How Your Family Can Achieve Mindfulness, Gratitude, and Forgiveness with a Zen Pig

Episode Transcript

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Hi everyone, welcome to the show. I’m Dr. Nicole, and on today’s episode, we are talking about mindfulness, specifically how we can cultivate more mindfulness for ourselves, our children and our families, and also why that is so important. Research has continually shown that mindfulness provides benefits across the board for our physical health and our mental health. There are many mindfulness programs and approaches that have led to significantly improved outcomes for kids, whether they have diagnosed challenges or not, in both their growing up years and as they become adults. So this is such an important topic for us to be talking about and understanding. My guest today is Mark Brown, who is going to share with us how mindfulness, gratitude, and self-forgiveness are superpowers for all of us and our kids. Let me tell you a little bit about Mark.

Ever since winning a regionwide poetry contest in fourth grade, coastal Virginia native Mark Brown has been orbiting the world of writing. After graduating with a degree in film and settling down in Nashville, Tennessee, Mark found a niche creating healthcare-based video ads, but after a few years found that that kind of life didn’t pair well with his life as a dedicated father. So, he decided to do a major change and apply his talents to the world of children’s books, more specifically to the Zen Pig Universe, which I know many of you have heard of. Mark wanted his son Noble to learn the life-changing power of values like gratitude, mindfulness, self-forgiveness way before he did. Quickly, Mark found that he wasn’t alone. Zen Pig was a breakaway hit, helping parents articulate sometimes abstract concepts into easy to understand language, paired with beautiful minimalist art. The Zen Pig Universe continues to grow each year with 12 titles already available, and more releasing soon. I am a fan of these books. Mark, it is such an honor to have you with us today.

Mark Brown 

Oh my goodness, I am so grateful to be here. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

So I just want to, for those of you who are watching the video of this, you can see — and many of you I know have seen these books, Zen Pig, and you’ve got so many of them now, so I want to delve into really all of these topics and what your aim is. But I would love to have you share a little bit more of what really drove you to make that really big change from the world of work and what you were doing to going, ”I want to really help make mindfulness accessible to kids and families.”

Mark Brown 

Oh, absolutely. So I think a lot of parents can feel me on this. Once my son was born, my whole world changed. Before Noble, I was very much thinking, “What is the next thing I need to achieve? What’s the next goal? What’s the next acquisition that I need to strive for?” And I knew that that didn’t lead me to very much inner peace and prosperity. But once I had him, I was like, “Oh, my goodness, I want him to learn that way before I did, and I need to pivot because I don’t want him to have that self-imposed suffering that I had.” Kids just have that magic power. It’s changing the whole perspective.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

They totally do. They make us reevaluate so, so many things. And, the fact that you were really willing to lean into that and go, “Wait a second, I want to totally revamp what my focus area is here.” Did you originally think that children’s books were going to be the way that you did that?

Mark Brown 

No chance! It was such an accident, but success leaves clues. And so I did it. And I just kind of, like you said, leaned into it, and the rest is kind of history. But I’m so grateful that it happened that way.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

So how did you first come across the world of mindfulness, of mindfulness training, of these principles and these practices? How did that first come into your life?

Mark Brown 

Well, a lot of times rock bottom can be a very great year. And so I kind of hit rock bottom before Noble came about, and that was through my brother passing away in a motorcycle accident, tragically. And I had that awakening moment like “Oh my goodness, this is temporary. And I’m not really happy anyway, I’m just chasing status, or money, or a house, and all that stuff.” And it was like wait a second. A wake-up call. And so that led me to self-learning, looking up books and gurus and teachers and experts, and just through reading and the practice of meditation, you just kind of go down the rabbit hole. Once you start cultivating that joy, the rest is history. You just keep pulling that thread to that awakening.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, that is beautiful. And the fact that you had been able to explore that and knew the power of that for yourself, so that when your son came along, you were like, “I want to impart this in him, I want this to be a part of his life from an early age”, because I think for most of us, mindfulness are these kinds of ideas or practices weren’t things that we were exposed to at all until adulthood. I mean, for me, it was in my psychology training as an adult learning that. So I think that is the norm, right? We didn’t even know about this as kids.

Mark Brown 

Absolutely. I hadn’t even heard the word mindfulness until I was 24. That was the first time. I had no clue what it was. And I had been taught about being thankful and XYZ, but the terms of gratitude as a practice, that was foreign to me. But once I did implement it, it was life changing. Complete perspective, “Oh, my God, this is a brand-new world full of marvel and wonder! How are we not telling this to our children? I don’t understand.” So it just kind of riled me up.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

It’s interesting because sometimes people make these things pretty complex, right? People think about the research on mindfulness, or meditation, or all these things, that can seem really big and out there and complicated. And so people think, well how could we teach this to kids, or what would the relevance be? But really, what we are talking about are some simple concepts and practices, right?

Mark Brown 

Absolutely, absolutely. And the ironic part is I used to feel that way too. But when I do school visits and things like that, I tell the children, “You guys are my teacher, just as much as I am yours.” Because if you see a child lost in the moment — and as adults, we have to work at being in the moment. A child just natively inherently is in the moment of just enjoying life, and that is what we as adults are striving to learn how to do again. So when I go see a child, and they are just lost in the moment, I’m just like “Wow, you’re the guru.” That is what you are going for!

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

I think that is so true. And unfortunately, more and more, so much of what we impose on kids in terms of our educational system, the things that we as adults have come to prioritize in life, the activities that we put them in, we tend to, I think, really squash that inner mindfulness that they have as kids, that ability to be in the moment, the ability to notice things and be grounded. We sort of take that away from them or push them out of that because of these other priorities or things that we have decided are important. I think that is so unfortunate.

Mark Brown 

I completely agree with you. And I’m not bashing the education system in any way, but it’s definitely built to “Bell rings, stand up, bell rings, sit down, bell rings time to eat”. It’s very much “Look at the horizon. What’s the next thing, what’s the next accomplishment? SATs, next standardized test” It’s very much future casting and getting prepared for that. And there is a place for that, but if we don’t do the other half, which is, “Okay, turn that off and become present again, enjoy life again.” — Because what happens is, you this as much as anybody because you’ve had so much schooling and education, you spend so much time in that momentum, when you come out of college, and you’re 23, 24, 25 and you’ve literally had all this momentum on your back pushing to the next thing, it’s hard to stop. And that is what all the adults are looking to do. You want to generate joy and peace and this sense of serenity with yourself. You have to stop, and we don’t know how to do that. So education squashes that in children, ramps him up with all this momentum, and then dumps him out on the other end, not knowing how to be present anymore. And that is where everything happens, is in the present. That is where all the beauty is.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Right and just thinking about everything that is going on even the last two years, we know kids already, by and large, we are experiencing higher levels of stress, higher levels of anxiety, depression, all of these things were on a path to such bigger numbers even before the pandemic hit. Now we know with the pandemic, that has increased that even more and so, to me, there has never been a more crucial time for us to be talking about these concepts with kids, because really, when we peel all the diagnoses and labels and symptoms and whatever else away for kids and adults, what we are talking about is just as a society, feeling so much more stress, so much more distress, so much angst, so much pressure. And mindfulness, and these kinds of practices truly are one of the antidotes to that.

Mark Brown 

Absolutely, it really is, and you are hitting the nail on the head. Right now, especially, is such an important time. I can’t think of a better time to start integrating these concepts and evergreen values into children because they need it, and it’s our responsibility to give it to them. It’s up to us. It’s not their fault they have never heard of mindfulness or self-forgiveness or these things. It’s not their fault, but we have those tools. And so we have to pass it to them, because they are in a very dynamic, interesting time.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, and I think, to that point, for us to pass it on to them and help them become aware and teach it to them, we need to be aware of that and understanding it and doing it for ourselves, right? In order to guide my child, I need to be a step ahead of them with it, which means I need to be understanding and implementing these things. And that is what I think is so lovely about the books, as you break it down into such manageable sort of nuggets that both parents and kids, especially reading books together is such a valuable thing that parents and kids do, for them to do it together. And we as the adults can benefit every bit as much from reading these and being in what these books are talking about, in the moment with our child, as they are getting from reading it. This is a lovely practice. Even reading these books together becomes sort of a mindfulness practice in and of itself.

Mark Brown 

I couldn’t agree more. I say that Zen Pigs are for any age, just like LEGOS, 0-99, and the older you are, the more you can glean from it. And also, not just reading it, but writing it. When I write these, I am taking these concepts and whittling them down to the most concise, acute gem of the message. And that is such a great exercise for me every single day. I need to practice this as well and be reminded of this as well so I can walk in this way.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Absolutely. So let’s get into some of these terms, and some of the practices. As you said, you’ve taken this big thing that can be complicated for adults, and you’ve boiled it down to talking about these ideas in ways that even young children can understand. So I’d love to start with just even the term mindfulness. How do you talk about mindfulness with kids? What are some of the core concepts around mindfulness that you really try to impart for kids and parents in the books?

Mark Brown 

I just got goosebumps when you’re talking about that, because I love the idea of mindfulness. I know as adults, we love to complicate things. We like to examine and analyze all these things. But mindfulness is literally the secret key that we all have that literally unlocks the world of wonder. And I mean wonder. Joy-generating wonder. That may sound nebulous or abstract, but it’s really simple. When I talk to children or a group of children — this is an example that you can practice with children at home, if you’re listening. But I say “Who has ever had a box of apple juice?” Everybody raises their hand, and then I just go down the line. “Okay, where was the apple juice before it was on your table?” “It was at the grocery store.” “Where was it before the grocery store?” “Well, it was at the factory.” “Where was it before it was at the factory?” “Well, it was at the apple orchard.” “Where was it before it was there? “It was a seed in the ground.” And so once you realize this beautiful orchestra of events, and people, and time, and attention that had to happen to get this tiny box of apple juice, that is one thing out of the myriad in your life. That is what mindfulness is. It’s not taking anything for granted. It’s seeing this matrix of beauty that happens for every single thing in our life. And it’s awe-inspiring. It’s amazing. And when you do that, you can’t help but to generate joy. And that is what everybody is looking for. They, and I’m talking about myself, too. I always thought it was out there. Happiness is out there—no, that is pleasure, and there’s a place for that, but what you’re actually looking for is joy. And that comes from the inside. And when you have mindfulness, and you realize just how much we have, you can’t help but to feel that, and it’s magic.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

It’s so powerful to instill that in kids, that idea that happiness comes from inside us. Not from chasing pursuits, not from what other people think about us, not from things out there. And what a powerful message even for young children who so often during the growing up years get stuck in the comparison traps, especially now with social media and trying to please everyone, make the teacher happy, make the parents happy, do all the right things, be what other people want you to be. And to help kids from an early age realize that we generate that joy and that contentment and that happiness from within us, just from being aware, being present, noticing the things around us and valuing who we are, that I think is so life changing for kids to realize that from an early age, and I know I didn’t have any real models or books or anything around that when I was a kid.

Mark Brown 

Neither did I, and I couldn’t agree with you more. If you give a child this, think about the compound effect, we all know that compound effect is so important. When we are adults like you and I, we weren’t exposed to these concepts. We didn’t have models, we didn’t have this in our everyday vernacular. We had to weed our garden of all these things: Comparison, not feeling worthy, all of these things. We had to weed the garden first, and then we had to plant intentionally, the positive, productive seeds. Well, imagine if a child didn’t ever have those negative things planted in them. I mean I was 24. Imagine a child that is 6 until 24. I think about all the self-imposed suffering that I had, self-imposed. And I think about wow, if they don’t have that, and they started that young planting the seeds of mindfulness, gratitude, compassion, self-forgiveness, my God, by the time they are 24, nobody’s going to have to tell them how to generate joy. That is just that is just the way it is.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, it’s great. And I’m thinking especially for our listeners who have kids with specific types of challenges, who have kids who are struggling, maybe it’s children diagnosed with some sort of neurodevelopmental disorder, maybe it’s a mental health disorder, maybe they are just having challenges in general, this becomes even more important and powerful for those kids who often feel like they can’t even begin to stack up in comparison to everyone and everything around them, and to realize that they can cultivate, and that we can help cultivate in them a sense of wonder, and joy, and contentment with who they are, and who they are becoming. I think I think that is just so especially important for those kids.

Mark Brown 

I couldn’t agree more, I really couldn’t.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

So I’m thinking, for mindfulness, you gave the great example of, okay, so I’m sitting here at snack time drinking my box of apple juice and being aware of where this actually comes from. That mindful practice of really thinking about what we are doing or being present to what we are doing, not just going through the motions. You talk about that in various ways in the books with the kinds of things that Zen Pig does, and I’m curious, do you have any other little activities or ways of talking about that that you think are helpful for kids? That sort of being aware of the present, in the moment?

Mark Brown 

Absolutely. What I do with Noble is if he’s experiencing anxiety, or worry, or a fear, I do this exercise where I say, “Okay, let’s talk about what is actually happening”, because we future cast or we are stuck in the past, being ashamed or humiliated about something that happened. But both of those things are phantoms. Neither of those things are real. So I do an exercise just for myself as well. What is happening in the present? In the present, I am sitting here talking to you Dr. Nicole. In the present, I feel the air conditioner hitting me. In the present, I feel this shirt on my body. I come back to the present, what is actually happening, and stop being haunted by phantoms, things that are not real. And so that is another exercise that I like to do, not only for Noble but for myself, because you know we can spin off.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

We do. The double-edged sword of the amazing human brain — We have this amazing capacity to time travel in our mind. We are the only real form of life that is able to do that in the sophisticated way that we do that, which is amazing and wonderful, and also creates a tremendous amount of problems for us, right? Because the ability to create stories and think into the future creates so much anticipation and distress, and then also reflecting on the past. So I love that idea of, “Let’s be aware of and focus and ground ourselves in what is right now. What do I feel on my body? What do I see? What am I hearing?”, and even really young children or children who are developmentally young, even if chronologically they are older, they can grasp that. We can teach even little kids to do that sort of, “Let me turn off the time travel brain, let me just focus on what is happening right now.” And that really, at its essence, is a very tangible way of engaging in mindfulness.

Mark Brown 

Absolutely, absolutely. And it’s kind of like the old saying, “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Well, in school, all you’re told is, “Here’s a hammer. Worry about the next test, worry about gym class, worry about this.” So it’s no wonder that as adults, all we have is a hammer, so we are always caught in the time travel machine. Well, not everything is a nail. Some things require finesse. And in the present, you can have that finesse, and you can use what is actually around you to generate that joy and that piece, and not let these things haunt you.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, and it’s amazing. There are studies that have been done, and it doesn’t take a long time to do this. People often think that these kinds of practices, you have to do them for intense periods of time. I mean, we even have studies where they are teaching kids even just a simple practice like this, name something that you can feel, something you can hear, something you can smell, being in the present moment, that takes five minutes or less. And what we are seeing in these studies is a significant impact on reducing kids’ stress and anxiety levels, improving their ability to focus and be present doing what they need to do, reducing the amount of disruptive behaviors, emotional and behavioral regulation issues, just from some of these simple, brief practices that are done consistently. And I think that is kind of the key, right? That consistency piece.

Mark Brown 

I couldn’t agree more. It’s not about how long you do it, it’s how consistent you are with it. These are just mental habits. And when you create these productive mental habits, that is going to be the default. Right now, the default is, “Oh my God, worry about the future, oh my God, I would be embarrassed or ashamed of what happened in the past.” That is the default right now. And that is not an inherent problem with anybody. It’s just what we were taught. And so if the default becomes through positive, productive habits, “Oh my gosh, I’m in the moment. Oh my gosh, I’m so lucky to have all the beautiful blessings in my life”, that becomes the default. It’s just making a habit of it, that is all it is. Again, I think adults, we like to create complicated algorithms or whatever, and it doesn’t have to be that. It’s just simple. It’s very simple. And that is okay, it doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. It’s just simple.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

And I think that is what’s so great about what you did with the books is you said, “Let’s make this simple and relatable for children so that it’s accessible.” And kids love reading books or listening to books, and they love the repetition of them, especially younger kids. They want to read the same things over and over again, and we get that message into them repeatedly. And really just some lovely text and lovely messages in here that if you did nothing other than read one of these books to your child each day, just the messages going in on a consistent basis is so powerful.

Mark Brown 

The thing is you’re planting the seed. That is what you’re doing, and that is all we can do is just plant the seed and water it a little bit and nurture it with our love, kindness, and attention. That is all you got to do. that is it.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, that is beautiful. I want to shift and talk a little bit about gratitude, because I know you’ve got quite a bit of that embedded into some of the books and again, I think it’s one of those things people go “oh, yeah. Gratitude. Yep. I should be thankful for things, I should try to be more positive.” But really, what I think a lot of people don’t realize is there’s an entire body of research literature around gratitude, the benefits that it has, for us, gratitude practices, right?

Mark Brown 

I completely agree. And this is from a place of: Before I started this journey, I struggled with entitlement. And that never will generate — We all want our children to be happy. That is what we want for our kids. Entitlement will never yield that. It just doesn’t work in the equation, and that is what I struggled with. Gratitude is the antidote of that. You can’t feel grateful and entitled at the same time. And so gratitude, I know, it’s almost a buzzword right now, gratitude practice. But if you actually do it, you actually do yield positive results. I mean, it’s kind of like exercising or eating well. It’s just science. It just works.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Right. Right. I’m curious, is there a particular gratitude practice that you use in your family? Or when you work with and teach kids? Is there a particular way that you have them think about approaching this?

Mark Brown 

Well, I always encourage everybody, kids, adults, whatever, to never think something’s too small to be exempt; there’s nothing too small to recognize or admire. When I’m walking up the steps, that is a gratitude practice. I’m so grateful that I have two healthy legs, that I can walk up these steps right now. I know a few years ago when I was living in an apartment, I had to go up three flights of steps with groceries. And instead of complaining about that, “Oh my God!” It’s like, “No, I’m strong enough, I’m healthy enough, I’m vital enough to take these groceries and walk with them.” Anything. A flower, a bee, or a tree, whatever. And that sounds, so hippy-dippy, woo-woo, whatever. But it’s not about tree hugging, it’s about generating a sense of appreciation for this life that I am given, and it just yields really wonderful results.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

We know, even in young kids — and it’s so true for us as adults, but even in children, what we focus on and the way that we think about something has a tremendous impact on our mood, on how we feel about things, how we perceive ourselves, the world, and other people. So, it may sound like such a little thing, but we tell ourselves these sorts of negative stories all day. “My kid did this,” or “It’s always a problem with this”, or “The elevator never works, I have to take three flights of stairs”, right? That is how we sort of are naturally inclined to think about things and our kids too. And what you’re talking about is this shift, then, to actually sort of flipping the script on that and go, “Wait a second, let me notice something different here. Even in the midst of what might initially feel like a difficult situation, let me notice that, wow, I’m healthy enough and have enough vitality to make it up the stairs”, or “Wow my child is practicing verbally communicating how they feel about things. I may have some thoughts about that, but let me say that I’m so grateful that they have developed the communication skills to be able to do that.” That is how I sort of think about it. It’s like flipping the script and saying, “What can I notice here that brings more of a sense of not only mindfulness and awareness in the moment, but also a sense of gratitude and leads my brain in a more productive, positive direction?”

Mark Brown 

Absolutely, you’re nailing it. Everything is how we frame the world. It’s a frame, it’s our perspective. And so, the more we can get out of our unintentional poor mental habits and frame the world in a productive way, — it’s a mesh. I feel like a lot of times when you go on Amazon or look for a book on mindfulness or gratitude, it’s very, almost buckshot spread out. It’s like, wait a second, this is a beautiful organic mesh. The more gratitude you have, the more joy you’ll generate, the more mindfulness you’ll have. It’s all the same. It just naturally yields a better life. And so I completely agree, we have to start framing, because we are looking for patterns. “Oh, the elevators always broke.” So that is what we are doing. It’s not anything that is mystical or weird, you don’t need to go sit on the top of Mount Everest for a month and meditate. It’s like no, no. You’re just looking for a pattern. So okay, instead of looking for that pattern, look for this pattern. And once you do that, you’ll realize that this over here, where you have this much to be grateful for, is so much more reliable than this over here where you’re just looking for problems.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah, and I’m thinking particularly of those of you who have children who tend towards the negative, and I know I get questions about this from parents all the time, on “How do I help my kid have a more positive outlook? My child is always down on themselves or everything and everyone else about everything. Always looks at things glass half empty.” I think this is a great way of sort of coming in the back door and addressing that without lecturing about “You should be more positive” or “Be grateful for what you have”, or “Look at the bright side”, or whatever, which none of us wants to hear that when people say those things to us, right? But just to come in the back door, and as a family, for example, start a routine around the dinner table at night of just going around and sharing something that you appreciate or are grateful for that day, or a little moment before putting your child to bed at night or things like that. It’s a great way of coming at that issue if you have a kid who is very much down on themselves, negative about everything. It starts to help get that momentum going just as you so well said, helping the brain to focus on something or frame something in a bit of a different way. I think it’s a nice sort of side door way of helping kids with that.

Mark Brown 

Sneak attack!

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

That’s right. That is great. And you’ve got, I know, in the Zen Pig series, you have a lot about gratitude woven into those too. And again, sort of the mantras around that, and just the words and the phrases kind of sinking into kids, I think is lovely.

Mark Brown 

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah. The rhythmic, poetic almost nursery-rhymey thing really does seem to — it gets in there. It gets in the consciousness pretty well. So that is, that is the style of it.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

I don’t know if that was intentional or not in terms of how the style of the books came about, but what strikes me in particular, especially as somebody who is working with children, and particularly working with kids who may have reading challenges, comprehension challenges relational challenges, just all of these challenges, is by keeping it simple. Nothing about these books is overwhelming. The words themselves are pretty simple. There’s not a lot on a page from a reading standpoint, from a visual standpoint, the illustrations are simple. And it strikes me how important that is, especially for kids who feel so overwhelmed all of the time by everything. Kids with sensory processing issues. Everything in the world can feel so overwhelming, and one of the things that I gravitate towards around this series is the simplicity of it, which I think inherently just fits with a lot of the kids that I’m seeing and working with. They need that simplicity. It just brings an ease and a mindfulness and a peacefulness in and of itself with the simplicity of the books.

Mark Brown 

Thank you so much for recognizing that, because I completely agree. I feel like if there’s a word for the landscape that children are kind of submerged in right now, it’s “bombarded”. I just feel it’s bombardment. And these evergreen values are minimalist. As coming from a visual world too in film, I was always big on negative space, so when I see minimalism or negative space, it’s almost this calming — It’s this peace. And so Zen Pig is modeled after that. It’s minimalist. On one side, you have a poetic stanza on the concept, and on the other side, you have minimalist art that expresses that in the visual. And so, I wanted these to be a peaceful piece of content for a child, because that is not that is not the norm. That is not what they are getting all day, every day.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

And I think it’s so well done, and especially for those of you who have kids who just are — their nerves are frayed all the time, they are just so overwhelmed and bombarded, these books are a nice reprieve. And again, something to just develop a nice practice of just letting them pick one, and then sit down together for five minutes and read that together. You read it to them, they can read it to you, you can read it together, whatever you want to do with that. But I just think that even that practice can be so great. And I would love to hear what’s next for you with this. So you’ve got these 12 books, what do you see as the future of the work that you’re doing and the series?

Mark Brown 

Sure. So thank you for mentioning that. There are 12 books in the series. Right now, I am on a — I’m not going to say a war path because that is conflictual, but I am passionately attempting to get as many resources as I can into the hands of teachers. I have such a soft spot for teachers, I am constantly blown away at the amount of demand on their bandwidth. It’s incredible. And I know in my heart that SEL and PBIS, Social Emotional Learning, need to be added to the curriculum. We are so fantastic about ABC’s and 1, 2, 3’s, and that is important. I don’t want anybody to think I’m saying academics are not important. It is. But we also have to teach them the other half, and that is self-sovereignty, how to understand themselves and their feelings and their inner world. We have to teach them that. And so, I am on a passion path to get as many resources as I can into every classroom in America, and I’m talking about free resources. If any teacher out there is listening to this: If you email me, and you say, “Hey, Mark. You know what I’d love to have for my classroom?” I’m not kidding, I will have my team make it and I will send it to you free. We have a website called turnkeyteacher.com. There’s not one thing for sale. There’s not one thing for sale. Just go there and download any resource you want. And I’m telling you, I will make whatever is necessary, because I know myself to know enough to know that I’m not in the trenches. I’m not in the classroom. So it would be very egotistical of me to say, “This is what you need.” No. You tell me what you need, and I will make it. I’m receptive and open and learning, and I’m ready, and I’m here, because you don’t have time to make a whole other curriculum about SEL and PBIS, you have enough with this stuff. So that is where this is going. And then while that is happening, I am constantly putting this out there that Zen Pig will have an animated series, and it will be present in homes throughout America, that will teach children how to be — not teach children, how to nurture that inherent beingness that they already have and say, “That is okay, that is a good thing. You don’t have to lose that. You keep doing that.”

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Yeah. Oh, I love it. I wondered if some sort of TV program or animation, something on line, because reality is kids are on devices, they are on screens, and I think this lends itself so well to that. I would love to see something as simple and well put together with such a positive message for kids to access. If they are going to be on YouTube, if they are going to be watching PBS, or whatever they are going to be watching, the more quality content around these kinds of things that we can have for them, the better. So I just wondered with your film background and with all you’re doing, I’m glad to hear that that is perhaps on the horizon at some time.

Mark Brown 

I will shake every hand, I will kiss every baby. That is happening. Take it to the bank. I will do anything to make that happen.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

I love it. Well, Mark, this has been just such a lovely, encouraging conversation, and I want to make sure that all of our listeners know where they can find out more about you, the book. So let’s start with — I want you to mention that resource again because we do have a lot of educators in the audience. And so what is the website that they can go to for those resources?

Mark Brown 

Sure, and it’s free resources. The only reason we ask for email is to tell you when a new resource is there. Not one thing for sale. Okay, turnkeyteacher.com. Go there, there’s resources, download them, and my email is markbrown@zenpigbook.com. So if you are a teacher and you need something, you reach out to me and we are going to get it done.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Awesome. I think you just earned yourself a lot of new friends. With the books — So parents, teachers, people who want to access the books, what is the best way for them to do that?

Mark Brown 

You can just go to zenpigbook.com, and that will take you to our publisher’s website, which is Puppy Dogs and Ice Cream, fantastic publisher. They have all the books there, bundles and everything, so they will take care of you for sure.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Fantastic. And you have some paraphernalia, for those of you watching the video. Mark sent me this lovely Zen Pig sleep mask, so we have got all kinds of fun, piggy things for our younger ones to go along with the books. It’s great. Mark, I really appreciate the fact that you reached out to me and were wanting to share this message with my listeners, and just really grateful that you were able to spend the time today sharing these things with us. I appreciate the work you’re doing very much.

Mark Brown 

Thank you so much. Like I said, You’re the rock star in this space. So just being with you, hanging with you for a few minutes is a pleasure. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens 

Oh, so awesome. And thanks, as always, to all of you for being here, for listening, for being a part of this community. I look forward to catching you back here next time.