The energy of children is very pure. If you observe them they often listen and respond to the messages from their bodies moment to moment. When they are angry they yell, when they are sad they cry, when they are happy they dance and sing. When they are hungry they ask for food and when they are tired they sleep. At some point we start to ignore and deny this pure expression of our inner self.

A child’s energy foundation is inherited from their parents during development. Pregnancy is an essential time for building this foundation, as the mother “downloads” the child with energy and intelligence. After birth, the energetic connection between parent and child continues. They often will mirror your energy and “show” you when you are becoming out of balance physically and emotionally. Caring for your own energy, as a parent, is the best way to promote wellness in your children. Dragon’s Way Qigong provides powerful self-healing tools that you can apply to your entire household. I also encourage you to begin a meditative practice WITH your children!

When a child’s energy becomes out of balance and they begin to display symptoms, this is often a signal of something that needs to shift in relationship to their internal and external environment. This could be emotional or physical.

In my practice, I can work with you and your child to uncover the root cause of symptoms and support healing using herbs, acupressure, and acupuncture if they are open to receiving needles.

Healing foods are also a very important way to support a child’s energy foundation and promote wellness. The foundation of immunity is the digestive system. Our digestive system loves warmth. Switching to room temperature or warm drinks is an easy way to support digestion and immunity. In addition, raw vegetables are very difficult to digest. Cooking vegetables helps them to be easier to digest and absorb. Click here to learn more about healing foods.

Empowered Parenting (my challenge / my opportunity)

I am blessed with four children of my own. Emma was born in 2005, Ked in 2007, Sophia in 2011, and Ayla in 2016. There is no higher Spiritual contract in relationship than that between parents and children (your own and you with your parents!). We choose one another for a purpose. The full package deal! In a way, children become an expression of your infinite possibility in THIS lifetime.

Every challenge a child takes on is both for themselves and their parents at both the physical and emotional levels. In relationship we challenge each other to grow.

Each of my children has offered and continue to offer up these opportunities. My son, Ked, and I have had a particularly intense journey together. I was pregnant with him during a time of great emotional/spiritual awakening. I was simultaneously very stuck and very open. This time of intensity began while I was pregnant with him and lasted well into his toddlerhood.

He was bathed in these shifts while in-utero and nurtured within them from infancy into childhood.

All of life is cyclical. One important cycle is the 7-year cycle for women and 8-year cycle for men. Another important cycle is 12. When we reach 12 this is the first time we return to our animal year in the Zodiac. Birthdays are another very important cycle, the time we choose to come to Earth! When we are in the peak of a cycle, all of the Universe conspires to help us break through places we are stuck and tap into our higher purpose.

For my son, the time around his eighth birthday a volcano erupted within him. He began having intense sensitivity, emotions, and headaches / digestive imbalance. When he became triggered emotionally he would go through phases of vomiting that would reset him back to a state of balance. Literally, purging the intensity. He also began to have dark, negative self-talk and lashed out at his sisters, himself, myself, and my husband.

The words he said to himself were words I said to myself during pregnancy / his early childhood. It was as if the stagnation of that experience was coming up to be seen, felt, heard, processed.

I had to learn how to nurture him in a new way, the eruption commanded me to completely shift the way I parented. Whenever a challenge arises for us, all the tools of support and wisdom to break through are also present for us. We just have to do our own processing so that we can connect in to that truth from a place of clarity. And so it happens that I met psychologist Heather Meyer and dove into the Nurtured Heart Approach (NHA).

What I discovered is that I had been parenting upside down. I was showing up / supporting him in full force when he acted out and developed physical symptoms. Through the NHA, I learned to practice holding the space but NOT energizing the “negative” experiences. I opened my perspective to see just how much good was happening even on eruption days. I began to tap into all those juicy moments of goodness. I call it being a “hummingbird” parent. Learn more about the approach through this link: NHA.

What evolved was nothing short of a miracle! Within a few days, he stopped lashing out at his sisters. Within a few weeks, he shifted his negative self-talk and within a month the digestive imbalance and vomiting began to diminish.

I began to apply the practice to every relationship in my life and in my practice with patients. I was so grateful for the gift he brought us all. Then, the next phase truly shocked me. With the release of the stagnation and the shift in our connection, he freed up his creativity. Ked does nothing in a small way. He took on the guitar and became a grunge guitar god. Complete with the long hair! Bring on the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, etc etc. Witness for yourself: Guitar is My Life

Over the next four years, Ked continued to heal and grow emotionally. Occasionally, when school was stressful or there was a big seasonal shift / full moon, he would get digestive symptoms for a few days. I recognized he is very sensitive and was feeling the energies around him at both the visible and invisible levels. I began to encourage him to help himself process that energy through the First Energy Gate acupressure exercise, breathing, and most importantly tuning in to his limits with technology and knowing when to shift to outside / creative pursuits.

Around the time of his 12th birthday, Ked developed digestive upset that got stuck. After a week, he began having fevers and a cough at nighttime. Knowing the cycle that was arising, I saw the challenge and the opportunity to break through another layer. By two weeks, I became concerned that it had gone “too far.” He was diagnosed with pneumonia and went on a short course of antibiotics in addition to healing herbs and acupuncture.

Emotionally, there was a layer coming up for both of us. He would sometimes express thoughts/feelings that triggered experiences from my distant past (around age 12!). I found myself rising up and “trying” to immediately shift him out of those thoughts/feelings because I did not want him to become stuck as I did at that age. My aha was that I still had my own layer of processing around my personal experience at age 12. My past experience is not my son’s present experience! He simply needed me to hear him and then he could let go and move on.

In addition, at age 12 it became even more important for me to encourage him to step up and take responsibility for his own energy, as he moved through the healing process.

As he broke through another layer of stagnation, a burst of creativity blasted through. He discovered a gift for the piano. He tuned into the frequency of the piano and played it like a high-level game. He would observe videos of others playing and found other videos that showed glowing lights coming down into the keys. With practice, intense passionate practice, he channeled Chopin amongst other great composers with a gamer’s edge!

Witness for yourself: Piano Challenge

I explored my healing journey with Ked with the lovely Lori Bisser on an episode of her podcast Gratitude Sandwich.

You can tune in to my Freedom Friday with Lori here to learn about Gratitude Sandwich!

Click this link to read more about Empowered Parenting

Click this link to read about Meditating WITH Your Children

Click this link to read a blog on the Chinese Medicine approach to pediatric wellness

Organ Function, Emotion, & Spirit: Five Element Consciousness