A Fairy Tale To Learn How To Manage Negative Emotions
What we present to you today is a story of friendship and courage, a fairy tale to learn how to manage negative emotions.
Fairy tales are a valuable tool to get in touch with your inner world. Stories that teach how to cope with big challenges, for example, allow the child to learn to manage what he or she feels in a healthy, assertive and mature way.
The Princess and the Emerald Dragon: a fairy tale to learn how to manage negative emotions
In a very distant kingdom there lived a princess. Her parents, who loved her deeply, owned a large castle surrounded by woods and mountains. There were animals of all sorts: from tiny mice to huge elephants, and they all lived happily, respecting each other.
The princess’s best friend was a lion cub. They worked together every day. Their favorite pastime was telling stories, even the scary ones that then keep up all night. Except one. The story that most frightened the princess was the legend of the Emerald dragon. He was a dragon as big as he was evil who enjoyed terrorizing humans and animals.
The legend of the Emerald dragon
When the lion attacked to speak of the Emerald dragon, the princess was furious. He scolded and insulted him because he knew he would shiver with fear for most of the night, tossing and turning in bed without being able to sleep. The lion, who was a great joker, had a lot of fun frightening her.
But one night the princess got so angry that she took a stone and threw it at her friend. The little lion, in pain and in tears, opened the door and went away. The princess was very sorry. She dared not tell her parents what had happened, sure she would get a rebuke.
The next day, the princess went to knock on her friend’s door, but the little lion had disappeared. He was searched in every corner, to no avail. For three days and three nights nothing more was known about him, finally a mouse said he had seen him. He was a prisoner in the lair of the Emerald dragon.
“There’s nothing more to be done,” they all said. The princess was frightened and confused. He wanted to help his friend, but he was very afraid. The father and mother still did not understand why their daughter was so sad, and this made her suffer even more.
Finally, one night the princess armed herself with courage and a sword and went out to look for the dragon. He found it holed up in a hole deep in the woods. As soon as he saw it he wanted to go back: the dragon was much larger than he had imagined. But at that moment she remembered that she must be brave and trembled as she approached the monstrous reptile.
The princess confronts the dragon in her lair
“Free my friend or I’ll kill you with my sword, evil dragon,” cried the little girl. But to his surprise, he saw that the dragon was perplexed. He hadn’t kidnapped his friend. The little lion got lost in the woods and got hurt. The dragon was healing his wounds.
The princess was stunned. He felt that this gigantic being was telling the truth. And it didn’t look that bad either. It was at that point that he was ashamed for having thought ill of the dragon without knowing it.
“I thought all dragons were bad,” she said. The dragon replied that appearances should not be trusted. What matters is not what you see, but what you have inside. The little girl understood that she had judged the dragon by its size and its enormous teeth. Legend described him as cruel; no one knew that this, however, was a dragon as good as bread and its beauty was all hidden inside.
He lived in solitude in the woods because no one could get close to such a huge and fearful being. The little lion had instead decided to stay with him so that he no longer felt alone and they had become great friends. When the princess saw her best friend safe and sound, she ran to ask his forgiveness.
The princess and the lion make peace
– Forgive me please. I know I was wrong to get so angry and especially to hurt you. It will not happen again – said the princess hugging her friend.
– You are forgiven – said the little lion, but added – You have been really brave and this has shown me that you love me very much -.
The little lion began to gather his things, but when he was about to leave with the princess, he proposed to the Emerald dragon to come away with them. He was good and nice, he deserved to have friends and to be happy. The little girl also agreed and the three happily walked towards the kingdom.
As soon as the king and queen saw the dragon, they were very frightened. But the princess was ready to tell the whole story and, in the end, she was able to keep him with her.
After confiding in her parents, she felt light, as if they had freed her from a huge boulder. The little princess understood, therefore, that things would have been a little easier if she had immediately told the truth to her parents.
A fairy tale to learn how to manage the most difficult emotions: what does it teach us?
How did it turn out? That the dragon became friends with everyone, humans and animals. And he taught everyone something useful. And what can we learn from this fable?
The first is that problems must be faced with courage. The second, that we must not judge by appearances. The third, that anger only brings trouble and the fourth, that when we confide our problems to someone, we feel much, much better.
