I have recently gone back to using meditation as a means for relaxing and/or going to sleep and I find it excellent. I am reminded though of a time when the children were small and had trouble sleeping. "I can't sleep" became a catch phrase I heard occasionally. In my infinite wisdom as a new age parent I decided to use meditation with them, to relax them, to send them into dreamworld so I could, once again, enjoy some child-free evening (gold).
The Young Negotiator was very receptive. I would lie down next to him and very calmly and quietly ask him to relax his body one bit at a time, starting with his big toe on his right foot say, followed by the other toes, foot, ankle, leg etc. He took to it like a vegan to tofu and was soon off in la-la land.
The Dynamic Daughter turned out to be a different pot of loose leaf green chai on soy. Again I would ask her to relax her body bit by bit, asking her to 'breath' through them and imagine them heavy and tired. All was quiet and relaxed when I was finished, myself being ready for the futon free fall and for about 5 seconds the earth was balanced. Then a young but strong voice piped up and said "Is that it?" Is that it? My God I had put all my energy into such a beautiful experience and she asks Is that it?
The Dynamic Daughter has trouble sleeping still at 14 but refuses any meditation CDs and will fight like a environmentalist not to be inflicted with them.
Parenting. It is not all calm waters and free range eggs.
No comments:
Post a Comment