A Healing Story for Courage and Bravery

 

Hello my friends today I thought I would share a story I wrote for a client. It is a script that could be 

used for anyone working on courage and bravery and understanding one's untapped abilities beyond fears.

As you know I love writing stories. Writing a story for a client comes from our work together 

and giving us both time to get to know each other. I never know what will emerge and am always 

surprised as it comes most of the time spontaneously.

I hope you enjoy this healing story.

The Hippo’s Grand Adventure

By Diane Auld © 2010

 

Once upon a time there was a huge hippopotamus who lived on the African savannah. She was large and grey and had small ears that flapped in the wind and a very very large mouth. Her days were busy with taking care of her children and the other hippos in her family group. She was a particularly brave and strong hippopotamus. When the tigers came into her part of the grasslands she would go right up to them and stamp her large feet, open her huge mouth and very clearly state “You get out of here, this is not your part of the grasslands and there is nothing for you here. If you do not leave right now I shall have to do something I do not want to do and that is stomp all over you, and believe you me I can and will do it.” She always ended her speech with an emphatic stomp of her large foot which made the ground shake and naturally made the tigers decide there was better food to eat in other parts of the savannah. All the animals in the savannah where thankful and amazed at how brave she was. She just saw it as the right thing to do, never even giving it another thought. One day she was bathing in her favourite river spot when a rat wandered up to the river to drink. As he drank he became aware of a commotion happening in the river. He looked up to see the Hippopotamus going from a lovely shade of gray to a washed out shade of ghostly greyish white. The longer he stood there the more ghostly the hippopotamus’s color became. The hippopotamus was frozen where she stood. Her whole body was filled with fear, she was terrified the rat would come towards her, she was terrified if she opened her huge mouth he would run right up into it. She could not move, she could not even make a sound to call someone to save her. She stood in the river bed for so long she started to sink into the mud. But as long as the rat stood there she could not move. Her fear screamed in her head and she could do nothing but stand there sinking. Finally the rat wandered into the grasslands leaving the hippopotamus alone. Slowly the hippopotamus became aware of her surroundings, slowly the fear in her head stopped screaming and she could focus on getting herself out of the mud. It took a while but she was so relieved the rat had left she did not care until she got to the edge of the river bank where the fear started again. “What if he was waiting for her? What if he jumped on her and ran into her mouth?  What if…….what if……. The hippopotamus could feel her feet freeze on the ground and her mind raced. She imagined him waiting for her in the grass. Just around the corner, any corner, every corner. She started to sweat, wondering how she was going to get home through the grass. Suddenly she heard a far off cry: “Tiger…..Tiger.” The hippo recognized her aunt’s voice and took off in the direction of the sound. Sure enough there he was a large ferocious tiger crouching in the tree waiting to pounce on his next hippo meal. He was hungry, big and mean. She walked up to the tree and opened her big mouth and said;” You get out of that tree right now and get out of my part of the savannah. If you do not get out right now I shall bang on that tree until you fall out and stomp on you with all my feet.” “You don’t scare me said the tiger. I will jump on you and eat you.” Fine” replied the Hippo you have had your one warning. I will turn you into a flat pancake if you do not leave right now. She walked towards the tree and was just going to bang against the tree when the tiger realizing how big she was jumped down and took off across the savannah for safer ground.

“That was quite amazing a voice said from the grass. How come you are not afraid of that tiger he has really big teeth and he looked really hungry?” I don’t know replied the hippo, I am afraid but I know I have to protect my family and friends and I just find it in me to be strong even when it is scary. I realize I am bigger than he is and that helps me to not let the fear take over.

“Wow”, the voice said “I wish I could be that strong.” When I get scared it makes me freeze and the fear in my head just screams. I get so scared nothing else exists. You must be very brave and wise to understand you are bigger than your fear when you feel afraid.”  The hippo looked very thoughtful for a moment and said. “I have to go now. You be safe.” “Oh I will be safe.” replied the voice. “Nice talking to you.” The hippo wandered off thinking about the tiger and about the rat at the river. The creature in the grass wandered out to watch the hippo disappear into the grass. Life is a funny thing he thought fear lives within as well as strength, when we connect with our strength our fear does not have so much room to take over. The wise old rat smiled at how much power the hippo had given him at the river. It felt good to give some of it back to the hippo.