Reiki, an ancient Japanese energy healing technique, is the magic that we need to teach our children. Reiki energies flow automatically to where they are needed physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to help heal the recipient. Reiki has limitless uses, and today it has advanced into the mainstream and become an acceptable healing modality used in many hospitals.
When I first learned Reiki, I tried it on everyone I knew, including my four-year-old niece, Elesha. She was having a terrible time trying to breathe because she had asthma. I asked Elesha if I could do some Reiki over her head and she said yes. She was so tired of feeling sick that she was willing to try anything. I stood behind where she was sitting and placed my hands a few inches over her head, not touching her; I asked if she felt anything. Elesha nodded yes. She told me she felt warmth. I wasn’t surprised because I had heard this response consistently from others, but I didn’t expect the description Elesha gave when I asked where she felt it. She said, “in my heart.” Her answer brought tears of joy to my eyes. (As I mentioned above, I had only placed my hands over her head.) My four-year-old niece had captured the essence of Reiki healing so perfectly! Reiki is love. While adults question and sometimes struggle with the concept of Reiki, children understand it intuitively.
My experience with Elesha inspired me to work with children in a healing capacity. Compared with adults, most children are relatively unencumbered with life experiences, making them the ideal channel for Reiki energy. There are so many benefits to treating children with Reiki: improving concentration, enhancing sleep, and healing of physical, mental and emotional conditions.
There are many benefits to performing Reiki on children – but why not teach children Reiki? If I had known Reiki as a child, my life would have been different: less stressful and probably healthier too. Learning Reiki helps to keep children open as the natural energy channels they are. Reiki encourages empathy, a feeling of connection to all living things that children can carry forward into their human relationships. Reiki can also be instrumental in developing children’s self-esteem. It provides a valuable tool to help them weather the stresses of growing up. Reiki energy healing for kids encourages self- awareness and self-empowerment, supporting a better connection to themselves, body, mind and spirit. If you know Reiki yourself, then you know the healing and life- changing experiences that are possible. Unlike adults, children have fewer blocks to work through, so practicing Reiki gives them a forum for manifesting lives of love, peace and harmony. Why make our children wait to discover the magnificence of Reiki? Imagine the gift we can give them now!
When I began teaching Reiki to children, I didn’t have any materials to teach from. In preparation for every class, I would write some notes and create handouts for the children. I literally rewrote the book with every class. After my initial classes, I started to see a pattern develop. The children in my classes needed more than just Reiki. They all seemed to have a few things in common: they were bright, sensitive beings, but they
seemed to experience a form of anxiety, an inability to express themselves and difficulty interacting with each other. I realized that they needed not only Reiki instruction but also direction to help them to connect with others, use their intuition and understand their feelings. They needed to discover themselves and learn to shine their light for the world. From that discovery, I created the Shine Your Light Kids Healing Program incorporating topics about self love, empowerment, mindfulness, movement, intuition and more.
Over three years I created the Shine Your Light: A Kid's Guide to Reiki Healing workbook that I could share with the children in my classes. The student workbook itself has several beneficial exercises and questions that you can incorporate into your classes for kids, but I felt that further guidance may be needed so I wrote the Shine Your Light: A Kid's Guide to Reiki Healing Teaching Companion. The companion manual is designed to provide you with suggestions and exercises that teach kids Reiki and beyond: covering topics of feelings, intuition, self care and more to create a comprehensive healing program. Not everyone is comfortable teaching kids and touching upon such topics of feelings, movement and mindfulness beyond Reiki so I have designed a Shine Your Light Training Program for Reiki Teachers to teach children coming out this summer.
While the student workbook itself has several beneficial exercises and questions that you can incorporate in your classes, I created the manual to be complementary in explaining the different sections of the book more fully. Please know that the books are meant to augment, not replace, your prior experience teaching Reiki to adults. In general, the key to being a good teacher is to allow your intuition to flow through you as your guide. But to be an even better teacher with kids you’ll need to be as authentic with them as possible. In other words, don’t just “talk the talk;” actually “walk the walk.”
April D’Amato is an intuitive counselor, spiritual coach, Reiki Master Teacher . As a gifted Channel, April works daily with her Healing Team, the Galactic Light Beings, Angelic Realm, Ascended Masters and other beings of light to bring healing and messages to you. April resides in Connecticut and teaches throughout the US and Canada, and has clients from around the world. She holds individual sessions and classes for both adults and children. In 2007, April began her work with children and has since created both theShineYourLight:AKidsGuidetoReikiHealingworkbook andtheShineYourLight:AKids GuidetoReikiHealingTeachingCompanion, toaccompanyaReikikidsclass;thebooksare designed not only to initiate a child to energy healing, but to provide them with tools to maintain their well-being. Both books are available on Amazon. April's mission is to promote HOPE (Healing Our Planet Earth) one person at a time through turning on the Lights. April can be reached at 203-397-6073 or april@soulstarhealing.com . Please visit her website for more information at www.soulstarhealing.com.
Book Launch Event for
Shine Your Light: A Kid's Guide to Reiki Healing
Old Saybrook, CT – Soul Star Healing is excited to host a Book Launch Event for Shine Your Light: A Kid's Guide to Reiki Healing. Author and Teacher, April D'Amato, Reiki Master Teacher will be there to discuss her book and what the benefits are for kids to learn Reiki. She has been practicing and teaching Reiki for 19 years. She began her program for teaching Reiki to kids in 2007 because she wanted to provide them with a tool that would not only raise their self esteem, focus and concentration, but to teach them to live mindfully to calm and ease the challenges of childhood. Her Reiki book goes beyond just Reiki, bringing awareness to feelings and their role as well as learning ways for self care. She has also developed a Teaching Companion to go along with her book that guides other teachers in teaching Reiki to kids. There will be activities for children, demonstrations, discussion and prizes too. This family friendly event will take place on Saturday, April 27 at 1 pm at Shayna B's By the Sea, 247 Main Street, Old Saybrook.
Copies of Shine Your Light will be available at the event as well as the Teaching Companion for Shine Your Light. For more information on Shine Your Light: A Kid's Guide to Reiki Healing, contact April D'Amato at april@soulstarhealing.com and for more information, please visit www.soulstarhealing.com