My first response to an angry situation is an anger expression, whether it’s an internal one or external one. How about you?

Well, we both are human and we became quite sensitive(🤷‍♀️), living in the world full of angry and annoying situations.(😬)  Sad but true, right?

But this bear is different. (Maybe because he’s living in a deep forest.🐻🤭)

Book “Big Bear Hug” by Nicholas Oldland

The bear in the book “Big Bear Hug” by Nicholas Oldland is a loving bear and he gives a hug to every living thing that he comes across.

Even when he meets a human with an axe who is trying to chop a tree down, the bear chooses not to be angry and bite the man. Instead, he hugs the man. As a result, the man gets scared and runs away.

Haha.

It’s a story that we can just read, laugh about once and put it aside. 

But, it’s also a story that if we decide to give a time to think about it a little longer, then we can be reminded of a meaningful life lesson. 

The bear definitely didn’t plan to scare the man away by giving a bear hug. The problem was just solved by a funny accident. 

But let’s think. If the bear responded to the man with anger and bit him right away, what would have happened? What are the possible outcomes? 

The man gets bitten and dies.

The man gets bitten and runs away.

The man gets bitten and attacks the bear. The fight gets bigger. 

The man gets bitten, gets angry and comes back the next day with more humans to cut the trees. 

.

.

.

Well, there can be a good scenario, too. 

The man gets bitten, gets scared and decides not to cut a tree there. 

But, it seems like there are more losing parts. Don’t you think so?

This bear’s self-regulation skill is admirable.👑

But anyway, because he could use his high-level of self-regulation skill at the moment, he solved the problem and he didn’t need to be left with more anger and guilt of killing. Win-win. 

I guess it’s safe to say that the act of love had the higher possibility of bringing a better result. 

It’s something to think about, right?

I know, it is not easy to have that kind of high level self-regulation skill. Like I said at the beginning, my first response to an angry situation is an anger, too. But I think that’s why we want to be reminded of the other better options as often as possible. We want our thoughts and responses can be different in angry situations, right? 

These ideas and lessons started from seeing these cookies.

These cookies were saved on my Pinterest board from a long time ago but I never really tried making them. 

Edited: I made my version of confetti bear cookies. 🙂

These cookies can be a good reminder of the lesson from the bear.

“The actions of love may have a higher possibility of bringing positive results in more parts.”

(or, “Happy bear lived a happy life.”)

Teacher Gela

For this week, I suggest you to try reading this book “Big Bear Hug” (or listen to the story in my words in the podcast episode 53) and make the bear confetti cookies with your child. 

When you eat the cookies together, you can say

“Remember the bear. Because the bear was filled with love and happiness, he could stop his anger quickly. He didn’t need to stay in anger for a long time and he didn’t need to hurt the man. Because the bear was filled with love and happiness, his days were happy and peaceful.”

Teacher Gela

Listen to the full episode 53 and learn the bear hug song, too. 🐻🎵

(Song “Bear Hug” by Stephanie Leavell)

Happy learning and quality time!

Teacher Gela