Reiki For My Son's Sleep and Stress

          It's been another difficult bunch of weeks, and by "bunch", I mean about six.   My oldest son was and still is overwhelmed with continuous long-term projects at school and is attempting to cope with managing them.  He is getting little or no sleep at night, and for this reason he is falling asleep in some of his afternoon classes.  He has undergone two medication increases in six weeks.  He is worrying about the unfair treatment his bestfriend is receiving at the hands of those around him. Of course, looking back on this list, several things come to mind:  This sounds like a normal tween; all of these things would cause any kid to lose sleep; and wow, he's actually doing really good... considering that on top of all of this he still hears and sees our relatives who have passed over.  (Just last week he informed my that my late dad checked in when my car wouldn't start and I needed a jump and subsequent new battery)

          Nonetheless, I felt like there had to be something else I could do to help ease what was causing me the most concern:  sleep.  I decided to try Reiki with him.   While I had a nagging feeling that this was going to help, I have to admit that I was more than a bit hesitant.  You see, I tried Reiki with him in the past for his migraines and the experience was a bit more unusual than I had experienced with anyone else.  Usually when I am doing Reiki, my hands can feeling anywhere from tingly to slightly warm, but when I am doing it with my son, my hands grow so warm that they ache to the point that it begins to move up my forearms.  Concerned, I asked both my medium friend and my Reiki Master who suggested that I might want to focus more on grounding beforehand.

          With this new grounding advice, I decided to give it a try.  I started by spending a short amount of time in meditation then began the Reiki session on my son.  I  focused on his adrenals as well as his crown, third eye, throat and heart chakras.  Again, the sensations that I felt were similar to the times prior, although the warmth and ache were less intense and did not move beyond my wrists.  My son commented that he thought he felt the energy "move with my hands".  He said that was cooler than the warmth of my hands.  The most exciting and encouraging part was that he slept through the night for the first time in a long time.

          Through this process, I have learned that Reiki can be very beneficial in helping children in preparation for bedtime, easing children out of phases of nightmares, spurring creativity, assisting with ADD/ADHD, autism, and assisting as they process emotional and physical traumas.  I also found out, which should be no great surprise, that children respond to Reiki much more readily than adults because they have less of that, shall I say "baggage" to push through and negative energies.  Below are some articles and websites that I've found helpful in this endeavor:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Reiki-Therapy---5-Ways-Reiki-Assists-Children-to-Be-Happy-and-Healthy&id=2693265

http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/reikinews.html

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/ART02746

May you sleep well...

A Gift for You

We hope your family enjoys this holiday season and finds some peace sitting by a crackling fire, cuddling with your family, enjoying a good book, sipping hot cocoa, taking a long walk...  You get the idea.  We took a trip to see the tree in NYC and brought this back for you.

          This weekend I found out why my youngest son sleeps in his father's Kingsize bed when he could be sleeping in his own double bed, in his own huge bedroom and it has nothing to do with the slight differences in the sizes of their beds.

          In fact my son put it very plainly and simply, when his said, "...because the lady that sits in that chair ... all night scares me, and the only one that comes into daddy's room is that man... "  This was so ordinary to him that he never even looked up from his Nintendo DS or stopped moving his thumbs in rapid succession.

          Oh, right.  Silly me.  I mean...of course...the lady, the man.  Truthfully, to the casual observer, their father lives alone.  "Honey, can you tell me what the lady looks like?"

          "Yea," still playing the video game, "she looks a little like you."

          At that point, my older son piped up and explained that he thought he saw someone who might have been the same woman.  He explained that if it was, she has been hanging out there for years.  He had remembered seeing her as far back as when he was about four or five.  He remembered she used to stand in his doorway by the paper-plate spider that hung from the top of the doorway.  Then he told me that sometimes he would even call my name at night, thinking it was me, then give up when "I" didn't respond.

          So, this must be a great grand parent of the boys?  My oldest has been doing this easily for as long as he can remember?  I continue to be astounded at the ease with which they both handle the onslaught of images and information they receive.  My oldest son sometimes describes it like a conference that he has to tune out.  Sometimes I wonder what possesses me to reassure them.  Who am I after all.   I mean really, they are handling this gift with such finesse.  But...it is all they know.