Winter Solstice

As I prepare for my 3rd degree Reiki attunement, deep surpressed anger is rising up to be released. I awoke this morning to burning energy at the soles / souls of my feet.

Holistic Mama speaks about how the winter solstice is about the “dark time yeilding to the light time”. For me, I am letting go of old anger and coming into forgiveness and acceptance. Creating space to birth a new consciousness as we welcome the light time.

Reflexology and Indian head massage tonight– what better way to gently move the energy through.

A blessed winter solstice to you.

Shamanic practitioner training

Well, the newest thing that I’m excited about is that I will be starting a 13-month shamanic practitioner’s training program starting in January! If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ll know that I’m very drawn to shamanic teachings, have been consulting with shamanic practitioners from time to time, and have received some very powerful healings from them. I am looking forward to deepening this work.

I am also continuing with my Reiki journey and will be receiving my Reiki master attunement in the next couple of weeks. I will eventually be able to practice shamanic Reiki and combine the healing techniques. I have two friends who practice shamanic Reiki and have very much resonated with their work.

Other news is that I have connected with another shamanic practitioner who will be travelling to St. John’s over the holidays and she will be leading a fire ritual / full moon ceremony on New Year’s eve. I am thrilled that I will bringing in the new year in such a powerful and meaningful way.

I will keep you posted on my journey.

Dr. Mercola’s advice for eczema

Since I’m on a roll with talking about Dr. Mercola’s website, I also wanted to mention that he has some effective and inexpensive ways to deal with eczema on his website here. These include:

1. Saltwater compress
2. Omega 3 fats
3. High quality probiotic
4. Avoid highly allergenic foods (e.g., gluten, dairy, eggs).
5. Getting sufficient sun exposure or taking a quality Vitamin D supplement.

We have Moses on a high quality probiotic, are avoiding highly allergenic foods, and have him on a quality multivitamin that contains Vitamin D.

I’ll have to remember the saltwater compress to address itchiness. Currently, we just use a wet washcloth to sooth his skin when he’s itchy, but want to try the saltwater compress. Dr. Mercola suggests using a high quality, natural salt.

I know that Moses is low on Omega 3s — partly because he’s allergic to fish, so I need to find other good sources. Hemp seed oil is a good alternative, I believe (although Dr. Mercola mentions that the plant-based omega 3 sources aren’t as good as the fish-based omega 3 sources). Dr. Mercola also mentions that evening primrose oil (as a source of gamma linoleic acid) works well for eczema. We’ll give it a try.

I should also mention that since last year, Moses’ eczema has lessened tremendously and we no longer need to use hydrocortisone regularly. (He has the occasional flare up when we do use it). So I believe the diet changes and other measures have helped.

Dr. Mercola’s Nutrition Plan

Recently, I’ve been reading some of Dr. Mercola’s articles.

Today, I came across his step-by-step nutrition plan here.  He has three levels to his plan: beginner, intermediate and advanced. The first part of the beginner plan is:

1. Eliminate all gluten.
2. One third of your foods should be uncooked.
3. Eat more vegetables.
4. Keep your vegetables fresh.
5. Limit sugar.
6. Avoid artificial sweeteners.
7. Avoid hypoglycemia.
8. Learn to distinguish physical food cravings from emotional food cravings.

Out of all of the things on this list, the only thing that I currently do is avoid artificial sweeteners. And, my sugar intake is relatively low.

Lately, I’ve been getting the message that I need to address my nutrition — in particular, remove gluten and dairy from my diet. As I’ve mentioned, gluten and dairy have already been removed from Moses’ diet, so you’d think it would be relatively simple for me to take this step. Plus the fact that I was on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet when I was breastfeeding Moses. But, my relationship with food is very emotional — I’m an emotional eater.

For me, my “drug” is food — in particular, gluten and dairy! My naturopath mentioned to me that if I crave a food, it’s generally because the food isn’t good for me and is causing inflamation in my system.

Interestingly, Dr. Mercola also suggests using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to help with emotional eating. I’ll start trying that, and see if that helps. I have found that my chocolate cravings have been less over the last month and last time I went grocery shopping, I didn’t buy cheese.

Let’s see how I do. I’ll be gentle with myself, but I’ve been getting a lot of internal nudges to feed my body well.

Of course, what’s interesting about Dr. Mercola’s nutrition plan is that many things that are restricted in his nutrition plan is restricted in Moses’ diet. Like Moses’ body came with a set of instructions that said: don’t put anything in my body that’s not good for me.

Your child as teacher

“Your child was your teacher in  another life”.  I’ve heard this from a couple of intuitives, and I believe it to be true because of the dynamic that Moses and I have.

One intuitive said that he was my teacher in many lives, and I’m so used to him being the teacher that it’s difficult for me to be in the role of parent in this lifetime.

Of course, it’s also true that in this lifetime, we chose our roles as such — that I would be his parent in this lifetime and he would be my son. I have things to teach him in this lifetime, just as he has things to teach me.

Moses has a very strong personality. He knows who he is. He remembers. He knows his power. I’m generally more easy going and it’s sometimes been difficult to develop the inner strength to match Moses’ in order to parent him effectively.

I’m now realizing that Moses needs me to cultivate my inner strength. He needs a strong parent. He needs boundaries. He needs me to be able to say no, and mean it.

My puppy, Cookie, is also teaching me. I’ve been reading the book by Cesar Millan, Cesar’s Way, which discusses how to relate to your dog. I’m learning to cultivate my calm-assertive energy. It’s not natural for me. My energy is naturally submissive, so it’s been a challenge as my puppy needs me to the the assertive, dominant one in the relationship.

Our children are our teachers. What is your child / are your children teaching you?

A Place of Light

I had a lovely phone call with Susan Gale from A Place of Light today. Her website is here.

A Place of Light is dedicated to the support of intuitive children (Indigo, crystal, etc.) and their families and friends. I wish I had known about her centre years ago when I was struggling with how to parent and raise my sensitive one, but I’m glad to know about it now as I’m sure it will be a good resource. The centre provides a monthly free telephone question and answer period, and also provides spiritual conversations and healings.

Susan Gale is the co-author of two books: Soulful Parenting and Psychic Children. I haven’t read them yet, but I’m sure they would be great resources.

What are your child’s gifts?

Everyone is gifted at different things. Just thought I’d share some of Moses’ gifts / strengths.

• He has a great spatial memory.  He always has.  For example, we turned onto a highway on the weekend and he said, “This is the way to we drive Grammie Rosie to the airport”.  (We dropped Grammie Rosie to the airport three and a half months ago!)
• He’s got a great memory. He knows almost word for word most of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  He can remember more of it than I could.
• He has amazing rhythm.  We were watching the Santa Claus parade yesterday and and he was right on beat with the drummers in the bands.

We’re all gifted at different things…  What are your child(ren)’s gifts?  What are yours?

More helpful autism websites

I came across a couple more autism websites that I feel drawn to share. 

1.  Dr. Klinghardt’s website on autism is here.

There are a number of videos where he talks about the causes and treatment of autism.

2.   Also here’s a link to Dana Gorman’s Defeat Autism Yesterday website here.

She has a lot of information on her site, but I especially like her list of free things that you can do, which is here.

Interestingly, the first thing that she lists is Emotional Freedom  Techique (EFT), which Dr. Klinghardt says increases uptake of nutrients in the brain by 60% and is the  deciding factor between which of his patients heal and don’t. I’ve mentioned this before, but instructions on how to do EFT is provided here. 

I haven’t had a chance to fully go through her website yet, but I intend to. I believe this information can help many children, but especially sensitive children, including crystal and indigo children.

Top ten things to protect your family and the planet

I came across a series of articles by Doug Abrams on Dr. Greene’s website  including:

• An unprecendented experiment on our children
• Will my child get sick?
• Top ten things to protect your family and the planet

The articles can be found here.

He discusses how “since World War Two, approximately 80,000 chemicals have been invented, and thousands of these have been produced in excess of millions of pounds per year.”

A recent study of fetal chord blood (the blood a child is born with before they take their first breath) found 413 chemicals and on average more than 200 different chemicals per child.

Many of these chemicals are endocrine disruptors.

He mentions how ”one out of every three U.S. kids currently suffers from allergies, asthma, ADHD, or autism.” (And, as you know, my son has allergies and asthma).

Happily, Doug Abrams also provides a list of the top ten things you can do to protect your family and the planet here, such as buying organic food and avoiding meats, cheese, etc; avoiding the use of pesticides; using cast iron pans; etc.

It’s a good reminder. We are doing some of these things, but not all of them.

We try to buy as much organic food as possible (esp. for Moses), but it’s not always available. I was actually a vegetarian when I was pregnant with Moses, but had huge cravings for red meat after I gave birth.  Moses loves chicken and lamb. We try to feed him as much local, free range and hormone-free chicken as possible and local, hormone-free lamb. (Just this week, we picked up a whole lamb from a local farmer and brought it to our local butcher).

We don’t feed Moses dairy, so he isn’t ingesting milk and cheeses, but dairy is a personal love of mine, which I’ve been trying to minimize. This is just another good reminder for me.

We have a cast iron pan, but don’t always use it. This is a good reminder for me.

Anyway, I thought I’d pass this on because these issues are often on my mind (i.e., our children’s sensitivities, how we are treating  our planet, our selves and our children, what we can do to minimize the effect on our children and planet).

Stepping into my role as teacher / healer

Thus far this blog has been focussed on my son’s sensitivities and our struggles and joys in that process.  I’ve often written when I’m in distress, as it’s a place that I turn to when I need to process / vent / share.

I haven’t shared much about me as a person or my own journey. But as Alexis points out here, to be a great mom, first you have to be a great you. Have I been doing that?

My biggest passions involve yoga and exploring the healing arts. I have been getting the message that it’s time for me to step into my role as teacher / healer. I’m currently teaching one yoga class a week and I’ve started to deepen the teachings in my class. I was scared to do so, but have been getting the message “go deeper still, go deeper still”. And, so deeper still I am going and so far, it’s been rewarding.

During my last session with an intuitive, she shared that I am at the brink of a big awakening / growth, that it’s time for me to step into my role as teacher / healer. And, it’s true, I feel as though my heart yearns to do this. And, so I am taking little steps.

I’m starting a women’s healing circle and we meet in a couple of weeks. I started one in the last city we lived in, and now that we’re in Newfoundland, it feels as though it’s time for me to start one here.

I feel drawn to getting my Master Reiki attunement, and have let my Reiki teacher know that I’m ready.  It’s another process of “going deeper still”. I have visions of teaching Reiki I classes in the new year.

Anyway, these are baby steps that I am taking. I feel as though I am ready. I’m nervous and scared, but for a long time I’ve been getting the message:  “You are ready.  You are safe. It is time.”

And the more time that I sit and hum and haw, the more ansy I get inside. And, of course the more ansy I get inside, the more Moses reflects my discontent back at me.  So, you see, it is all related.

Here I am diving in…

Orbs

Well, I couldn’t resist sharing this picture of Moses playing with Cookie.  I also noticed that there are three orbs captured in the picture. 

Orbs are thought to be angels captured in a photograph! 

(Update: Alexis noticed four to five orbs!)

Puppy Prescription

Earlier this week, I wrote about how I thought Moses may have Asperger’s Syndrome, and Alexis asked some great questions. 

Hi Janice ~ I guess my question for you is how would a diagnosis help you better understand your son? I mean, theoretically, it could answer certain questions about why he behaves in certain ways, if he really has AS, but you are already very tuned in to your child. No one understands him better than you do.

How do you think Moses would benefit from a diagnosis? Isn’t he already being respected for who he is? Aren’t you already being present with him and trusting your intuition as to what to do to best support and nurture him exactly as he is?

Scary stuff about MMR. Did you sense this about him before the shots?

Hugs,
Alexis

These are great questions that Alexis asked. Ones that I knew would be asked by some readers. I’m going to answer them in the same mindset as when I wrote that post (because actually, some of my mindset has changed since then — thankfully).

But first… Why would a diagnosis help? I thought it would help me to connect with other parents who are having similar experience with their children. And, also connect me to other resources / support groups / parenting ideas. I was feeling alone and challenged re: parenting Moses (e.g., losing patience, etc.). I felt like I had no more reserve left in me. We were trying to do what we could to replenish ourselves (we actually just came back from a week’s vacation away), but we returned more drained than when we left.

Isn’t he already being respected for who he is? Aren’t you already being present with him and trusting your intuition as to what to do to best support and nurture him exactly as he is?    I’d love to say that the answer is “yes” to both of these questions. And, of course, the problem is probably in the fact that my answer is “no” to these questions. My husband and I were really struggling. We were finding that we were at our wits ends with the  constant power struggles and tantrums every single time we change him and brush his teeth. (Alexis discusses power struggles here, so I know that we’re not alone in this one). On most mornings, it was taking all of my energy, patience and sanity just getting Moses fed, changed and teeth-brushed. I was losing confidence in my abilities as a parent.

How do I feel today? Something actually has changed in the family dynamic over the last couple of days, which I attribute to one of two things: 1) we got a puppy, and 2) I’ve started using the Emotional Freedom Technique (which, if you don’t know what it is, you can find out about how to do it yourself here).

1) We got a puppy. I consulted with yet another intuitive (another shaman) and she ”felt that a dog in the house would help the energy in our home”. My husband has always wanted a dog and about a week before the shaman mentioned this to me, we had considered adopting a dog, so it felt like everything was in alignment for us getting a puppy.

We’re thinking that Moses is enjoying having the puppy in the house, and even though I’m spending a lot of energy training the puppy and cleaning up after her, Moses is happier, which means I’m happier. The tantrums in the last 5 days have been less frequent and less dramatic. And, he has even let us brush his teeth without a fuss over the last couple of days (which had only previously happened less than a handful of times before).

2) I started using the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), which is a technique that I used on myself a couple of years ago and had found that it helped release emotional charges on issues, but had gotten out of the habit of using. When I was at my emotional wits’ end a few days ago, I started using this technique and since then I’ve felt more centred, at peace, grounded. After the first night of using the technique, I actually had a dream that Moses and my emotional charges were no longer “plugging into each other” because they had been diffused.

I think a lot of what was happenning was that my “emotional charge” was affected Moses’ emotions and we both were setting each other off. I knew that was happenning, but I didn’t know how to “diffuse the charge”.  That’s where EFT came into help.

Do I still think Moses has AS?

Currently, I’ve actually talked myself out of it. I mentioned it to Moses’ naturopath and she doesn’t think that he fits the AS profile.

Follow-up to MMR post

I discusssed here how we were starting down the road of partial vaccinations and Moses had his first MMR shot on September 9. Since that vaccination 7 weeks ago, Moses has not been able to sleep through the night (previously he was sleeping through the night), and has had three different bouts of high fevers, an ER visit, a strep throat diagnosis (accompanied with an antibiotics prescription), and thrush (which was the result of the antibiotics for the strep throat, and now he’s on an antifungal medication), and other various maladies.

We also noticed that he started getting a lot more prone to tantrums during the day and was a whole lot crankier and was also getting more night terrors within the first month after the MMR. And, then things progressed to the point that brought us to our wits’ end.

Ah…  it’s all coming together now.

I’m starting to put two and two together and attribute the change in behaviour (well, definitely at the very least, the difference in sleep change) to the MMR vaccination. So, I feel even more strongly to discontinuing with the rest of the vaccinations we were planning. I believe my husband is now also on board and rest is history.

Asperger’s Syndrome?

As I awoke from a dream, the words “Asperger’s Syndrome” flashed before me. The night before, I was speaking to a friend of mine (a healer / Reiki master friend of mine) about the recent difficulties that I have been having in raising my son.

The words in the dream appeared to be the answer to my unasked question.

Even without knowing much about Asperger’s Syndrome, the dream brought me comfort because it made me feel that maybe I wasn’t going crazy.

The truth is that even before Moses was born, I had suspicions that he would be autistic. But when his language skills developed normally, I put that thought to rest.

Now that I’ve started to read about Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), I’ve learned that most individuals with AS are highly verbal and highly intelligent (both of which are true for Moses).

He doesn’t show all of the characteristics of AS, so it’s not clear to me, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was diagnosed with a mild form of it.

I will let you know more as it is revealed to us.

A time of growth

It feels like a time of growth for me and my family. We have hit a ceiling and are pushing through something.

I had a session with a reiki / shaman healer a couple of days ago that rocked my core.

I have been dealing for a long time with issues surrounding trauma related to my relationship with my biological dad. For the last 10 years, I have been working at clearing it. It feels as though I am always clearing it.

I felt as though I had made real progress with it in the spring. I wrote about a related healing dream here. I felt that I had put it to bed. That I was healed.

But, it’s up again. And the energy is such that it affects my sensitive son. It shows up in his behaviour, in his health, etc.

I know that it’s an incredibly healing time on the planet. Everything is up to be healed. I’m sure that I’m just accessing another layer of it. I’m amazed at how many layers there are to it.

We are still in the middle of it as I write, but I know that it’s up for healing. And for that I am thankful. I trust in the process.

Mindful Mama

Mon at Holistic Mama had a great post today about three different types of moms: the natural mama, the social mama and the mindful mama.

It was just what I needed to read today because this past week in particular, I’ve been a bit hard on myself that I wasn’t a natural mama. Homemaking doesn’t come naturally to me. It’s a struggle. But that being the case, I love my son with all of my heart and soul and yet, I have these other parts of my being that need expression for me to be completely fulfilled (like teaching yoga, moving my body, being in nature, connecting with other likeminded people, writing, meditation). Of course, many of these things things, I can do with my son, but sometimes, I also need to be in my own energy.

My husband and I very much value family time, but we also very much value our own time. We each generally give ourselves one night away as “our own time” and for me, this means teaching a yoga class, which I love to do. And during the last year, we’ve been having a date night every one to two weeks (prior to that, it was once a month, which wasn’t often enough for our liking).

This past weekend felt like a particularly difficult week because Moses was teething (those last darn molars), and so this week, it became important for me to have more “me time”. I had a haircut last night, and met at a coffee shop with a good friend of mine. Then this morning, when  Moses spent his first few hours on his own at the dayhome, I chose to go to a fusion tai chi / yoga / pilates class rather than spending that time working. I also booked an energy session for tonight (which was postponed), but just knowing that it’s coming has helped my mental / energy body! And sure enough, Moses has been feeling more himself today and the whole household has been going more smoothly.

Transitions in child care

During Moses’ first year, I was home with him full time (we’re fortunate in Canada to have a year’s maternity leave). I really wanted to stay home with him after his first year, but finances dictated that I go back to work at least parttime. After some meditation, I received the insight to work halftime from home, continuing my work as an environmental consultant from home. Thankfully, the company I worked for agreed and I was able to spend the mornings with Moses and work for four hours in the afternoon while he was watched by a loving mom of another toddler, who became Moses’ good friend. It was particularly great because the mom came to our house so that I was close by in case anything happened related to his allergies (and a couple of times, having me close at hand was important indeed).

Six months later, our childcare giver gave her notice and we found an AP parent through my Attachment Parenting group to care for Moses in our home. Moses and his little friend became best friends. It was an ideal situation.

When Moses with 2.5 years old, we moved across the country from Calgary to Newfoundland and I was fortunate to be able to continue to work halftime from home in NL, and Moses’ grandma (Grammie Millie) cared for him during the afternoons. It’s been ideal as I’ve continued to be able to hang out with Moses in the mornings and he’s been able to foster a great bond with his grammie.

But over the last month, it felt like it was time for a transition for a number of reasons:

1. We feel as though he hasn’t been getting enough socialization. I’ve been trying to get him to playgroups, but he’s not really been enjoying them very much — he would prefer to play with me at home or go to the museum than go to playgroups. I think  it’s because of his sensitive nature, the playgroups are overwhelming for him (it makes sense because they are actually overwhelming / draining for me).
2. We feel his grammie has been overworking herself and needs a break.
3. Moses’ allergies are not as prevalent and we feel safer leaving him in the care of others.

We started looking for a dayhome and found a place that feels like a great fit. The caregiver has two children (a one year old boy and a three year old boy) and will be caring for a 1.5 year old girl and Moses. So just four in all. I’m hoping that Moses and the little boy will be good friends. The little boy is high in energy, gentle and sweet and I hope that they will be a good fit together.

The caregiver’s husband is sensitive to gluten, preservatives and other environmental allergens, and so she’s used to dealing with food sensitivities, cross contamination, trained in using an epipen and the like. Furthermore, they limit their use of chemical cleaners in their home (cleaning with vinegar instead), as we do.

It feels like a match made in heaven, and an answered prayer.

We’re thinking of doing three full days and two half days, which will give me two mornings a week with Moses, but also will give me a few extra hours on the full time days for me to work a bit more (to offset the daycare costs). I feel a bit conflicted about it — I never thought that I’d come to the point where I’d want him to spend more time with a caregiver than with me, but it’s been a very frustrating couple of weeks for the two of us and it feels as though it’s time for a change. And, for me to have a bit more space so that I can have more patience when we are together.

Wish us luck.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Treating autism

I came across this website with steps on how to “treat autism”, such as:

• Restricting substances that cause problems
• Healing the gut
• Reducing toxic load
• Reconnecting broken metabolic pathways
• Rebuilding the immune system

As I mentioned before, my son isn’t autistic, but we found that these same strategies helped with his extreme sensitivity. My intuition says that it would also be helpful with children with autism, though I can’t speak from experience.

My Everyday Miracles blog

I have three blogs.  This one,  Raising a Sensitive Child, where I share my journey raising a crystal child and some of his (past) health problems. As I read through it, I realized that I’ve often write on this blog when we are struggling — I’ve used it to vent my frustrations, especially about the medical system.

I actually have another blog where I write when I’m sharing my joys.  My Everyday Miracles blog at www.creatingmiracles.wordpress.com. I haven’t shared it until now because I’ve been wanting to keep our identity anonymous — mostly for A.’s / Moses’ sake (I’m going to call him “Moses” from now on in the blog because it’s our nickname for him anyway. We like to call him Mr. Moses. We called him Mr. Moses for so long that he started to think that Moses was his last name.)

Anyway, I’ve wanted the freedom to share my thoughts about Moses being a crystal child without the people in our lives thinking that we were potentially crazy. This blog is my own personal refuge for me to share my thoughts, process, and experiences, and hopefully so that other mothers may be able to relate as well.

In any case, I’m ready to share my Everyday Miracles blog, which has a different “voice” than the voice that I share in this blog. In My Everyday Miracles blog, I focus on the joys in life, and the everyday miracles that bless our lives.

I have also started a third blog, My Path to Healing, where I share my healing journey and some divine inspiration.

Raising a crystal child in Newfoundland

I just thought I’d put it out there that I live in Newfoundland. Thus far, I’ve been trying to keep our identity anonymous, but if you are a parent in the St. John’s area and are looking to meet other parents of crystal children, please send me a message.  I would love to meet you!