My
journey to becoming a children’s book author and creating The Wise Bear Stories is quite an unusual one, but if you follow
the story you will also see a logic to the pathway and one that I believe was
destined.
My
career started as a PGA Golf Professional, and very quickly coaching became my
speciality. Since 1993 I have coached
some of the best golfers in The World and enjoyed a career as a TV pundit. In 2011 I released my first golf book Intuitive Golf and achieved the highest accolade
of becoming a PGA Master Professional.
Even
though I was a golf coach, my main interest was never the technical side of
golf, it was always the human behaviour and psychology behind golf.
To
develop my knowledge and skills I travel extensively attending countless
seminars and training programs, working alongside some of the World’s leading
personal development teachers.
With
a deep desire to learn as much as I can about human behaviour and how to live
an inspired and fulfilled life It didn’t take long before my coaching branched
out into life and business coaching. And
then in 2003 I became a father!
As
my children started to attend school, I was suddenly faced with new challenges
to deal with that frankly I wasn’t ready for!
I was used to solving problems for top golfers and business leaders, but
squabbles in the playground – help!
I
quickly realised that coaching my children in my normal style wouldn’t work, I
had to find a way of sharing key principles with them in such a way they would
enjoy learning them and remember in the future, and that is how The Wise Bear
Stories came about.
I
would listen to the events of my children’s day and the different challenges,
worries and anxieties they might have, and then I would make up a bedtime story. In the story a special character called Wise
Bear would help them find a new perspective, which in turn would help them
dissolve their worries and anxieties.
The
Wise Bear is 100 years old, full of wisdom yet also quite comical. He often amuses the children with some of his
quirky old-fashioned English sayings.
I
am a great believer in taking all theory and making it practical and for that
reason every story ends with a short exercise so that the child can apply what
they have learnt to their own life. It’s
a lovely way for children and parents to work together and dissolve some of
their anxieties.
Before
going too far with the stories I went into several schools to teach the key
principles to different age groups, ranging from 5 to 11. The feedback was fantastic. In a relatively short time, I was fortunate
to get testimonials from leading psychologists, physicians, schools and
personal development teachers. One of
the sessions was filmed by the UK’s leading broadcast channel The BBC. You can
see the clip here… BBC
News Website.
Although
the principles covered in the stories apply to all ages, I wanted to target 5 –
11-year old’s, I felt 5-year-olds with some assistance from parents would grasp
the concepts, and 11-year-olds are still impressionable before they hit the
teenager phase!
My
chief aim is for the stories to act as a ‘skilled’ preventative to potential
mental health conditions. Giving your child the chance to learn these
principles while they are young means they will learn the tools to maintain
mental wellness throughout their life. A balanced mind is about the strongest
guarantee you can give your child for mental well-being.
Recent
research suggests that in USA approximately half of all American youth will
have a diagnosable mental illness at some point before they are 18 (Child mind
Institute) and in the UK as many as 1 in 6 young people (Anxiety UK) will
experience an anxiety condition at some point in their lives, this means that
up to 5 children in every state school class may be living with anxiety,
whether that be OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), social anxiety and
shyness, exam stress, worry or panic attacks. If there was a simple
engaging medium such as stories that helped children (and parents) make sense
of some of their challenges and bring their mind back to balance they might
avoid mental health problems later on in life, as well as perform better
now.
I
didn’t want The Wise Bear Stories to focus on morals or social idealisms, but
instead share timeless principles of true human behaviour, principles that whilst
known for centuries are rarely coached in our quick fix World. The
strapline for Wise Bear is… Helping You Through Life’s Journey and
that's exactly what I hope Wise Bear will do for families across the World.
As
I am sure very parent can relate to, you want the best for your children, and I
wanted to share with mine the best of what I had learnt in my life, but as many
parents will also relate to, your children don’t always want to listen to you,
but in my case they did want to listen to The
Wise Bear.
Website:
www.thewisebearstories.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/thewisebearstories
Scott
Cranfield: www.scottcranfield.com