Rebirth in a poem

I hold that when a person dies
His Soul returns again to earth;
Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise,
Another mother gives him birth,
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain
The old sould takes the road again.

~John Masefield

Don't think of a monkey!

Don’t think of a monkey! Don’t think of a monkey!  Don’t think of a monkey!

What is on your mind?  Let me guess, a monkey.

The minds of children work the same way as ours.  When we use the words “don’t” or can’t” our children tend to skip them and typically just hear the rest of the sentence.  Some examples of this quirk of the mind:

You can’t have desert before dinner.

Typical result:  Child obsessively thinks about desert, and often continues to ask.

Don’t hit your brother!

Typical result:  It doesn't take long before the hitting continues.

You quickly see the pattern here.  There are some things you can do to work with the mind of your child and not hit a brick wall with your perfectly reasonable (to you!) directives.  You can offer alternatives:

You can have one fruit before dinner.

Or:

We are having desert after dinner.

Touch your brother gently.

Or:

You can hit the pillows if you like.

I am sure you can think of many options that would work well for your family.  Have fun playing with language and notice any different results you get.  This is not a magic solution for children’s behavior, but does make a difference.  Please share anything you notice when you practice this!

An Intuitive Moment

All kids are intuitive.  Sometimes it is up to us to regognize it or it might be easily missed. 

One mom in the group was going somewhere by car with her daughther.  Her daughter had taken her shoes off in the car and refused to put them on.  The mom told her she really needed to put them on, but the daughter stubbornly refused.  So the mom, a bit irritated, agreed to put the shoes on.  While doing so, she discovered a tiny tick on her daughter's foot. 

The mom immediately stopped being upset and thanked God for her daughter's unusual behavior.

Sometimes intuition shows up in strange ways, but it is definitely worth paying attention to!  

Compassion by Einstein

A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourself from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
- Albert Einstein, The World as I See It (1949)

A lovely aspiration for us and our children. 

Dreams

Dreams are important.  They can be clues to the stressors in our lives.  In Children they can reflect the stressors and the good things in their life.  We should be asking our children about their dreams they can tell us so much about their inner world.

Children's art

Have you noticed that when young children draw they fill up the whole paper with exuberant color? But sooner or later this expressiveness is replaced with unsure figures, often not filling the space of the paper. And by the time we become adults, many of us have been told that we are no good at art, and we may actually believe this even though as children we loved drawing.

When children draw, some draw colors around people and animals.  Often a well meaning adult tells them there are no colors there, just like a child is sometimes told that they should not draw a face green or or a tree yellow. 

There really is no reason to tell children how to draw.  If they are interested, they can get some art education as they grow up, but there is no benefit to the young child to be instructed to draw the limited reality that adults see. 

So let them experiment and don't limit their expression!  Maybe then, we will have more beautiful surroundings as our children grow up and create more color in our world.

Intuition

Is it intuition or is it chance.  Sometimes there can be a fine line.  A parent in our group this week related a story of how she though Angels were whispering in her ear.  She was turning left on a major intersection when she had a thought to slow down and stop.  She wasn't sure where this thought came from or why.  She is not in the habit of stopping in intersections but the thought was compelling.  Just as she was about to stop she thought over her actions and knew she had to continue through the intersection.  The car rounded the corner and a few hundred yards in front was a beautiful deer crossing the road.  More than likely if she had continued her speed she would have crossed the deer's path.  Luckily she had slowed the car and escaped a collision.  She believed it was not chance but divine guidance that helped her to slow down.

We often receive messages and intuitive thoughts that can help us and change us.  It is not limited to adults, children can receive these messages too.  Its just a matter of are we listening.

Children's Past Life Memories - Responding

Carol Bowman in her book Children's Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child, describes how to be helpful to your child when he or she talks about a past life memory.  These are her words:

Stay calm:  Breathe.  Clear your mind so you can devote your full attention to your child.

Acknowledge:  With assuring words and a loving tone of voice, acknowledge your child and the truth of the memory.  This keeps the memory flowing and ensures a positive outcome.

Discern:  Listen closely to discern the facts and emotions of the emerging story.  Also, look for the underlying themes of the memory, and how they relate to your child's present life.

Allow emotion:  Always allow your child to follow the memory wherever it leads, and to express all emotions, no matter how disturbing or intense.

Clarify past and present:  With loving assurance, clarify for your child the difference between images from past lives and present reality.

After the intital shock of actually listening to a past life memory, the last point may actually be the most surprising to parents - that young children sometimes believe that their memories happened in THIS life.  If this happens, you may have to simply explain that what they remember is from another life and that they are now safe in their new body with their current family.

Children's Past Life Memories - Recognition

According to author Carol Bowman  you can tell fantasy stories that children make up from real past life memories by these signs:

Matter-of-fact tone. When children make up stories, their voices tend to change tones in a singsong way, while past-life-memories tend to be told in a more mature, even tone.

Consistency over time. Fantasy stories change over time and are easily forgotten by children, while past life memories are unusually consistent over time.

Knowledge beyond experience.  While fantasy stories can incorporate words heard on TV or in a story book, sometimes children's past life memories show knowledge and vocabulary the parents are sure they have never been exposed to.  For example, a toddler talks about different kinds of sails on a ship that was in use a century ago.

Corresponding behavior and traits.  Special skills or phobias can be connected to memories from past lives.  Also, some children are born with birthmarks or birth defects that correspond with their memories of death in their past lives.

The next blog post will be about how to respond if your child shares a past life memory with you.

Little Quirks

A mom in recently asked Aakash if her son's quirky way of saying no could be past-life related.
When her son says no he says 'nay'.  She has no idea where he might have heard that or understand its concept.  When she asks him he says nay means no!

This quirk could be something he saw in a TV show but, maybe it stuck with him because of his past life experience.  Does your child have a strange quirk that leaves you wondering where they could have possibly come up with that? 

Short Answers

Young children talk in little spurts.  One moment they are talking about a bug or a tree, the next about being hungry or something else totally unrelated.  They don’t stay on one topic for long.  And they are not interested in listening to one topic for long either. 

So when they ask a complicated question, with a long adult complicated answer forming in your mind, you often lose their attention by the time you get a few sentences into any well thought out answer.  So what to do?

Keep it simple!  And also keep in mind that when they ask a question, they have already been thinking about the subject, so you might want to ask them what they think before even attempting to answer.  Then, if you provide an answer, try to keep it short – the younger the child, the shorter the explanations.

Spirituality and Happiness

Here is a link to an article by The Washington Times reporting on two studies done on children and spirituality.  The studies found that children with a sense of spirituality, not necessarily religion, were significantly happier than other children:

"The study itself did not emphasize the importance of institutional religious practices but focused more on the child’s sense of “personal meaning” - and their sense of such basic values as kindness toward others, altruism, meaningful relationships and volunteering."

What do you think?

Being Thankful

We all get caught up in the stressors of the day.  It can be very easy to forget the good things that are around us. An easy way to let go of the demands of the day is to remind your self of the things you were grateful for that day.  Even if it is just that you have a roof over your head.  Being grateful puts things into perspective and teaching your children this valuable lesson can help them with their stressful world too.

Sunday Morning Report on Past Lives

Some children spontaneously remember details of other lives.  Most adults need some help to activate those kinds of memories.  Take a look at this interesting report:   Sunday Morning Video about Past Lives

Pregnancy dreams

Vivid dreams are common during pregnancy.  Sometimes a mother dreams accurately about meeting her baby while she is pregnant:

I knew I was pregnant with my first child from the moment of conception.  I don’t know how, but I just did.  I had conversations with this baby all the time I was pregnant with her, and I knew it was a girl I was carrying.  I would often see the baby in my dreams looking at me lovingly and waving at me.

When I went for my first scan, I was very excited, like all first time mothers-to-be and couldn’t wait to get a glimpse at this tiny life growing inside me.  Once the doctor had got a good glimpse of the baby, he turned the screen toward me so that I could see the baby.  What a surprise I got!  The baby started to move its hand around, waving at me.  I knew then that I was right in sensing that this was a girl.  She was waving at me the same way she had done when I saw her in my dreams! (Story told by Charmaine in the book Psychic Kids by Lynne Gallagher.)

Did you have any memorable dreams during pregnancy?

Book Review: Life Before Life

Many parents relate experiences from their children that could only have come from a previous life.  One parent told a story where her 2 year old daughter saw a picture in a calendar of the Golden Gate Bridge and she said, "Look, California."  The mom then asked, "have you ever been there?"  To which, the daughter replied, "yes, on a tall ship." 

For some parents when their children speak of a previous life they can feel isolated, as the "odd man out."  They can believe they are the only ones around having this experience, when in fact this is a very common occurence. 

Dr. Jim Tucker is a physician and researcher at the University of Virginia and he has spent a lifetime collecting and evaluating children's stories of previous lives.  Dr. Tucker has also travelled the globe and has talked with thousands of individuals.  His book, 'Life Before Life' chronicals a few of the thousands of cases he and others have catalogued in the Division of Personality Studies.

These stories are fascinating and in most cases extremely detailed.  In one case he talks of a young Turkish boy, who recalled a life in Instanbul, a city 500 miles away.  He said that his last name had been Karakas and he had been a rich Armenian Christian who lived in a three-story house.  He had a wife and three children who all had greek first names.

While these stories intrigue us and perplex us, the author does state that in most cases children forget these details by the time they are seven years old and continue with this life happy and healthy.

What a Child Sees

Practicing visualization with kids can be entertaining.  One of the group members did the Protective Egg exercise with her young daughter to help her relax and feel safe in bed after a long and active day.  The girl imagined being enclosed in an egg made of white light. 

“Mom, the egg broke and half of it fell on the bed.” 

Mom thinking quickly: “Okay, then imagine a new egg made of light surrounding you.”

“This one is colorful like a rainbow with flowers on it and my body is tingling.”

“Good.  You can imagine this egg surrounding you and protecting you any time.”

“But mom, I can’t walk or run in an egg!”

“Oh, maybe at night you can imagine the egg and during the day you can imagine the light being more like a suit like the one Super Why wears?”

“I’m like Super Why!  Crocodiles are in eggs too.”

“Yes, they are.  Time to go to bed now little one!”

Try one of the visualizations in our blog and tell us how it went!

Prayer for Protection

It is important not to dismiss your child's thoughts and visions.  Whether you think they are real or not
they are real to your child.  If you tell them that it is not real they could start to distrust themselves in many areas.  Just let them know that they are safe and protected.  If they are afraid here is simple prayer to say together:

Prayer for Protection    
by James Dillet Freeman

The light of God surrounds me;
The love of God enfolds me;
The power of God protects me;
The presence of God watches
  over me;
Wherever I am, God is!
    

Emotional Connection

As adults, we sometimes struggle with calming our own emotions.  But at least we know that we have the ability to do so. 

Children on the other hand, often get totally overwhelmed by their emotions.  If we can give them comfort and love when they are upset, they learn over time that after discomfort comes peaceful feelings and connection again.  Over time, a connected child internalizes this cycle of emotional comfort after upset, meaning that they can find inner peace any time they look for it. 

If we let them deal with their emotions by themselves, they are usually not able to get through their feelings and reach inner peace.  Instead they can start acting out to get their emotional needs noticed in other ways.  If this does not work, some give up on seeking connection and start suppressing their emotions to the point that they do not consciously feel much of anything.  Since they are not used to receiving a compassionate response, they feel they have nowhere to turn.  Over time this suppression disconnects them from others and they start to feel all alone in the world. 

With the consistent loving care of an adult, this negative cycle can usually be easily broken with a younger child or a baby.  But with older children, professional help may be needed to get back to connection and emotional health.

The Protective Egg

Have you noticed that if you are in a hurry or angry, your child reacts emotionally to this even if you have been careful to not openly express your feelings? 

This is because young children are so open energetically that they pick up on our thoughts and feelings without any effort on their part.  Adults transmit these feelings and thoughts through energy fields surrounding them.  The energy field of an adult is naturally extended to young children in our care since their fields are much weaker than ours.  Adults can often choose whom to let into this “energy bubble” but this process is more difficult for children.  Since children are energetically more open, they tend to pick up on every nuance of emotion surrounding them. 

As parents, we naturally extend our energy and love towards our children.  Younger children count on the consistent energetic protection of a trusted adult in order to feel safe and secure.  This protection is as crucial as food for young children, especially those under five years old.   

According to author Dorothy Harbour, one simple way of strengthening this protective field is to think about your child with a feeling of pure love as often as possible. 

You can also sit down and take a few deep breaths and imagine that your protective energy and love surrounds both you and your child in the form of an egg made of white light.

Night Time Parenting

Our little ones can be easily overwhelmed by the world.  There is so much to see
and feel and experience.  Often times it can be overwhelming and they can act out especially at night.  At night the lights are usually dimmed, it gets quieter in the house and all that extra energy that has accumulated through the day can come roaring out of your little one.  Teaching them how to relax or having a night routine that has a calming activity can help slow things down and eventually help them sleep. 
One simple visualization that you can do with them (when they are old enough to do visualizations) is to have them pretend that they are a tree and they have roots that grow deep with in the earth.  Those roots then bring back beautiful light blue light that fills their toes, feet, ankles, legs, thighs, abdomen, chest, arms, hands, fingers, neck, head and then branches that grow through the top of their head and the light blue light can continue on.
This simple clearing technique can help clear out any extraneous energy and get them calm for sleep.

On Children

We would like to share a passage from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kids will be Kids

All our children are gifted in their own special way.  You know what your child's gifts are whether they are in sports or the arts or academia or spiritual wisdom.  Every child excels at something and then every child will be a child.  They may amaze you with their special skills and then amaze you with their mischief.  It's good to recognize these special skills but it is also good to let them be kids.

How to respond to fear

What can you do when your child is scared?  First of all know that fear is a normal and healthy response to a percieved threat.  So for the child, any fear is real since the emotion is real.  But he or she needs help with how to cope since most children are not able to calm themselves down.  It doesn't matter to the child whether you as an adult believe the fear is worthy or even real.  Fear of bees, monsters, a scary donkey in a dream, or a small friendly pet is all the same emotion to a child.

Here are some ideas of how to help your child cope with immediate fear:

• Physical comfort: hugs, cuddling or even holding hands.
• Be calm yourself.  Children easily pick up on your emotions, so do your best to be confident and sure that this can be overcome.
• Remove the child from the scary situation if necessary, at least temporarily.

Depending on the age of your child, you can try some of these techniques for processing scary emotions and to come up with a plan for the future:

• Ask your child for possible solutions.  You might be surprised by what they can think of that could actually work.
• Ask the child to draw what is scary.
• Tell your child a story, either from a book on the subject, or create your own story where the child in the story overcomes the fear.
• An older child can write a story about it and possible solutions.
• Role play about how to handle the situation in the future.
• Teach the child to surround him or herself with protective light.  This does not have to be complicated or difficult.  You can ask the child to imagine light surrounding him or her and suggest to the child that this light will make the child feel safe. 
• Teach the child that he or she has the right to say no.

Divine Insight

It is amazing how children can have such wonderful mature insights.  They can astound you with knowledge that can only come from a higher power.  One of the parents in the group related a story where their young child was going to a funeral and so they were talking about death. The explanation the adult gave was that the soul went to heaven to live forever, and the child said "not always, sometimes you get sent right back."  This simple statement sent the parent on a search into the divine and on their own spiritual path.

What does it mean to be intuitive?

Intuition can take many forms.  All people are intuitive to some degree, but the areas of intuition in our life can vary greatly.  Intuition is a skill that can be practiced and improved.  Author Caron B. Goode, EdD (in her book Raising Intuitive Children: Guide Your Children to Know and Trust Their Gifts) has broken intuitive ability down into five areas. You or your child might fit into one or more of these categories:

Physical Intuitive: Exceptional kinesthetic skills.

Creative Intuitive: Inspired abilities in the arts and music.

Empathic Intuitive: Feeling others' emotions as their own.

Psychic Intuitive: Knowing, hearing, seeing, telepathy and other talents.

Spiritual Intuitive: Knowing that we are all connected to something greater than ourselves.

Aakash: A Resource for Families with Intuitive Children

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