 Prosperity Kids - Hope for Kids in Crises
Including Children's Yoga and pictures  |
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hildren, being sensitive beings, are especially aware of the pain and confusion surrounding them, though they may not express their feelings directly. When you notice a ripe opportunity to open a space for talking, open the space in your heart first, so that truth may prevail in your words.
Acknowledging Feelings
First of all acknowledge their feelings. In one of my favorite books , Liberated Parents, Liberated Children, by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, the authors stress the importance of accepting children’s feelings:
All feelings are permitted, actions are limited. We must not deny a child’s perception.
Only after a child feels right, can he think right. Only after a child feels right, can she
do right.
Allowing What Is
Allowing feelings is a beautiful meditation that brings the person, whether adult or child, into a state of peace. When your child knows that you accept him or her unconditionally, they can mirror that quality for themselves. When you accept “what is,” it cannot stay the same. Your acceptance of it creates a kind of “vibrational hug” around it, and it melts.
Describing what you perceive the child is feeling, for example, “That can be scary,” or “You really feel angry at what has happened,” can help them feel and express what they feel. But don’t expect or try to make anything happen--remember we are practicing “allowing what is,” to be! It is also important to maintain a sense of normalcy of life. Having fun and enjoying life with your child will go a long way toward creating inner and outer peace.
Yoga To Release Anxiety
The following Kundalini Yoga exercises were given by Yogi Bhajan to adults, and children can do them too, starting with the minimum time (1 minute). Adolescents and teens can eventually work up to the maximum amount of time (3 minutes).
These movements are coupled with the strong breath to work on the nervous system. The rapid arm movements activate the meridians in the arms and hands, and help to release old thought and feeling patterns that trigger fear and anxiety. The circled mouth breath is often used to release pent up emotion.
1.
Pose: Sit in Easy Pose with the hands in Prayer Pose in front of the chest. Then, keeping the hands together, move them downward away from the body and then back up again to the original position. This is a fast, shaking motion.
Breath: Long Deep Breathing.
Time: Continue for 1-3 minutes.
2.
Pose: Sit in Easy Pose and bend the arms at the elbows. Keep the elbows in close to the body, upper arms extend somewhat beyond the shoulder, palms are open and facing the body. Begin bringing the hands in toward the body (without touching it) and then back out again. It is a quick motion, almost like you are fanning yourself. The movement is about 12 inches.
Breath: Form a circle with the mouth and breath in and out rapidly through the mouth.
Time: Continue for 1-3 minutes.
3.
Pose: Repeat number 1.
Breath: Breathe rapidly in and out through the circled mouth as you did in number 2.
Time: Continue for 1-3 minutes.
