Flexibility And Love: Reaching The Children With Cartoons

I'm excited to see how acceptance, mindfulness, and values is entering into the culture. Nothing shows that more clearly than the media. This is especially true in films and cartoons for children. I can't think of a better place to start! One of my younger son's favorite shows is "Steven Universe". Both he and I share the name of the main character -- which is a source of chuckles. In a new episode called "Mindful Education" Steven and Connie combine to form "Stevonnie" (characters do that in this show ... ah, its a long story). Once combined they work on their fighting skills but in this episode Stevonnie suddenly and dangerously falls apart (back into Steven and Connie) when Connie touches on a painful emotion, and later in the show, when Steven does that as well. In both cases show takes the opportunity to take the characters through the process of confronting their demons, using principles and terms drawn from mindfulness based therapy and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) If you are not sure its ACT, well the key song makes it darn clear by the lyrics, even speaking of "flexibility, love, and trust" in the opening and closing stanza In addition the official Wiki site for the show (link above) is explicit about the ACT/MBCT link: "Garnet's method of mindfulness meditation, especially the lines 'it's just a thought, we can watch them go by,' closely mirrors the principles and strategies of Mindfulness Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MCBT) or Acceptance and Commi...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news