushes his teeth…up-down-right-left-front-back. Next, he puts on his pajamas…First, he lifts his right leg, gently slides it in, and wiggles his five twinkle toes.  Then his left leg and five more twinkle toes.  (Our adult-partners might want to count your child’s toes…You never know when the BIG TOE might turn into a pumpkin—Just kidding!) 

Mom plants a goodnight kiss on Garbeadean’s cheek and Dad gives him a HUMUNGUS I- LOVE-YOU-HUG to bring a peaceful end to another day. As they shut the light and slowly close the door, the room gets dark… Darker … EVEN DARKER…But not for long.

BEFORE he drifts off to sleep, Garbeadean does what Mom and Dad taught him to do in order to relax…He “BELLY-BREATHES”.  Belly Breathing means that he imagines that his stomach is like a balloon.  Not a real balloon, just his imagination.  As he breathes in, he counts “One…two …three” as the fresh air pushes his tummy up and out…just a little bit.  He holds the air and thinks: “Four...”—Then he exhales and thinks, “Five…Six…Seven,” while his stomach falls as the air slowly goes out.  One more time: he breathes in and his BELLY GOES UP—“One, two, three”.  Hold, “four”. Then he exhales: “Five…Six…Seven.”…Stomach goes DOWN…Slow and easy.  Belly breathing makes him feel calm…OH SO CALM.

One windy night, the moon was high in the sky, casting long gray-brown-and golden shadows against the bedroom wall.  At the bottom of the tree trunk, Garbeadean imagines an opening…with light coming from the hollow hole.  He did not know it then, but his life is about to change in a most exciting way. 

What happens next may be a dream…OR NOT.  Dreams can seem so real that many kids believe that they are true…I will leave that up to Garbeadean...and to you at your bedtime. 

The neighborhood child sits up in bed when he hears a child’s voice floating on a whispering wind up and out of the tree hollow.  “HELLO”, he responds… No answer …Just night silence. 

The youngster decides to investigate.

With those words, the curious child slides out of bed, tiptoes across the room, and peaks into the tree’s opening. “HELLO…Hello…hello”.  His voice echoes as it follows the rays of light that dip down into the hollow opening.  The light is pointing toward a twisting, turning tunnel…No, not a tunnel.  It’s more like a water slide WITHOUT THE WATER.

Whatever is happening?  Garbeadean feels as if he is being invited into a fun adventure.  So he takes a step on to the slide, plops down on his butt, and off he goes!  He twists and turns…Turns and twists…And what-do-you-know, he goes from night to day and POPS OUT, making a soft landing in a sunny field of flowers.   

WOW!  No, DOUBLE WOW-WOW!!  Garbeadean lands in a magic place called Cloover, a sunny meadow on the other side of BIG MOUNTAIN, just this side of the nearest rainbow.  Cloover is the home of the Wellins, a community of special little people.  When I say, “little people,” I don’t mean boys and girls who are as little as your thumb… Or only as tall as flowers that grow in a garden.  No, they’re bigger than that.

HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT IF YOU’RE WEARING ONE:

Long ago, BEFORE ice cream learned how to melt…and turtles began to knit fancy fuzzy sweaters for their friends, Wellin boys and girls stopped growing up when they become thirteen years old.  Wellin sons and daughters get shorter, not TALLER, when they grow UP…I mean when they grow DOWN.  It’s their way of blending in with nature and holding on to the joyful spirit of childhood.  Most Wellins stand about three-feet tall.  That’s about as high as the top of your kitchen table or as tall as your Dad’s belt buckle. 

Our neighborhood friend could see Wellins, children and elders, working and playing in the distance.  A group of young ones were bouncing on a grass trampoline, while two elders were in the garden picking vegetables.  He was going to go over and introduce himself but decided that he’d head back home for now. 

Garbeadean is about to go on a number of adventures…Why not join him and take a look for yourself! 

We invite you to reach out with a big literary hug to your children’s imagination and help them take a leap into our Wellness Adventures!

NOW, more than ever, parents, teachers, and caregivers face the challenge of providing a safe, nurturing environment for their children to grow and prosper. Caution and concern are not merely focused on the dangers and mixed social-emotional messages children are bombarded with from sun-up to bedtime.  Families have never been so challenged by sneaky viruses that keep them home instead of in school and on the job. People of all ages face TOO MUCH and TOO MANY of the “good things” in life. People face super-sized meals and sugar-charged 32-ounce drinks where MORE IS LESS when it comes to healthy nutrition. Instead of supporting strong, responsive, healthy bodies, these excesses create overweight, fatigue, and even depression.  

Lots of children do not play like they used to.  More is done indoors than outside, sitting and staring rather than running and throwing.  Television, computers, digital games, tablets, and cellphones mechanically connect, entertain, and educate kids.  These devices are wonderful modern educational and entertainment instruments…as long as they do not KIDNAP our young ones.  These marvels can numb innocent minds and create lethargy and asocial behavior.  It is not unusual to see two friends sitting next to each other, texting rather than talking.  The dazzling digital feedback that moves so magically in breathtaking colors and rapid mystical mirages can shrink a child’s world from a socially interactive, physically interdependent community to an introversive and isolated world where “touch” is between child and machine versus a community of friends in healthy competitive engagements. 

The WellinWorld series spells it out, each letter in the word WELLNESS:

• WELL-BEING: Mind, Body, and Spirit
• EXCELLENCE: Best effort and a spirit of competing to WIN  
• LOVE: Passion that builds trust, respect, and emotions-based relationships
• LEADERSHIP: Teaching young ones to LEAD, FOLLOW, BUT NEVER HIDE
• NO NEGATIVE mindset, attitudes, and destructive self-talk that fan the flames of self-defeating “Can’t Do” beliefs
• ENGAGING individuals to MAP a path to a LIFE WORTH LIVING: Mission And Purpose
• STRESS MANAGEMENT: Learning how to convert PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorders) into PTM (Post-Traumatic Momentum)
• SELF-AWARENESS, Self-Development, Self-Expression: Character that reflects core values and one’s AUTHENTIC SELF! 

ADULTS who join us are not merely incidental parts of our story experience. They are partners in the child-development, relationship-building, entertainment processes. Some adults…from time to time…need to do like the Wellins do, that is, “grow back down” in order to rediscover their Inner Child.  Some need to heal old wounds so as not to live in yesterday’s psychodrama and pass them on to their young ones. 

Adults are invited to visit what we call “AHA CORNER”, where they will learn to embellish upon the lessons to be learned, as well as, encouraged and guided to build deeper parent-child bonds and act as healthy role models. We hope to make parenting a never-ending game of “Tag, You’re It”—each generation raising the bar on the “How To’s and What-If’s” of raising a powerful well child.  

While we structure and model these messages in the adventures, we always remain focused on our primary goal—HAVING FUN!

Please join us…

     Dr. Joe Currier