|
Success in Helping
Children Release Fear
After you’ve had a little practice in releasing fear, you are ready to
begin releasing your children’s fears. This is simply a way of using
your influence and resolve to benefit them. One way to do this is to
demand the release of your fear, and then mentally release your child’s
fear. Think of it as extending your mind to your child’s mind. Parents
do this all the time when they cheer for their child in an athletic
event or send positive thoughts during a performance or an important
test.
If you are questioning this (and understandably you might because it
sounds too easy), simply try it. Sometime when your child’s behavior is
argumentative, take a minute to mentally demand the release of your own
fear. Then demand the release of your child’s fear. Observe the results.
What you may find is that you are able to think more clearly (because
your mind is not clouded by fear), and your child may not respond in the
usual way (because his mind is unhindered by fear). Perhaps he will
become more conciliatory or listen better than usual. If so, you will
know this process has worked, and you will want to try it again whenever
you suspect your child is acting out of fear.
When your child is able to understand, you can teach her how to release
her own fear. It’s wise to matter-of-factly present the idea to your
child, saying that this is something you are learning to do, and you
wanted to share the technique with her. She can try it or not; it’s
totally up to her. By not making an issue of it, you invite your child
to try, and often that can be just the approach that gets her started.
Imagine how the world might be if we each understood about fear and
tried to help one another eliminate it. And, wouldn’t it be great if we
didn’t judge each other for having fear? After all, no one intentionally
becomes fearful. Children develop fear and then look for a way to cope.
It’s that simple, but just as it took time to develop the survival
pattern to cope with fear, so does it take some time to get rid of it
(fortunately not nearly so long).
|
