Remembering your innate well-being

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I recently came across Sandra Boynton’s *Woo Hoo! You’re Doing Great! *which beautifully illustrates the **power our thinking **— expressed through the simple, playful language of a children’s book. The story offers a profound teaching about the nature of our experience and psychological well-being that aligns remarkably well with some new insights you might find very helpful in your day-to-day life.

Our Thoughts Create Our Reality

The book lightly demonstrates how **thought creates our moment-to-moment psychological reality. When the enthusiastic chicken makes a mistake by waking up the napping bear, the chicken immediately thinks: “Oh no! I made a mistake! I’m no good at this!” This perfectly illustrates how our thoughts instantly create our feelings and experience of reality.

The chicken’s distress isn’t caused by the external event (waking the bear) but by the thinking about that event. The same situation could be thought about differently, creating an entirely different emotional experience — we live in the feeling of our thinking, not the feeling of our circumstances.

The wise mouse friend helps redirect this thinking by offering a new perspective: “But everybody makes mistakes. That’s how we learn. That’s what it takes.” This demonstrates that when thought shifts, our entire experience transforms. The chicken moves from self-condemnation to self-compassion through a change in thinking.

Expanding Our Awareness

Our consciousness (i.e. awareness) is what brings our thoughts to life and makes us aware of our experience. The book illustrates this beautifully through the various animals experiencing their activities — learning to skate, practicing ballet, baking a cake. Each character is conscious of their efforts, their struggles, and their achievements.

The chicken’s excessive enthusiasm — shouting “WOO HOO!” — can be seen as bringing conscious awareness to the present moment and to what each animal is doing. However, consciousness also reveals when this enthusiasm is misplaced, as when the bear awakens and declares, “You woke me up!” This moment of consciousness allows for correction and learning.

The book’s ultimate message about self-awareness represents a deeper level of consciousness: “I think perhaps the best WOO HOO is the one you say each day to you.” This is our awareness turning inward, becoming aware of one’s own internal state, and the power of self-encouragement.

Connecting With Our Innate Wisdom

There is a universal intelligence and source of all psychological experience. It’s the creative force behind thought and consciousness. In the context of this story, it is represented by the innate wisdom that guides the characters toward mental health and resilience.

When the chicken feels distressed about making a mistake, the mouse’s response comes from the universal intelligence — the deeper wisdom that knows “everybody makes mistakes” and that this is natural to the learning process — an innate understanding about the nature of being human.

The book’s core message reflects our infinite, intelligent design: that we all have innate resilience and well-being. The animals learning new skills — skating, ballet, baking — are engaging with life despite not being perfect. This reflects the idea that we are created with an inborn capacity for learning, growth, and adaptation.

The story’s suggestion to rest and take a nap represents trusting in our wisdom. When we’re overwhelmed (“under-prepared and overextended”), the intelligent response isn’t more effortful thinking but allowing the system to quiet down and reset.

Woo Hoo! Putting It All Together

The book’s narrative arc demonstrates how this all comes together:

**Before the mistake: **The chicken operates from enthusiastic but somewhat unconscious thinking, cheerleading everyone without awareness of context (waking someone during a nap).

During the crisis: When the mistake happens, the chicken’s thought** **creates immediate suffering (“I’m no good at this!”). We tend to make this suffering feel real and overwhelming. Yet our innate wisdom is already present, ready to restore balance.

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Resolution through understanding: The mouse helps point the chicken back to innate wisdom. New thought arises (“that’s how we learn”), we can then perceive this fresh thinking, and finally recognize that mistakes are part of the natural design of learning.

The book’s final message of wisdom — that the best encouragement comes from within, and while external circumstances (a cheerleading chicken) can be helpful, it’s most helpful to recognize that our experience comes from our thinking which means we have the power to access our well-being anytime.

Practical Application

Woo Hoo! You’re Doing Great! teaches children (and adults) several insights:

Feelings are thought-created: The chicken’s immediate shift from confidence to despair shows how quickly our thinking creates our feelings.

Thinking changes naturally: We don’t have to fix our thinking — the mouse doesn’t try to change the chicken’s mind but simply offers a new perspective, which the chicken naturally accepts.

Rest restores wisdom: When overwhelmed, the solution isn’t more thinking, but allowing the mind to quiet, as shown when both friends take a nap.

Innate well-being exists: The message “you’re doing great” isn’t conditional on perfect performance. It reflects the understanding that well-being is our natural state, accessible through recognition of how we are made.

The “Inside-Out” Cheer

Boynton’s book bypasses the intellect and speaks directly to our feeling state. It’s not about fixing your life or achieving perfection; it’s about reminding you that you are already okay. The “Woo Hoo” is a moment of insight, a realization of your innate health that was momentarily obscured by the temporary noise of stressful thinking.

So, the next time you hear that chicken’s exuberant cheer, know that it’s more than just a silly sound. It’s a profound invitation to reconnect with the timeless truth of your own well-being.

Woo Hoo! You’re A-Okay!

This gentle reminder to offer ourselves daily encouragement** — “The best WOO HOO! is the one you say each day to you!” — **is really an invitation to recognize that our experiences flow from within, not from external validation or perfect performance.

When we understand where our experience comes from, we naturally return to our innate well-being and resilience.

So remember…

You’re doing great!

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Reread it. Let it settle. Because understanding this isn’t always something you “get” once and you’re done.

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