A Parent's Guidance

It is said that all children are born intuitive. Like the naturally "gifted athlete" or the inherently "musical child," it sometimes takes just one adult to recognize and encourage a young person's skills for them to grow and thrive. But in today's society, intuitive skills are not always embraced and encouraged in the same way. I remember being very young and having dreams that were so vivid I couldn't always distinguish them from my waking reality. Most of my memories from childhood are vague. As best I can remember, there was a specific moment, at the age of six, when I decided to turn off my "intuitive brain." I knew something I wasn't meant to know and I shared it. The reaction I got was not what I expected and I had an overwhelming sense I had made a mistake. This was likely not the first time I'd shared information I had received, but I knew as soon as I said it that I had created a problem, and I couldn't take it back. Looking back over the span of my childhood, this was a real turning point. Giving up my intuition was a powerful loss. When my intuitive skills opened back up in my thirties, I was like the runner who wonders why he ever left the road, or the musician who wonders how she ever put that instrument down in the first place. I've met other people who recall quite clearly what prompted them to let go of their intuitive capabilities. There was sometimes an explicit message from a parent or other adult, telling them their skills were unimportant, unwanted or even unholy. On the flipside, you may have heard from some well-known people in the Energy Healing community that their intuitive abilities were encouraged and nurtured. They often speak of what a profound effect this had on their path to where they are now. One of my Energy Healing instructors, Dr. Rebecca Sullivan, relays in her course how her mother encouraged her intuitive skills. She offers examples of some psychic games to play and encourages her students to use them to strengthen their intuitive "muscles." Some examples include guessing numbers, colors and cards drawn from a deck. She describes exercises like having someone hold a small object and seeing if a partner can sense what it is. Another one (my daughter's favorite) is thinking of a food and having a partner use his/her senses to get what it is.

I have enjoyed connecting with my children around our psychic abilities, and it's been different with each one of them. One of my children seems to have been born with a deep understanding of spiritual things that, in his younger years, were beyond me. I always gave it respect, and was often in awe of it, but I didn't yet have all the tools I needed to nurture it as I would have liked. He was in middle school when we started with psychic games at home. He's got a knack for numbers and the way he and I connected on this was by texting each other. For example, while sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office, my son would type a number in his phone and after I guessed it, he'd text me the number he'd been thinking of (and then we'd switch). I guess we have to meet them where they are! Despite my support arriving later in the game, he has retained his awareness and sensitivity in the spiritual sense. I think it's also worth mentioning that, although we don't tend to give it much power these days, my son was diagnosed with ADHD and some other learning differences. This impacted his school life, especially socially and emotionally, most of the way through the elementary grades (more on this later). My daughter enjoys the psychic games mentioned above and is happy to play them. She also loves to tell us about her dreams. One simple thing we can do as parents (and I know many do this already!) is to acknowledge that our dreams have meaning and importance, avoiding any impulse to say things like, "It was just a dream.&qu