Every day I ask myself, “What is the message of my Heart today?” I continue to be surprised that there is always a message. I still get a daily message for myself, and sometimes I get messages from my Heart for others in the work I do as a counselor at our local juvenile hall. I am a professional listener and I practice listening with my heart!
Recently I was sitting with a 13-year-old boy who had been in juvenile hall for several weeks. He was anxious about going to court and what the judge was going to say and do. He was scared about the consequences looming for him. He was shaking in fear. He wanted to go home to his family. No matter what I said, what intervention I tried, there was no impact, no reduction in the anxiety. He could not shake the fearful thoughts.
I was about to end the session as I could not think of anything else to do or say that might help him or make a difference. My mind ran out of ideas. I gave up trying. As I sat there preparing how to say good-bye, my Heart moved me to look into his eyes and say “It’s going to be OK!” And I meant it. I knew he was safe and cared for at that moment. I knew that even the possible consequences coming to him were things he would at least survive and at best find real benefit and support.
I realized later that this was the moment of heart to heart communication. This trembling young boy, burst into tears. A few minutes later he said, “I think I just needed someone to say that to me.” I wrote the message out on a piece of paper, and he took it with him as a key to remind himself to say positive things to himself to help maintain calm feelings during stressful times.
Several days later as I was driving back to work, I heard this on a radio station: “The message is ‘It’s going to be ok.” When I got to work, I met with this boy again and told him how the message kept coming to me. As we talked, we agreed that it is a universal message that we all want to hear and know.
When I got home, I created this coloring page to share the message of the Heart that brightened my week and the week of that boy dealing with the risks of adolescence.
It’s going-tobe-ok-coloringpage
By the way, this boy went to court and will be released soon, having faced and survived a challenging lesson, and yes, it is going to be OK! We were able to laugh at how the message kept coming.
If you like to color, perhaps you can print this and reinforce the message of your Heart because if you are reading this, it is ok right now and the knowledge from your Heart is that “it’s going to be OK.”
