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There are many benefits of reading books about imagination and emotions for children.

Reading about imagination can inspire creativity in kids.

Reading about emotions can help kids label, express and manage their own emotions.

Tonight we have two authors who help our children gain valuable life skills.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to everybody with Angela Williamson and innovation, Arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, doctor Angela Williamson.

Scott Field is here to tell us about Dax to the max.

But before we talk about this book, tell us, how did you come up with this concept?

Well, Dax is my own six year old son who was five when I wrote this.

And, I have studied personal development life skills from every angle possible since I was in my 20 somethings.

Okay.

And I realized from my own childhood, I had lots of stuff.

Yes.

I mean, I had stuff, like, I had the toys.

I had, you know, the cars we went on the trips and everything.

But I also knew that there was always I know now as I look back, connect the dots backwards kind of thing, that there was something missing.

Yes.

And what was missing was I didn't really what I call have my own inner powers sent out into the world.

I was really just that the effect of whatever was happening.

And I saw then that almost all kids are the same way.

I've been.

I've been teaching kids for the last 30 years.

Not traditional, like school teaching.

Yes, but doing coaching.

And I've started three businesses.

I started blast many years ago.

Big brothers looking at a stronger tomorrow.

Yes, a mentorship using sports.

I own extreme fun, extreme funds and interactive party company.

Okay.

Well known in San Diego where I'm from.

And now I've started Mines in Motion and Mines in Motion is my real focus and my real baby.

So what I wanted to do is be able to show kids what I didn't have and what I now know and learned, and that is that you don't have to be at the effect.

You can actually be the cause of your life.

You can actually create your life.

So we don't always have to be reactionary.

We don't always have to be reactionary.

Right?

And so being reactionary comes with a price.

Yes.

And for kids it's overwhelm.

It's frustration and stress.

Anxiety is you know I hear that a lot.

Yes.

And a lot of that comes from low confidence.

But why do they have low confidence?

Well, when you're at the effective stuff and you start carrying a heavy load, you don't really feel that strong in that powerful.

So when you're able to kind of unload that right.

And go out and kind of create something, something that you want.

So I teach kids inside of Mines in Motion where we have a power quest, and that's the max is part of that.

It's part of Mines in Motion.

Let's show me how it all works together.

Here we.

Go.

So this is 3 to 7 year old and we're going come back to that okay.

We will.

Okay.

And then once they get to be about eight years old, they do what's called a power quest with us.

And these are live or virtual.

So I've done this as far away as Australia with teenagers and as close to Dax, his own school in San Diego.

And everything in between.

Okay, a lot of East Coast for some ways.

Yes.

Right now.

And so we use different props that are kinetic sand.

This is how we teach neural pathways of neural pathways.

Kids we like whatever.

Yeah but this is how you you know, you build trails.

So if you get to pull out your kinetic sand and dig in it, and I don't know how much connection you've played with Angela, but it is here.

That's for you.

It's so fun.

I mean, this oh my God.

Yes.

Right.

Oh, I love this.

And you put it all together right?

Of stick it all together when we do our, our neural pathway trails kind of, experience.

Yeah, we have them dig in there and we have them think positive power thoughts because our neural pathways, the ones that are, dug the deepest.

Yeah, are the ones that are the strongest.

So if you're saying to yourself, I can do it and you're digging in some stuff, you see that your brain sees it and you're playing, but it's yeah, go ahead.

It's fun.

Yeah, yeah I can.

So I'm strong.

Strong.

I'm powerful and courageous and confident I can.

Yes, we are.

Because you're you're digging into it to a point.

And then at this point, I'm sort of creating a star here and not even realizing it.

Oh amazing.

Oh my goodness, I love that.

That's super fun.

And then, you know, we teach them about imagination, which is what the book's about as well.

So try these together.

But imagination is probably our best superpower because it's where we create from.

Yes you're right.

So if we really want to be the cause, we need to create something right?

And so when I teach this, I teach them about the inner mirror, which is who their identity, what are their strengths?

What are their values?

What do they love to do?

What would they love to do?

They take a look at the inside of themselves and what they're going to bring out into the world.

If they weren't afraid to do it, if they weren't afraid, people are going to laugh.

If they weren't afraid, they were going to fall down, they were going to fail all of that kind of stuff.

And that's our first thought.

Whenever anything scares us, we start to think of the negative.

Yeah, we don't think of actually going through and learning like how to ride a bike or learning how to speak in high school, and you have to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, right?

It all seems so scary.

Yes.

Right.

And, we talked about the acronym false evidence appearing real, which means we're creating the illusion, right?

We put the wall in front of us, and then we believe there's actually a wall and then we don't go through it.

Right.

So I like to teach that we, you know, we we have a comfort zone.

We all have a comfort zone.

And on the other side of that comfort zone is the adventure zone, not the uncomfort zone.

Nobody wants to go there, but we want to go to the Adventure Zone.

And that's why this is a power quest.

Because a quest is an adventure.

Yes it is.

Right.

And you go explore and you find new things.

Now, this doesn't sound so scary.

No, especially.

If you have some tools.

And that's important too.

And so in this book with, Dax to the max, I mean, he has tools, but he also has a guide.

Yeah, he has a guide.

That's Lauren.

So Lauren is actually a person in our life and she's been great with Dax.

And, so we animated her.

That's what you do with your.

Yes, of course.

And the book is to honor them forever and ever.

Forever.

And the inside of it, you see that, it says Lauren knows things.

She's been through this before.

Dax is a curious young boy.

He wants to learn things.

And so she kind of guides him by starting out, by showing him how to use his imagination.

Look up at the clouds.

What do you see?

Oh, I don't know.

I just see clouds, Dax says.

Right.

This looks more I see like, you know, a flower and this.

And and as he starts going, oh, wait a minute, I see a dinosaur here.

And then this, this kind of wizard appears, and then a message appears, and the message sends him to a cave.

And I chose a cave on purpose because I love the quote.

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure that you see.

The treasure that Dax seeks without even consciously knowing it is.

He doesn't want to be afraid.

So we send him in there and he meets Fegley the bear.

Now, frankly, is just fear.

So when I do interactive readings, which I do in schools, yes, I tell them replace regularly with whatever you're currently afraid of.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I mean, you that's all.

Have something you're afraid of right now.

And they say, yeah, you know, and whether it's like trying out for a team or trying out for a play or, it could even be like ski going to the skate park.

They want to ride a skateboard.

These are things they want to do.

But they're stopped and they don't know what to do about it.

And then all of a sudden they meet Dax meeting friendly.

And what Dax learns is that the power of imagination, how you see something, how you perceive something, changes it without it changing.

So it's a it was skateboarding, right?

Okay.

He wanted to do this, right.

And you're thinking, oh my gosh, it's so scary.

I'm going to fall.

People are going to laugh at me when you're making all of that up.

Well, if you can make all of that up, why don't we just put that to the side?

Angela, you can have it back if you want it.

You're not going to want to discard it.

Yeah, well, let's just put it to the side.

Just in case, all right?

Okay.

You're not going to want it.

You're going to ultimately put the trash out, okay.

Just, you know, if you feel a little safer that it's still there for you.

Oh, a little bit like a, like a blanket anyway.

Yes.

Okay.

And then over here, why don't we create something new?

Okay, okay.

Let's let's create.

It's adventurous.

It's fun.

We're going to learn something.

We're going to get on a skateboard and ride.

Yes.

Why don't we create that now?

Let's choose.

Because when you just have this in front of you, this like it's hard.

It's difficult.

People are going to laugh.

Where's the choice?

There are no, no.

You're overpowered.

Okay, okay.

Now you have a choice, right?

So now Dax is shown in the book.

So you can change.

Frankly, you can change the experience of frankly, you can make friendly funny.

Yes.

Or you can make him scary, right?

Yes.

And I and I see how Dax changes, frankly, in this book.

Yeah.

So and that's what you say is our superpower is our power to change our situation or to change our fear.

We imagined something anyway.

We're always imagining something.

Yes.

So I tell kids, why not direct it?

Don't control it.

Allow it to fly free, but direct it instead of imagining what the worst thing that could happen.

Let's imagine the best thing.

Let's imagine the fun of it.

Let's imagine the experience of it.

Let's imagine good things because you're going to.

It's all imagination until you go out and make it real.

But if you're imagining the worst, you never get to go make it real.

Okay?

You get stopped.

And we have the activity book as well, which is super cool because you can read it, your parents can read it, you can listen, you can hear it, but if you can get in here and do some fun mazes.

By yourself and strengthen.

Yeah, whatever your whatever feel you might have or.

Well, not strengthen the fear, we're going to strengthen the power over those.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's all right.

Yeah.

No.

And you can make popsicle stick superheroes.

So that's oh that's fun.

Well I love I love that terms you know your superpower I just love that.

And that I mean gives children the confidence right to face their fear.

Yeah.

Because when they look out at, you know, anybody that like a Spiderman or a Superman because all, you know kids Wonder Woman, whoever it might be, look out and they go, oh, they have these powers.

What we show them is, oh, you have powers.

Yes.

Yeah.

You want to be able to fly, you want to be able to soar.

You can do that.

You can go wherever you want to use your imagination to get past the fear.

You'll be able to soar.

You'll be able to fly right.

You'll be able to do whatever you want.

Super strength.

You want to be able to do whatever you want.

This is it.

Let's show you your inner superpower.

Then why don't we have a second book?

We don't have a second book because I got, I got contacted by a production company.

Oh, three Degrees Entertainment, when I was doing some marketing.

Yes.

We went through the whole dance, got our lawyers together, talked, and we signed a shopping agreement.

So now, instead of writing a second book, I've done something out of my comfort zone that I never thought I would do.

By the way, this was already out of my comfort zone.

We just took it a whole night.

We had a new comfort zone, right?

Yeah, it was bigger now and that's what happens, right?

Us three one, you got the bigger one, the next one.

So I wrote a pilot.

Wow.

I've written a series outline and it's all about fears and how kids can get past them.

But in it different than this instead of meat and frankly, the bear and all that.

Max is actually the mini superhero version of Dax, who comes out whenever Dax is having stink think and it causes the blah blah.

Yeah, yes, he's shown how to create power pods, which can defeat whatever it is that stand in his way to go do the thing that he wants to.

And every week we're gonna have a different network.

It's not every week now streaming these days, right?

There'll be a different app.

Drop them all at the same.

Yeah.

And so we're going to be shopping that very soon.

Has the pitch deck gets done.

So I'm really excited about that.

Well and I mean this was so wonderful.

Our time together is so short I know.

So when this happens and the pitch deck is done and you get all your episodes and you're ready to drop that on streaming, will you come back?

Yes.

Absolutely, yes.

And then we can do a full 30 minutes and talk about that, because that's so important, because book one was wonderful.

But when I was done I was ready for book two.

But if you're going to give me a series that I can, you know, as a parent, watch with my children or as an educator who's teaching in this age, use in the classroom, yes, I want to know about more about it.

Okay.

So definitely.

Oh, thank you, thank you.

It's a week.

How can we keep in touch to find out how Dax to the max is going?

So, it's minds in motion.com is a great place, and that's, Mindy.

Zen.

Oh, okay.

We'll make it.

I'll make sure to put.

It up there.

Too, so our audience.

Can see.

And that is.

That's calming the mind to be able to get into action.

That inner chatter.

Yes.

Stop it for a moment and then think about what we do want.

That's what Mind's in Motion is all about, calling the mind to get into action so you be able to follow it there, and we'll make sure.

Our audience keeps in touch.

Thank you so much for your time, Scott, and come back as we talk to an award winning author who published over 40 therapeutic books for children and parents.

Welcome to America's test kitchen.

At home.

At home, at.

Home, at home.

At home.

This year we're bringing it all back home today with great new recipes.

It's cheese time.

I hated tuna fish when I was a kid.

Ingredients and gear.

Here's money, your eye.

And your favorite test cook.

Today I want to talk about my tank.

Cooking in their own kitchens.

America's test kitchen at home.

It's really good.

When I was in foster care, I never knew when I would have to move, so I always had my suitcase ready to go in one day.

I was adopted.

My new parents opened their hearts and home to me.

My parents cook my favorite breakfast for me every morning.

My parents take me on trips I never thought I was going to.

They gave me a home and an even better reason to use that suitcase.

My parents aren't perfect, but they're perfect for me.

I'm the oldest and I have two younger brothers.

This is my mom and she's a family therapist.

Her younger clients call her doctor Anna or the serum doctor.

She helps others to manage their motions and feel better.

It's so cool.

I used to struggle with Waring's and not feeling good about myself, so my mom and I decided to write about it together.

We created something amazing a series of books titled I Can Do It.

Welcome back!

Anna is a licensed marriage and family therapist.

She's here to discuss her children's book series about emotions.

Anna, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me here.

I mean, you have written over 40 books and before we go over the three books that you brought today because are part of the series, so definitely talk about the other part of this series.

Why did you decide that it's important for you to start writing these books.

So first of all, I'm a therapist and I work with kids, so I really enjoy my work.

And I think it's really important teach kids the foundation and they'll have to express their emotions and know how to cope with their emotions.

Wow.

And so with this book here, you decided that I see this one that says all emotions are okay.

But then I also see these other books where it looks like you break it down with different types of emotions, and you have a very special character in here.

So tell me, what was your theory behind it when you start to create this series, and why was it important to use this specific character?

Okay, so the main character is Anthony and this is my oldest son.

So at that time when I wrote the book, he was eight.

Now he's almost ten and he he's the one.

He is the, I guess the emotional, the sensitive kid.

So he always struggled with expressing emotions and how to control the emotions.

So I talked to him and I said, like, listen, let's figure this out.

So I showed him different coping skills, the things you can do.

And I was like, well, if it's working for you, let's help other kids how to control their emotions and help me to write the books.

So I said, like, I'm an adult and I don't know how it feels, I forgot.

I know I was your age some point, but right now I don't know.

Can you tell me how does it feel when you feel void, for example?

So what's going on?

And that's when he described it.

So we did the whole like from children to children.

So that was his perspective of how he feels, the emotions.

And then I added my therapeutic expertise to teach kids, different skills through worksheets and exercises in the books.

But you develop them based on trying to help your son and his life skills.

Correct?

Yes or no?

Okay.

And then a lot of exercises.

There are something that I use with my clients, with the kids that I work with.

But then I added some new stuff.

So and again, like I started with voice because I feel like he was always the one who would worry.

So that's why I started with The Voice.

Then I did the anger because kids get angry, but they feel like anger is not normal.

I had one of my kiddos who I work with and he asked me one day he's like, hey, can I ask you something?

I was like, yeah, absolutely.

And he said, I get angry and I'm so worried about it.

And I said, like, listen, this is normal.

What do you need to know how to express your anger in a safe way so you don't hurt yourself or others?

That's what you need to know.

But feeling angry is absolutely normal.

I feel angry, everyone else feeling anger.

And he felt so relieved knowing that he's not the only one who feels angry.

Children, they are so innocent.

And you know when they're starting out, they don't know.

Like this could be wrong.

This.

But we tell them as a society, well, it's wrong.

And then it changes how they start to develop.

I mean, how can these books help us keep our children with that level of innocence and let them know it's okay to experience these emotions?

And that's why I did this book, All Emotion.

So let's talk about this one.

Then telling the kids that, listen, you cannot feel happy all the time.

This is abnormal, right?

You can feel sad.

You can feel angry, can feel bored.

Anything can feel tired and grumpy.

This is totally normal.

As long as you know what to do with yourself, how to bring yourself down.

Because if this is the baseline, you can just be like this.

It's ups and downs.

As long as you can go to high and to low.

Boom boom boom boom.

Wow okay.

So in this book so we'll talk about all emotions.

okay.

Show us one.

You have some activities.

Yes.

So show us one activity in here.

So let's talk about that okay.

So I know parents and grandparents are interested.

So let's talk about breathing.

I think it's normal.

And it's something that, it's important for kids to know.

So whenever you get upset or stressed, a, you need to not have to bring yourself down by breathing in and out.

So the one that I like, you can do something simple.

I like the hand breathing.

We all have hands, right?

Yes.

So it's always accessible.

So breathe in.

Pause.

Breathe out.

Pause.

Breathe in.

Pause.

Breathe out.

Pause.

Breathe.

Then pause.

And then fold the hand.

And then you go back and forth until you calm yourself down.

Well, this.

Is really interesting that you're teaching this for children because I don't know about you, but I never understood the importance of breathing techniques and changing anxiety and emotions until I was an adult.

Yeah, but I think once they start early, that definitely will help them in their adult life because I see I work with kids and I see their parents and they need to know how to self-regulate and then coordinate with the child.

And not all the parents know how to do that.

So if we start early, then they can absolutely do that for themselves and for their kids in the future.

Which is really interesting because, you know, when you are going to be a new parent, there's thousands of books.

You know what to expect when you're expecting like that.

That goes through the the different stages of when you are pregnant.

And then there's some books about parenting, but there's nothing really to help us with how our child can develop.

And especially when they're developing with their emotions, how they can feel like they have control over their emotions.

But it's okay to sometimes feel down.

So these books, they help us as parents to train our children to say it's emotions are okay, no more worry.

How do you get there?

How how handle these books?

Well, I feel like parents should also read the exercises and practice them because a lot of parents will definitely benefit.

Yes.

I mean, one of the exercises is the grounding exercises.

For example, I like the five senses exercise.

So nice and simple.

Okay, so you start to get worried.

You start to get stressed because like okay, I need to change what I'm thinking about.

So you need to name five things you can see.

So you name five things right okay.

Yes.

And then you need go to four four things you can touch.

And then as you touch on them you really feeling them.

You know the desk.

It's smooth and cool.

Yes.

You know your pants are nice and warm.

then you go to three, three things you can hear.

So that's when you really pause and really listen.

What do you hear?

So you name those three things and then two things you can smell.

So again you pause and you really pay attention to your surroundings.

What can you smell.

And then the last one what can you taste.

So the last thing you eat or drink.

Yeah.

So usually by the time you're nice and collected you're in the moment.

You're also calm and you're not thinking about what was what you're worried about.

Which is I love that you said we're in the moment because that's sometimes hard for all of us in this society to be in the moment.

And and so when you're training children to do that, parents can learn that as well.

Right?

Because usually a lot of adults, they either live in the past or they live in the future.

So they always wait for something in the future, and then they forget to pause and really enjoy the moment.

Celebrate small successes or they're upset about the past, something that happened and they cannot change.

So this is one you need to cope ahead of time.

Be happy in the moment and be happy in the future.

Well, we talked about parents now because I see your books also helping educators as well.

So how could we use this series as educators inside the classroom to help our students?

So this is where kids, all kids, can try to exercise and then talk about it and the playful way.

So that's when I go to schools and I work with kids.

We can use those exercises even in like with a big audience.

So I use it with over 100 kids.

So you can actually work through some of these exercises with a group that big.

Yeah.

How does that work?

So I was surprised at the kids that old like ten, 11 year olds.

They're not into, you know, video games, but they actually want to learn about coping skills.

So they all want to participate.

They all want to be engaged and they are learning.

So when I present to the kids, one of the teachers came after the presentation and she said, one of the kiddos was really upset and she was crying.

I took her outside and actually used the exercise that you just taught her.

And, it helped.

She was smiling and she was happiness, just like I like did.

This is something I can use in my classroom moving forward.

So here's just such a wealth of knowledge.

This is so amazing because, it's not just what you have with this one series.

It has seven books in it, and it talks about emotions and different types of emotions, but you have other series as well.

So let's before we finish our time together, let's talk about those other series two because I'm sure people are listening and they want to know more about what you have for us.

Absolutely.

So as you mentioned, with Covid, everything changed, right?

So as a therapist, I work with kids.

When you work in the office, you have all the tools.

But when they had to work online and you have to keep this child who is 4 or 5, six, seven engage for an hour, not easier.

So that's when I decided to come up with the, gamified, you know, experience.

And that's when I started doing the books.

So I'm like, okay, so those are the exercises that we used in our sessions.

What if we make a story and then incorporate exercise?

So that's how I came up with my first series, The Awesome Team.

So and then because River and lockdown and I have three boys.

Oh three boys in lockdown and logged.

On my mom and my husband.

So I said like, okay, you guys will be my superheroes.

And then we have this corona.

Corona virus.

So I used externalization.

That's when you give personas to something you're trying to overcome.

So a lot of kids were talking about Covid 19.

They were so afraid of Covid 19, so anxious about it.

So I said, let's give it the persona.

So it's easier for us to fight that Covid 19 and not be afraid of it.

So I called it Corona virus.

My mom's name is Vera.

Oh, you got your mom?

Yeah.

So we came Corona Vera.

And then, since I'm not that illustrator myself, I can do a little bit.

not that that, but I'm not an illustrator, so I used photos, so I took photos and created a comic with Photoshop, and then I incorporate exercises.

So that's pretty much, you know, boys are just kids.

They're, you know, started like trying to save the world from Covid 19, but they also get worried and scared.

So they stop.

They do exercises and then they continue on their journey.

So that was the whole idea of my first series.

Oh, I love that.

Well, Anna, thank you so much for your time.

And there's also something you were going to share with the audience too.

You had this wonderful video.

So thank you so much for the video as well.

But because your business is really helping our, our young people have these life skills, if you could have one thing that you leave, on this earth for children to use, what would that be?

So I would say, happiness is super, super important.

So, it's always important to find the best in any situation, the way you think affect the way you feel and affect your action.

So try to think positive and then you feel good and you will be good.

Thank you so much for creating so many materials to help our children cope, and I can't wait to see what you do next.

So definitely my next series will have to talk and get you back on the show.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

And thank you for joining us on everybody with Angela Williamson.

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