Bearapy: Bear Therapy, a creative form of wellness treatment using cute and cuddly stuffed toys for wholistic health
3 years ago, I sunk into major depression and tried to take my own life a few times. But 3 years ago, I also discovered Gund Snuffles bears, and bought the white 14 inch version and named him “Floppie”.
As 2009 came and went, and my pain intensified, Floppie stayed with me throughout and was my comfort pillow at times, other times I would hit him and let out my anger and sadness on him. But he always smiled his adorable grin and looked up at me with all the warmth in his face.
In the course of recovery, and since I had nothing to do being on medical leave at home, I started collecting Snuffles, designed to look up to whoever is holding them. I started to play with the bears as a 3 year old would. I gave each Snuffles a name. I talked to them. I gave them personalities and took them with me out for a walk sometimes. I made up stories for them. I entertained myself.
Regardless of how childish and useless some might deem this collection to be, hanging out with the bears helped me rediscover my creativity as I made up little adventures in my head. Little by little, they helped me in lifting myself out of depression, especially when I couldn’t help but giggle at my own encounters with the bears.
Unexpectedly, I discovered a way to lift moods and explore my creativity and purpose in life.
Thus, the term is coined: Bearapy.
Bearapy calms me down. Bearapy allows me to leave the stress filled world behind. Bearapy stimulates my creativity. Most of all, Bearapy simply makes me smile.
You can find a list of the Bears in the Bearachive. Each bear has an ID card listing their personalities and their cuddle ratings, determined by how huggable they are. I will be updating with more bears, and their latest adventures regularly, so please come back to check it out.
I hope this would encourage those in dire straits at the moment to tap once again, into your creativity and let your mind flow free…
You can read more about my reflections here. But for now, here’s a site dedicated to my bears.
If you need someone or a bear to talk to, you can write to any of us here. Each bear will respond in their own way.
With a bear hug,
(All posts are kindly translated by Veronica)
