Tonight my son asked me to do something for him.
A few weeks ago Delsyn woke up in fright and called out my name “Mommy!!!” he screamed. I ran to his room and as I comforted him he told me that he had had a nightmare. As he laid back down, he said to me “Mommy, I don’t think I can go back to sleep”. So, I said to him, “let’s try something different tonight” As I rubbed his back, I began taking him on a progressive relaxation journey… Having him do box breathing as he visualized, I led him to his favorite place in the park where he would come upon a set of stairs… as I had him descend each stair, I cued his little mind to get progressively more relaxed. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs I led him to a comfortable grassy lawn where he could lie on the soft grass and look at the sky. As each cloud passed and dissolved, I cued his little brain to get more and more relaxed. Thoughts dissolving. He was asleep within minutes (about 5 to be exact). The truth is he was asleep before he even got to the grassy lawn, but I was having fun just telling the story. Ever since then, (just about every night) my son asks me to do something for him… “Mom..” he asks “Can you hypnotize me to sleep again tonight?” I chuckle in my mind every time he says it. What 7-year-old asks his mom this question? His friend also asked me when he came to stay the night. When I shared with mom what I wanted to do (because I always get permission) she was like “maybe you can come put him to sleep every night!” I guess I’m on to something.
The Moms I coach ask me why they should learn hypnosis & NLP. The truth is I’ve been using my neuro-linguistic programming language tools & hypnotic skills with my son for years now, and it’s given me a whole new relationship with parenting. Yes, there are still parenting challenges, and Yes… he still sometimes works my nerves (We are after all human), but our communication is so much better and our relationship is a lot more fun! Most recently, my son was having trouble falling asleep because of an exciting day at school. He asked me once again “Mom, can you do hypnosis with me tonight?” This time I could not oblige. I had a meeting in just 15 minutes and needed to prepare. I said to him, “No, I can’t tonight, but you know the routine, why don’t you hypnotize yourself tonight?” At first, he protested, saying he didn’t remember. But as I reminded him of the relaxation technique, the breathing, and then the journey down the stairs and clouds on the lawn, he took over and said he would try. I told him I would check on him to see if it worked. It did. My son had learned a valuable tool that could not only help him fall asleep, but could also help him calm down in times when he was overexcited, anxious, or stressed. Seeing my (now) 8-year-old utilizing these skills at this age inspires me to continue to speak about the value of this work in increasing resilience, emotional intelligence, and social-emotional learning in kids. We can empower this at home as parents by learning it for ourselves. Teachers and educators can empower kids in the classroom by learning and teaching some of the language tools as well. The bottom line these are simple tools that can be applied every day. It would be a disservice to keep these tools from our babies. Where do you think learning NLP and even learning hypnosis could benefit your household (or classroom). I’d be excited to know.
Want to learn more? Interested in becoming NLP certified? Learn more about our NLP Certification, Coaching, Time Line Therapy®, and Learn Hypnosis, and NLP training by visiting www.mindremappingacademy.com and www.drmaiysha.com.
