This winter I fell on the ice.
I was in a great mood, the sky was blue, the weather was mild, and I decided to conduct some errand-running. I was walking away from a mailbox when, just like a cartoon,my feet went out from under me and I took a big, beautiful faceplant! My nose didn't hit the ground but came close enough to get wet. I don't have any idea if anyone saw me fall. It sure felt funny! It was such a classic fall there was no way I couldn't be amused.
As I took inventory and got up, I realized I had hit my right wrist and my left knee. My knee definitely was crying louder than my wrist. I sat in my car for a moment, rubbing my knee all around with my hand. Soon my knee started to feel better and I drove off to complete the rest of the day's errands.
Later that day and the days that followed I revisited my knee-rubbing each time I noticed how sore my knee was. Eventually it stopped hurting.
At some point it occurred to me that we all rub our boo-boos when we are little kids (or sometimes a parent or caregiver rubs them for us). We become adults and forget how powerful touch can be to heal our sore spots.
Then my mind's wandering turned to all of the other self-care tools I was given during my (admittedly unusual) upbringing. I remembered additional stories, such as the time I shared with a client last year that she could teach her daughter, who is 4 and gets sinus headaches, how to apply pressure to her sinus reflex points to relieve the pressure.
And WHA-LA, a blog post was born!
5 Tips For Raising Your Children with Conscious Bodies
1. Teach Touch as the Frst Step in Healing all Bumps, Bruises, Bangs, and Ows!
Touch is a powerful tool that releases many kinds of helpful relaxation hormones into the bloodstream. Some of these hormones blunt the pain by blocking pain receptors, some stimulate pleasure receptors and distract us from the pain, and some simply give us an altered state of being (make us high) which helps us not hate the pain quite so much.
Additionally, massaging the area that got banged up increases circulation, which helps make the impending bruise lighter and not last as long. The massage can also relax any muscles around the injured area that are "splinting" (tightening up) to protect the injury. This can lead to less pain.
Your kids don't need to know why this works. Just teach them to rub the owie for a few minutes whenever it hurts, using their whole hand or just their fingertips.
2. Demonstrate and Encourage Water Drinking
Many unfortunate health conditions are caused by dehydration. Headaches, depression, lethargy, lack of appetite, dizziness, dry mouth, eye pain, slurring of speech, confusion, constipation...this short list shows that a lack of water can cause problems kids complain of.
I remember the winter I broke my neck (which was an injury that ultimately happened due to dehydration)
Model frequent water drinking. Find out what temperature of water your kids like to drink. Some kids even like to drink warm or hot water instead of cold.
There are plenty of powders etc. to add to water to make it flavorful for kids. There's really no substitute for water, though juice and uncaffienated teas are a good addition. The guideline is: drink enough water each day so that at least once your pee is very pale or almost clear.
3. Demonstrate and Encourage Rest
The body runs amazingly well when situations that put it out of balance are removed. One such influence on dis-ease is lack of rest. We all have tendencies to over-schedule ourselves, and sometimes we end up overscheduling our children (especially as they become school-aged). Many children these days suffer from lack of rest.
Rest does not mean sleep. There are many children who get a full amount of sleep each day and are still suffering from a lack of rest. It's important for kids to learn how to rest while awake by participating in quiet or non-activities, such as:
- Legs up the wall, supported child's pose, and curling up in a ball
- Watching the clouds, stars, and sky roll by with minimal conversation
- Sitting, listening to somewhat chill music with headphones on
- Reading books, and looking at pictures/picture books
- Daydreaming and staring off into space with no particular activity.
Teaching your children how to do restful activities will encourage their creativity, resourcefulness, and self-exploration while subtly teaching activity/life balance (work/life balance) and self-reliance. These kinds of restful activities allow the body to do some healing even while awake.
4. Teach them to Enjoy Movement
Kids love to move (which is why they need to be taught restfulness - see above). They are very open to learning specific ways to move, and our culture has a few specific disciplines that (I think) are a bit overtaught- such as ball sports and the classic trio of tap/modern/ballet dancing.
Do you practice a movement discipline, such as yoga, tai chi, karate, tae kwon do, or other martial arts, zumba, gymnastics, salsa dancing? Teach a few moves to your kids! They don't have any frame of reference for if you're doing the moves well, so you can leave the self-consciousness aside and just enjoy sharing movement with them.
5. Teach your child Active Progressive Relaxation
It's a long name that means teaching a system of tensing and relaxing muscles to help your body relax. It's a great tool to teach at bed time, and you can tell your child that they can use it ANYTIME to help them feel calmer.
To practice active progressive relaxation, you and your child can sit comfortably or lie down. Take 5 deep breaths. Then cue your child to begin by squeezing their feet into little balls as they inhale, and releasing their feet to relaxed as they breathe out. Move up the body in sequence: calves, thighs, buttocks, belly, back, chest, arms/hands, shoulders, neck, face. Kids love to learn active progressive relaxation!
