Little Monkey and Bluey the Butterfly: A Tapping Story

A tapping story to help younger children ...   (him/her… of course can be used) ...and the story can be adapted to fit the situation, with suitable images without making it too blatantly obvious so the child can relax and learn to talk to the butterfly...

   Little Monkey and Bluey the Butterfly

Not so very long ago, or maybe it was, there was a little monkey who was so cute and lovable all his monkey tribe loved him (her *) very much. They used to play with him and have such fun… he felt so happy, safe and cared for.

But… for some reason one day all this changed, he did not even remember when, it seemed so long ago. Suddenly he realised all his tribe were no longer there and he was in a strange place. He was still very small and was looked after by other monkeys but they were not his tribe and sometimes they did very strange things to him, which upset him ...and rather than tell them he stored them up inside... as he did not want to be left again!

The only thing thing that had not changed, as far as he could remember was his invisible friend Bluey the butterfly. Now of course Bluey was not invisible to him, he could clearly see the shiny gorgeous blue butterfly, and when the sunbeams lit it’s wings they shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow! However it seemed that Bluey was invisible to everyone else… which was fine by him because… Bluey was magical!

The little monkey could tell Bluey all his problems and Bluey would do a special dance to help him feel better.

The dance was mostly the same every time and yet the little monkey would find he could whisper all his upset feelings to Bluey while the butterfly would dance on him… and, at the end of the dance his troubles seemed to have floated away!

Perhaps you’d like to learn Bluey’s dance… you can use your fingers like butterflies wings or make a butterfly to put on your finger…

The dance goes like this:

Bluey would land on little monkey’s head, right at the top and flutter its wings a few times. Then down between his eyebrows and along one… following the bony ridge around the eye like a branch, pausing at the side and under the eye, as if to collect nectar from a flower.

Then Bluey would fly under his nose, this usually tickled quite a bit, then under the mouth on the chin.

That was the first bit of Bluey’s dance… then Bluey would flutter down to little monkey’s chest and jump up and down. (A butterfly is of course not very heavy!) Little monkey knew this place well as he and his monkey friends often pounded this place with their hands! (Sometimes Bluey would even go under little monkey’s arm to the place monkey’s like to scratch!!!! … that was only if little monkey was feeling extra bad that day ...and sometimes that tickled a lot!).

Bluey, the butterfly, would then flutter on to the inside of little monkey’s wrist, and while jumping and fluttering from thumbtip to fingertip, not missing any and down the side of his hand, Bluey would ask if he was feeling any better yet or if there was any other thing bothering him…

And if there was, well Bluey would do the dance all over again! And again if needed until little monkey felt much better.

Sometimes he felt so good he would imagine he was back with his own tribe, playing all the games he used to play... with his friends… and feeling so loved and so safe. Bluey would whisper and weave magic colours around him ...it felt like his own special cocoon… little monkey would then notice that the happy feeling would be in all of him … he could feel it in his head and his heart and all of his body ...sometimes like a tingling... sometimes like shimmering sparkles and they would grow bigger and bigger sending his happiness out to the trees and hills and sky ...to the whole world and even to the stars!

You too can have your own butterfly to help you… can you do the dance? What is your butterfly called?

All rights reserved   L N Willis...Sept 2014