Life-Changing Storytelling with Eileen the Storyteller

On today's episode of the "Helping Families Be Happy" podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly talks with Eileen, who is also known as Eileen the Storyteller. She will be talking about her beautiful work on YouTub. As an expert, Eileen will be sharing about the time she spends with children, and feedback she gets from parents about life-changing results from her storytelling.

Episode Highlights

• 1.28: Eileen is going to open up about all of life's vicissitudes and give feelings a language and strategies for moving forward because it's not always about happily ever after. It's also about the grit and the resilience and the oath that it takes to power through the not-so-happily-ever-after moments.
• 3.13: The power of messages that we hear from parents and educators get reflected in us and that really puts the fuel in our tank, and we feel very much like we are on a mission to bring something to kids that they need, says Eileen.
• 4.05 Eileen reads picture books for children, and she does it with her cast of puppet characters. The kids see themselves in these puppet kids and it adds the element of further deeper connection.
• 06.36: We could all learn a lot from reading more children's books, like how to play nice. And it's deep, It's not childlike. It's complex. 
• 08.23: Eileen loves helping families be happy through talking to really brilliant creative people like Carla who have found a way, especially with parents being so busy.
• 12.14: Eileen talks about the color and energy of the imagination that she helps foster in children's lives.
• 13.02: Being kind is not for the weak. It takes a lot of courage. To have a big open heart and to be kind and to be loving because they may not feel like it sometimes to the same scary. But we have to fight our fears when we know that we are able.
• 17.30: Eileen shares how children tend to gravitate toward what their psyche needs.
• 19.27: Funny is Eileen's absolute favorite thing, followed closely behind by magical books that do things that you don't expect.
• 21.49: Storytelling is as old as humanity, and that's what unites us to one another, to past generations, to the future, to ourselves, and to each other. That's the window for everything. 

3 Key Points

1. Eileen shares how she picks and selects children's books for reading. How over the last eight years Eileen and her husband have really gotten to know what children respond to?
2. Eileen shares some instances where her storytelling has positively impacted people's lives. 
3. Eileen talks about her inspiration to start her own channel.

Tweetable Quotes

• "I bring the books to life in a very theatrical way because the drama of life does connect and is contained in all children's books. You can see all the world's truths are in them." - Eileen 
• "I always make sure that whatever we read is super fun and funny. And I do seek out books that have zero nutritional value but just enjoyable, fun, repairing time to make sure that the love of reading is just brewing." - Eileen 
• "We do need to keep things magical. I don't think we should ever lose that." - Eileen
• "The more I delve deep into being a storyteller, the more I live in that world and the more comfortable I am being an adult who is completely open-hearted and fearless." – Eileen
• "Life is hard whether the kid is in a perfectly adjusted, beautiful home or a wreckage of a situation." - Eileen

 

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families Be Happy Podcast Apple
• https://www.youtube.com/@KidTimeStoryTime
• Podcast Editing