Energy Work with Toddlers

When I think of energy work, I often think of the Reiki shares I participated in as a part of my training, or of the healing groups who work at psychic fairs I’ve been to, standing around someone on a massage table, waving their hands around the person they’re working on. I did energy work on my own, long before I could afford Reiki training, and long before one of my former high priestesses declared that every witch in her circle would get an official Reiki attunement as a part of their training.

I’ve been doing Reiki on my son since before he was born. I actually took my Reiki II attunement when I was 5 months pregnant, shortly before his premature birth. After he was born, Reiki was one thing we could do to help him grow stronger, even when he was too fragile to be held.

My son, Acorn, is now almost two. Even now, we use energy work to help his body grow and heal the damage that was cause by his early birth, and we use it extensively when he’s upset or unable to calm down enough to sleep.

In addition to normal toddler anxieties, Acorn has had a lot of traumatic medical experiences in his short life, and as a result, shows extreme anxiety about a lot of things. I’ve been thinking lately that if I could help him learn to do a little of his own energy work, it may help things.

Now, keep in mind, I’m talking about something age appropriate here – toddler-level visualizations, like colors and shapes, not complex symbols and attunements, and not working on other people, just himself.

The technique we’re using thus far has been to start with bedtime. It’s a good time for us to work on intentionally calming ourselves, since we must make a transition from active to more calm and relaxed to go to sleep, and a good time to focus without being rushed. Besides, anything that helps make bedtime go more smoothly is a positive thing.

We start by sitting together, with Acorn in my lap. I talk a lot about how we’re going to sit quietly and relax, how we’re going to take deep breaths, and just sink into the chair. Then I start describing a glowing ball of light around him – a big sparkly egg of white light. Once his shielding is pretty well in place, we talk about reaching down into the earth, and letting all our extra energy go down into the earth, or if we need a little extra, pulling it up into our bodies. Finally, I run my
hands from chakra to chakra, explaining what each one is for, and what it should look like, and work on clearing any blockages we find.

Usually, he watches and listens very attentively, even if he was otherwise distractable before the session. I can tell from his reaction that he knows something has changed when I clear blockages. Sometimes he grabs my hand and moves it from one chakra to a different one – inevitably that’s the one that needs work.

Over the last few months, I can see a difference in his ability to maintain his own shields. There’s less patching to do, less overall balancing that needs to be done.

Finally, we get him in a comfortable position, and I gently guide his energy into a more relaxed state. Sometimes it’s as simple as a bit of Reiki, other times it’s actively shifting the energies of an over-tired and over-stimulated toddler into something calm.

I think, overall, that it helps us have a more calm and manageable life, and it helps him learn to control his energies on his own, something I wish I’d learned earlier in life.

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