A Little Warm Fuzzy Tale
Positivity is immensely powerful and here’s a story with some creative ideas to help you spread the vibe
So last week, I spoke at an online event. I was on holiday at the time but considering that a lot of vacations are currently staycations, and most events are online, I said okay. I turned up on time, did my speech and as far as I was concerned that was about it.
The following week though, I received a ‘Top Speaker Certificate.’ Now that really took me by surprise and let’s say it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.
For context, I’m a mum of two kids and the only real certificates I see are those that my kids bring home for being good at school — for the rest of my life, I just crack on as a matter of duty. Since leaving school, I’ve never really expected a certificate for speaking well so this one definitely came in as a surprise on a cold autumn day.
There was nothing tangible to it and hence I call it a warm fuzzy feeling. But what exactly is that and where does the term originate?
The Warm Fuzzy Feeling
We know mindsets matter and that it’s really important to stay positive. When we’re positive, not only is it great for our own wellbeing but also greatly beneficial for the society around us — things add up and it’s the ripple effect right?
So we go to great lengths to generate this positivity within us — from eating Blueberries to daily affirmations, from sticking with positive friends to avoiding toxic settings, we do what we can we can to remain positive.
And that’s exactly where the warm fuzzy feeling comes in. It’s yet another great tool to have in your positivity arsenal because while we may not be able to share blueberries with people far away, we can always share the feeling via others means.
The concept of warm fuzzy feeling comes from a story by Dr Claude Steiner, a French-born American psychotherapist who published a book called A Warm Fuzzy Tale which was later released as ‘The Original Warm Fuzzy Tale.’
According to the story, people give each other warm fuzzies that make people feel happy and warm. Later then, a witch convinces them that these are limited in supply and so they should give each other cold pricklies instead. As the name suggests, cold pricklies make you feel rather horrible inside. These can be unconditional such as, ‘I like you,’ or more conditional such as, ‘You look great in that outfit.’ The same goes for the cold pricklies.
Underpinning the story is the theory of transactional analysis presented by Dr Eric Berne in which he explains human behaviour and explores social transactions in great detail. The warm fuzzies symbolise the notion of positive and negative strokes and are important societal exchanges for emotional support and wellbeing.
How You Can Use Them
There are many fun ways to use this concept.
Here below are some ideas of how you can use this concept at home or at work, but by all means, please go creative and please feel free to share your own ideas too.
- Create a chart for the members such as the parents and the kids in a family. When children call each other names that could be a cold prickly while giving someone a helping hand or saying something genuine and nice or even honest and helpful to support someone’s growth, could give you a warm fuzzy!
- You could also do this as a snakes and ladders game such that you take three steps forward for warm fuzzies and two steps back for cold pricklies.
- Also, as another idea, each person could draw up a sketch of what’s a warm fuzzy and a cold prickly for them because each of us is very unique. As an example, head massage would be a terrific warm fuzzy for me while a warm fuzzy for my daughter might be if someone could run an errand and get her a Starbucks. Once you’ve all defined your warm fuzzies and cold pricklies, you each know what to do to help keep the environment upbeat. You could use scores or leave it as just something less competitive and just something to be mindful of.
- Perhaps as a variation, play a little game to see how well you know each others preferences and see where you get to.
Not only will the activities help spread positivity, they’ll also help in other ways:
- They’ll help create self-awareness as we begin to realise how our behaviour impacts the other around us and how we are impacted by them.
- It’ll also bring us closer together as we begin to understand each others fuzzies and pricklies.
- Finally, we’ll also learn to appreciate how unique we are — a fuzzy for me might be a prickly for you.
Conclusion
Positivity has amazing powers and not only is it important to stay positive but it’s equally important to spread positivity.
Just as we stroke kids to reassure them, adults too could use strokes such as recognition or little thoughtful gestures — you’re never too old for a little certificate and who doesn’t like a coffee brought to their bedside? A head massage? Sure, I’m always in!
A great way to spread the warm fuzzy feeling is to start by understanding what each of us likes and doesn’t like and then play it as a little game to demonstrate its impact and embed the mindset.
On that note, have a lovely day and remember to stay positive!
