Ilchi Lee Educating Brain, Dahn Yoga

Ilchi Lee:

Adults are very verbal creatures. Much of their time is spent chatting on cell phones, zipping off e-mails, and talking about plans in meetings. Children, on the other hand, experience life spontaneously; as a consequence, they spend little time processing their experiences through words.

Children respond to physical changes in their bodies and react to events immediately. These responses come directly to and from the limbic system, the brain’s emotional center.

The difference in processing can create a gap in communication between children and adults. Because adults are verbal, they often expect their children to express their emotions verbally, which may make children feel ashamed or frustrated.

However, emotions are abstract—you cannot hold them and play with them, see them or smell them—and therefore they are difficult for children to grasp. Further, most children haven’t acquired enough vocabulary to express their emotions until the age of 11 or later, so when asked, “How do you feel?” they often reply, “Good” or “Okay.”

Children need an alternate means of expression to communicate their emotions. Drawing allows them to connect to their inner selves by allowing them to pour their emotions into colors, lines, and images, which are more accessible to their developing brain. Through children’s artwork, parents and teachers are graced with a rare and vibrant glimpse into the inner world of children.

By putting feelings into pictures, children create symbols and metaphors that they can then describe on their own terms. Kaley*, 7, for example, drew two faces at the end of her Brain Respiration (BR) class.

The first face was done in bright colors with strong lines in many directions and two large rectangles outlined and colored in red, which represented eyes. When asked about this picture, Kaley responded, “Arrghhhhhh,” like an angry lion.

The second drawing, which represented her feelings after her BR lesson, which opens acupressure points on the head and allows bright, fresh energy to enter, was in softer orange colors. The face had gently closed eyes, and strokes of color went in one direction.

Drawing provides children with a good way to soothe themselves. Without access to expression through mediums like drawing, children may resort to other means of coping—they may shut down their feelings, lose their capacity for spontaneity, and appear to be withdrawn. Pent-up emotions may also result in strong negative outbursts such as crying, anger, fighting, or shouting. Ilchi Lee

Healing and Dealing

The key to dealing with children and their emotions is to get them into their body, especially when the emotion is manifested outwardly in tantrums, crying, moodiness, or aggression. Breathing is key to releasing all emotions. The goal is for the child to feel the emotion in a calm state and then draw what the emotion feels like. Sometimes they can identify where they feel the emotion in their body. Parents should have 12×18 inch construction paper and crayons available. Children can draw how they feel at any time, expressing themselves with colors, strokes, and motion. Release occurs more deeply if there is a “before and after” picture. The “after” picture requires a guided meditation to release the emotion. This may be as simple as imagining warm sunshine flowing down and through the body from the top of the head to the toes, carrying any bad feelings out of the body.

Drawing Infinity

Drawing the infinity symbol repetitively on paper can help children feel peaceful. The symbol is intrinsically balanced and the repetitive motion of crayon on paper becomes meditative. Drawing the infinity symbol builds the same rhythm as waves washing up on a beach. Since our brain and body are 70 percent water, the motion resonates internally. Repeatedly drawing this symbol and crossing over the mid-line will also improve left- and right-brain coordination.

Setting Anger Adrift

Children either internalize anger or act it out by shouting, throwing things, or hurting others. After the child calms down enough to cooperate, try doing jumping, patting, Dahn-jon clapping, or other strenuous exercises like Superman Yeon-dahn or push-ups to release some of this energy. Then have the child lie down and breathe with your hand on the child’s heart or Dahn-jon. See if the child can express where he feels the anger. Do a visualization meditation, watching the anger leave. For example, picture loading the anger onto a boat. Untie the boat from the dock and watch it drift off to the horizon and disappear. (This visualization can work with any emotion.) Then have the child draw what he felt before and after releasing the anger.

Releasing Sadness

Sadness is a heavy emotion. Parents should sit beside their prone child and put their hand on the child’s heart. Have the child breathe deeply and release the sadness through their fingertips while exhaling for approximately 3-5 minutes or more. Have the child visualize golden light entering his body, especially the area where the child feels the sadness. Then have the child draw a before and after picture—how he felt before and after releasing the sadness. Tapping the chest may also be a good exercise. Like untying the boat, drawing the emotion on a balloon and popping it or releasing it to the universe can be used to release any emotion. Literally burning the piece of paper (with supervision) with the negative emotion drawn on is also very healing.

Shaking off Frustration

Frustration is a vibrating, tense emotion. Massage the child’s body to help him or her relax. Jumping and shaking exercises can release some of the tension. Have the child feel and visualize the frustration leaving his fingertips and body while he shakes his hands or body like a wet dog shaking off water. Have the child draw what the frustration felt like before, and how he feels without the frustration.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Dahn Yoga, Ilchi Lee. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.