Children and Stress . . . Therèse Tappouni Children are affected by the energy around them. Research has shown there are tools we can teach children to reduce their stress. Young children are eager to learn new ways of being stress free.
As we take on the responsibility of creating a hopeful loving attitude with and for our children. when you go into a classroom for a test, or when there are belligerent kids on the school bus, take one minute to do the following exercise. 1. Breathe in deeply, counting to five, and imagine the breath is surrounding your heart. Breathe out, count-
One of the most exciting visuals for young people is a representation of the way energy acts on them and others. For instance, the energy which radiates from the heart is huge compared to that which surrounds the brain. In many cases, heart energy reaches eight feet out from the body to contact the heart energy of others. Does it matter? Yes, it matters a lot! If you come from a loving compassionate place, your heart energy releases that emotion and affects those around you in a positive way. If you enter a room which feels uncomfortable your heart’s warning system tells you to back up. It’s as if your energy reaches out and shakes hands with all the energies in the space and decides which are safe and which are not. I know you have been in a situation where you just wanted to reach out and hug a person and the opposite situation where you actually want to back up from a person. This is a demonstration of their heart’s energy. A simple tool to use, and kids pick this up quickly, it prepares anyone for a stressful situation. For example,
cially adrenaline and cortisol, bathe all of your organs in a toxic brew, speed up the heart and breathing, and make your body less able to fend off illness. This is why stress is dangerous and leads to illness. Simple methods like this will change your life. The only hard part is to convince yourself easy can be effective, because we live in a world which says it has to be hard. I promise you, it doesn’t. With the holidays, stress levels climb. Try this one simple step to pave your way, and your children’s, to a more peaceful and loving holiday season.
ing slowly to five, seeing the breath protecting your heart. (Imagine a color if you like.) 2. While breathing deeply, remember a time you felt peaceful, or loved, or grateful, any strong positive emotion. Breathe that feeling into your heart, and feel it spread throughout your body. (It helps to see a scene or person or animal you love and sense it, smell it, hear it.) 3. From this point on, every time you think about breathing deeply and counting to five, this feeling will return. So why does this help? It helps because it returns your heart to a regular rhythm and stops the release of stress chemicals into the system. These chemicals, espe-
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“Leaving the past and venturing into the future is the terrain of explorers and visionaries. We are all capable of being either or both of those things, but we have to unburden ourselves of our own expectations and the belief systems of others to learn to fly.” Therèse has combined wisdom and insight to create a spiritual path for her life and work. Find out more about Therese Tappouni successes and accomplishments at http://theresetappouni.blogspot.com Ttappouni@aol.com Cell: 805-2310184 www.IsisInstitute.org www.HeartMath.com, a resource for tools to decrease and eliminate stress.