On Tuesday while I was teaching a five year old boy named Jett how to float I told him that I was going to play the “LET GO COME BACK GAME”. I use this concept a lot when I’m teaching young children how to float.
It usually works and helps develop trust between the teacher and the child. But with Jett this was not working and he started to panic a bit,
His sweet mom who I have gotten to know really well said tell him to “Go Away” and then “Come Back”. I listened to her and it worked.
I wasn’t quite sure what the difference was but the young girl who is training with me said that she learned this concept watching “Bluey’”
After swimming lessons were over I thought about this principle a lot during the day.
The difference between going away and coming back vs letting go and coming back.
Letting go means you want personal freedom and to let go of is to free yourself, but sometimes we don’t know how to begin the process. We want peace and tranquility and we know letting go is one avenue to get there.
When you truly understand letting go, you truly do “let it go” and you don’t revisit it again.
When you tell a child to let go, in their mind it may mean that you’re not coming back,
If I teach a child to let go while floating, they may think I’m actually not coming back which can cause them to get even more anxious.
If you say “go away” especially for just a minute, they know you’re coming back because going away usually only means for a period of time.
“When your teaching a child to float, you want them to trust you and know that you will be coming back”
I learned so much from this experience and it also helped me understand the eternal principle of death even more.
Our loved ones did not let go of us when they crossed the veil, they went away for a while and it’s our mortal journey that teaches us that there is a heaven and that it is incredibly beautiful there and we will see our loved ones again.
It’s not always about getting to heaven quickly, but enjoying the climb while we try to get to where we eventually want to be in this crazy, mixed up complicated world.
We really do want to find peace in the moment and to truly let go of what may be bringing us down.
In the animated T.V. Show “Bluey” there’s no learning this or that … just show ’em playing. The show was created to teach parents that the kids aren’t just mucking around. They’re learning to play, learning to share … and generally you can just put your feet up and let ’em do it.”
Children naturally play freely and joyfully. They assemble blocks, draw, dance, and run without worrying about rules, criticism, or the “right” way to do things. They are not constrained by fear of failure or judgment. Free play is the ultimate expression of a child’s natural curiosity and joy—an activity they instinctively choose because it fulfills their innate desire to explore, create, and connect. It’s a state of complete immersion in an activity during which the child experiences deep concentration, enjoyment, often leading to a sense of mastery.
I think one of the most beautiful things that I have learned this week at the swimming pool is the absolute beauty of watching a child “be a child” and knowing that we as adults sometimes let go of our childlike traits and forget that coming back to the beauty of being childlike, humble, submissive and embracing in the concept of “PLAY” is truly the essence of understanding who we want to be when we become true disciple of Jesus Christ.
<3 Heart Strings <3 