I grew up in a haunted house. And not the type of haunted house where the translucent person in old-timey garb floated around with a blank look in their eye ala Hollywood. Oh no, in this house, the feeling you got from venturing into the basement made your skin crawl and your hair stand on end. Things moved, lights turned on, and often there was a feeling of unease. Maybe, later on down the road, I’ll share more of my ghost stories with you, but this is a parenting blog and my point is that, while growing up, my “bumps in the night” were definitely more than “the house settling.” When I was a little girl and afraid of the dark, my parents would ask me what I was afraid of. I would typically answer “ghosts” or “monsters” and sometimes even “I don’t know, but something.” To which they would respond “there’s no such thing.” But I knew there was such a thing. I could see them, I could feel them, they were real. Hearing my parents say that they didn’t exist didn’t make me feel more confident in the dark, it only made me lose confidence that they could protect me in the dark. After all, if they didn’t believe or couldn’t see the “things” in my room, how could they make sure they didn’t “get” me? If a child believes they can see and feel a monster or ghost, what does it do to a child’s feelings when we tell them “there’s no such thing?” I’m not a child psychologist, but I remember how it felt to be told this. I can imagine that being told “there is no such thing” when you truly believe that something terrible exists, could cause you to feel helpless, belittled, and possibly make you start second guessing yourself or your guardians. My child is currently in a huge “afraid of the dark phase” and some nights, I understand why a parent might want to tell their child that there is no such thing. But I believe that empowerment is so important. I have a few tricks up my sleeve:
Visualization of Home Protection Let’s be honest, sometimes as adults, even we are afraid of things that “go bump in the night.” On nights like that, I often use this visualization myself. No props are needed, unless you’d like them, and the whole family can participate. As always, make this yours, feel free to omit certain symbols and add your own! We start by cuddling or holding hands. We close our eyes and I start to say to my child: “Picture a golden, glowing circle all around our house and yard. Picture a beautiful gold star in that circle, forming a pentacle (omit if you don’t use this symbolism in your practice). Now picture a bright golden light coming up from the circle, it’s creating a gigantic bubble of protection around the house. It’s going up, up, and up, until it reaches the top and comes together. Let’s picture the same thing happening underneath the house, the bubble is going through the earth and all around our basement, until it meets in the middle. Now, let’s send our energy, strong protection energy into that wall, that bubble around the house. Think about only letting love in and keeping anything that would want to harm us out.” And we focus, we squeeze each other tight or we squeeze our hands together. “Take a minute to think about our wonderful protective bubble. Picture a monster trying to get in our house, but he can’t! He keeps bouncing off of the bubble! (I typically get giggles here) Look at him just bouncing off! Oh, here comes another one! He bounces too!” From here on, we are typically rolling around laughing while we picture all kinds of ghouls and zombies and goblins bouncing off of our bubble. It works, every time. Bright Blessings and Monster-less Nights to you, Rowan
1 Comment
Brenda Archambault
6/6/2015 08:14:11 am
I clear all negativity out of the house,Put up protection around the house. And I help my children when they were little ( I got a spray bottle & put concerated water in it with protection herbs in it ) And sprayed the protection water under the bed in the closet etc..And left the spray in the childs room so the little one can use.
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