Kids and adults with ADHD or other jittery focus problems can be helped by plants. As a specialist with severe behaviorial kids, I searched for any ways I could find to help the kids manage their own “out-of-control” behaviors. You see their brain wiring differs from the regular population. The kids know it, but often adults are not aware of this.
In the last school I worked in before I retired, we had a small greenhouse. I taught my staff to help the kids to take control of their behaviors through various behavior modification techniques. I found that when a child was agitated for whatever reason, if a staff member took that child to the green house, they would soon calm down. We had mats on the floor and it seemed that if the child could sit on the mat, or lay on the mat, the child would calm down much more quickly. In essence they were being closer to the earth.
We then could discuss where that specific problem started and how the child could monitor their own body reaction to what sometimes was an emotional trigger. Sometimes, it was because they had eaten too much sugar or junk food. Other times it was due to something someone said to them on the play ground. In other words, we were trying to have the child understand their triggers, understand their body signals and begin to take control of their own reactions. We gave the kids life skills for managing their own behavior.
The bottom line is, when a person is agitated, there is something in plants that helps to calm them down. Can I explain what that something is? Is there research to support it? Good questions. I’m not sure there is conclusive research. However, I have found with extreme behavioral teens, when they are in extreme anger mode, if they have the opportunity to “hug a tree” for 5 minutes, they calm down immensely. Ten years later, some of my teens are now adults and tell me they still use this technique to help them. I also have talked to Greenhouse owners who tell me of how mothers will come in with kids who are crying or screaming even. Within a very few minutes, the kids calm down. The mothers will calm down and all is a much better quality of life in their world.
Similarly, taking a walk outside in a garden or going to a campground which has lots of trees and natural life calms people down. Why do you enjoy taking holidays to either the mountains, the ocean or a park? These can be Your sacred Safe Places on earth. The positive energy of green growing things cannot be denied. Sometimes I believe the angels and fairies must live among the plants! Read the Secret Life of Plants, or one of the books about Scotland’s Findhorn Community and you will be amazed!
Affirmations and Intentions:
I intend to take a walk in nature to renew and refresh my spirit.
Dance with the wee folk in the Moonlight!
Wee! Slide down a rainbow on your magic carpet!
For more information on dealing with the energy around life, love and relationships, visit my blog at www.astromoon.wordpress.com. If you are on a spiritual journey, you might also want to explore my website at www.moonwomenspirituality.com.
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