This newsletter is my gift to you in the hopes of creating a worldwide chain of people who are committed to empowering children by honoring and nourishing their inner lives.

Pass it along to others who would like to join us.

“This is the essence of the radiant child. Belonging to both heaven and earth, the radiant child dances into our lives as a bridge between dark and light, body and spirit, ego and Self, the individual and God. The radiant child spans and sings this wholeness in every fiber. We would all be wise to listen. Even better to sign and dance along!”
--Thomas Armstrong

The open uninhibited way babies and young children allow feelings to flow naturally through their little bodies is awe inspiring. Kids don’t know how to repress or control their fluid emotions, they just move through them, unfettered.

Call up the vision of your toddler’s face, wet with large rolling crocodile tears suddenly light up into bubbling laughter as her puppy licks a tear away. She feels anger, sadness, and total elation in a matter of minutes.

These little beings, still deeply in touch with the place from which they came, compel us to enter into the moment with them. We find ourselves cooing with the baby, playing "peek a boo" with abandon, and squealing with delight over our toddler’s chubby hands clapping together. We dive into the wave of intense feelings with the child -- it seems familiar somehow.

Those of us who practice yoga might not articulate it, but we are comforted by the return to a deeper state of emotional awareness. It’s a gentle reminder of the power we had as children and allows us a kind of “ah ha” moment of integrated mind, body, and spirit.

Why do we want our children to retain this natural way of responding to their flow of energy, feelings, and physical messages? Because it keeps them vital, alive, and free from sickness which is blocked energy than festers and drains the precious life force.

How might we help our children retain their natural emotional wisdom and not suppress or block their flow of feelings – while still functioning in this world?

*Remind your child to breathe. Breath seems to be the key for adults to unlock their blocked energy so it makes sense that somewhere along the way we learned to restrict the body’s natural breathing patterns.

Yogis describe the breath as the bridge to our inner world. Link awareness of breath to everyday events: Pause before eating to take a deep relaxing breath, 10 deep breaths before going out the door to catch the school bus, when your child complains of fatigue ask her to drop her shoulders and take a cleansing renewing deep breath to re-energize.

*Give your kids lots of back rubs to keep them in touch with the relaxing flow of energy in their bodies. When my children were babies and toddlers they loved to be carried from the bath down to the fireplace where their pj’s were warming for a delicious massage before bed. Whitney is now thirteen but she still loves to be massaged, especially these days when she is feeling lots of stress over final exams. Buy some special lotion; Whitney loves Sleep Well Tension Spot Relief, by The Thymes Limited, www.thymes.com, 800-366-4071, to soothe her tense shoulder and neck muscles.

*Help your children stay in touch with their bodies and their feelings by getting them acquainted with the “body scan exercise” when they are young. The idea is to stand still, close your eyes and scan your body with your keen awareness or “inside eyes” as one child called it. What do you sense? Tingling in your ankles, numbness in your stomach, shoulders up to your ears? This simple exercise, when it becomes a habit, can keep kids involved in the messages their body is delivering them, day by day.

*Stay honest with your kids. None of us are perfect parents but when we bring ourselves with love and authenticity to our family then chances are the messages we send our kids aren't mixed. Kids internalize our confusion.

*Practice all of the above exercises yourself so your energy guides you and flows through you allowing you to open your heart to the exquisite gift of your child. When you express love, I believe, it blasts open energy blocks and frees you to live a richer, more vital life. Love your child – without ceasing – and feel the joy flooding your body.

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