Peacful Nights

When Braden started phasing out his afternoon naps (about 8 or 9 months ago) a horrible side effect starting happening. For whatever reason a few hours (usually 2) after he would go down for bed at night, he would wake up screaming and crying.... sometimes by the time we got to his room he was standing in the middle of it, like he was sleep walking... or he was facing his wall, like he was lost.

EVERY night this happened. We tried everything. Moving his bedtime around. Having a very calm peaceful routine with quite books, examining his diet etc.... Nothing seemed to change these horrible episodes. I read about night terrors, but that is not what these were.... So for a bit we just thought it was something we/he had to endure.

side note: when I say we... I really mean me.... Mason was gone away at training and had only been subjected to a handful of these episodes.

Somehow during a search for kid books on Amazon I came across a book of nighttime meditations for preschoolers. I didn't think that much of it until I read WHY the author had written this particular series of books. She talked about how her daughter had terrible nightmares from not being able to calm her racing mind after a busy day. This mom wanted to be able to fill her child's head with beautiful calming images that would help her transition into peaceful dreams.

The whole concept made sense to me. I totally have "busy head" when I lay down at night. It just never occurred to me that my son might also. And it also didn't occur to me that he and I were not talking about any anxiety he might have been experiencing... since A) his verbal skills are not that good and B) it didn't occur to me that a child might have anxiety...

We started slowly. After our books, but before prayers I had Braden lie down in his bed. I turned the lights off (using the slightly open bedroom door to let the hall light in) and instructed him to close his eyes. There is a bit of a preamble, and then it gets into the meditations.

And really what it means by meditations is, really descriptive short stories. In the preamble it talks about a star which shines brightly. The bright light represents warmth and love. Love for all humanity and all the creatures on the earth. As you 'walk' to your garden you pass the worry tree. You instruct the child to "pin onto this tree anything that worries you at all". And then you pass through the gates and enter the garden. Here is where the story differs. There are animal stories (frogs, bears, whales, rabbits) there are destination stories (Arctic, London, the circus) etc etc....

The whole thing takes about 5 minutes. It seems that the book is slightly geared towards girls, there are no car or truck meditations, which would make sense since the author has a daughter.

It took about a month for Braden to really settle into the routine. He lies down, closes his eyes, we breath in and out VERY slowly 3 times...and then I begin to read. It took a while for him to learn not to talk or interrupt me. I had to explain that there were no pictures in the book, that he was supposed to "see" the pictures in his mind. But like I said, after a few weeks it was just part of our routine. He seems to like them and asks for certain meditations by name.

Now that I understand how to do it, and what the purpose is, I bet I could write a few of my own.

I am happy to report that the nighttime waking and screaming has stopped. And I know what your thinking...that maybe this whole thing has nothing to do with the book. But I assure you that there were a few nights that I was lax and for whatever reason did not do the mediation... and guess what happened.... yep!

So whether it is all just a big coincidence or not... I still think it is a good technique to learn. Being able to settle one's mind, relax and imagine are all things that need to be cultivated.