There are a ton of obvious ways to support children. Encouraging them to to be kind and respectful to others and to the earth, teaching them about exercise, healthy eating, creativity, lifelong learning, and believing in themselves and their dreams are just a few.

Something that has come up with much more frequency in the past years is the need for children to be supported in another area of life – formulating personal energetic protection rituals. While it may sound a little ‘out there’, these practices have helped many a troubled child sleep at night, find their voice, go to school with confidence, resist negative influences, and take healthy risks.

Mainstream counseling and psychotherapy has a long history of teaching sensitive and/or ‘bullied’ children assertiveness skills, and this works to some degree. For sensitive or shy children, these tools can be invaluable and we still use them in our counseling practice to some degree. The problem with using assertiveness training as a stand alone approach is that even when children say all the right things, have the right body language and find useful words and tone of voice to deal with negative or intrusive people, at the end of the day they can still be left feeling shattered and shaken by their experiences. There is a way to double the effectiveness of these concrete tools.

Healing, cleansing or protective rituals are very simple and can make all the difference in a child’s health and well-being.

Power shields and protections can help us feel safe, more grounded, or help when someone is upset with us and the situation is taking away our vital energy. When someone is ‘stealing’ our energy, we almost always have played a part, whether by not looking after ourselves, having poor boundaries, or giving away our personal power. Everyone does this from time to time. These rituals can help us regain our power and take responsbility for ourselves in a kind and compassionate way.

The HeartRise training explores the art of energetic work with children in great depth, but we want to share a sample of our tools here so that more children can have access to them right away. Our work is very earth-centered, so these techniques include imagery from nature and the elements which can be healing in itself. Hint: adults can use these too!

To begin, understand that a good energetic ritual is taught ‘lightly,’ with an underlying sense of trust in this loving world. We never share them to ‘ward off evil,’ or in any way that generates more fear. Because they work at the subtle energy level, these are very personal practices. What works for one child, does not always work for another so if your little person wishes to change it to suit his or her needs, allow and encourage this.

1. Worry Stones

Go on a hunt to find a special object from nature, such as a stone that feels right in your hand. Once you’ve found it, blow your worries into your special rock, feather, stick, shell or leaf 3 times, then give the object back to nature to take care of this worry or situation for you. You can say ‘I give this problem over to nature to heal the parts that I can’t fix’ It can be very helpful to give the object back to the earth; this is a practice in non-attachment to the results. If it is an object that is important for you to keep, such as a rock given to you as a special present, you can let the sunlight or moonlight cleanse the object before you use it again for another worry.

2. Water Cleansing

Use the element of water to cleanse your energy. If not real water (in case you are at school), imagine water being showered onto you. You can bless water with a protective symbol like a heart, shield, tree of life, or other sacred symbol that fits for you. Send positive thoughts into the water before either drinking it or sprinkling it onto your head and face. Another variation on this is to imagine your worries or problems running down the drain each time you wash your hands.

3. Liquid Gold

Where do you feel the hurt, worry, sadness or fear most in your body? Take a moment to sense these spots. Now imagine that you have a circle of liquid gold at your feet in the shape of a moat, as though your body is the castle. The moat is shimmering golden and pure and it comes and goes whenever you need it. Reach into the moat and imagine the liquid gold coming up all around you, like you are lifting up a hoola hoop. The liquid golden armour forms a moveable, protective wall all around you and above you. Gold is a color of wisdom and of angelic protection. You can move your body freely in this golden suit. You can go about your day. No harm or negativity can pass through this golden armor, but love, kindness, understanding and true friendship can easily come to you. The castle is a symbol for the sacred temple of your body which holds your heart and Spirit!

Enjoy these and do let us know if you found them helpful!

Loving wishes for you and your children,

Tamika