10 Tips to Nurture Your Child's Intuition                            

As parents there is much you can do to encourage and nurture your child's natural intuition.  Here is a list of 10 things you can do to empower your child,    increase her self-esteem, and help her trust in her inner wisdom.

1. Treat intuitive experiences as real and natural.

2. Provide a vocabulary to express intuitive experiences.

3. Awaken, acknowledge and trust your own intuitive experiences.

4. Talk about how other people's thoughts and emotions affect us.

5. Offer tools to protect her sensitivity from other people's energy and emotions.

6. Play intuitive games.

7. Talk to your child about angels.

8. Encourage your child to look within for guidance.

9. Let your child know when to keep it a "secret".

10. Find support.

  1.  Treat intuitive experiences as real and natural.

It is natural to be intuitive.  In addition to our 5 physical senses, we all have a 6th sense that helps us perceive more information about our surroundings.  Our intuition allows us to sense people's thoughts and feelings, as well as the energy of  situations, objects and places.  It is also the sense we use to receive divine messages and guidance from God, our Higher Self, and our heavenly helpers (angels and spirit guides).  When your child shares an intuitive experience with you, listen to her, encourage her to share it with you and treat it as valid.  After listening to her, you might say, "Thank you for sharing your feelings (or your experience) with me."

Some natural ways in which your child might use her intuition every day:

• When she has to choose between two types of toys to get at a store, she gets a feeling as to which one to buy.  This is her intuition helping her pick the right toy for her. 

• Your child is usually very friendly even with strangers, but when a particular stranger comes to say 'hi', she becomes very shy and refuses to interact with this person.  The reason for her unusual behavior may be her intuition coming to her as a feeling that this person is not very nice, as a warning to keep her safe. 

• Your child sees angels around people, or little balls of colored lights, or "special" friends.

• Your child knows who is calling on the phone before you pick it up.

• You are thinking about asking your child what she wants for lunch.  Your child hears your question in her head and answers it before you ask it out loud. 

  2.  Provide a vocabulary to express intuitive experiences.  

Using words to describe what your intuition tells you makes it easy for you and your child to express what you feel.  It helps you validate your "inner" experiences without having to justify them.  It also conveys the message to your child that "you understand", "you believe her", "you recognize this energy as real".  Some words you can use are:  vibes (good vibes and bad vibes), my angel, my gut, my hunch, my feeling, yucky feeling, feeling grounded (present) or ungrounded (spacey), feel wide open (too sensitive to other's energy), and gives me the "woolies" (explained below on tip #5).  Whatever words feel right to you, ARE right for you.

3.  Awaken, acknowledge and trust your own intuitive experiences.

If your child notices you paying attention to your own intuition, she will notice her own.  If she hears you share your intuitive feelings, she will share her own.  You are your child's most significant role model.  She learns from observing and being with you.

• Awaken your intuition.  Pay attention and notice the messages you receive with your 6th sense.  Intuition is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets.  Practice listening to your intuition!  If you feel you would like some guidance on how to awaken your intuition, Sonia Choquette's book Trust Your Vibes is an excellent practical, step-by-step guide to becoming more psychic.

• Acknowledge your intuitive experiences.  Make a mental note (or actually write it down) to help you validate these messages.  The more you recognize and validate your "hunches", gut feelings and inner voice, the more information you will pick up.

• Trust.  Trust your inner wisdom and follow its' guidance.  It is meant to help you with your daily life.  Its' purpose is to keep you safe, guide you in finding peace, love and joy, and help you see Truth in everyone and everything.

  4.  Talk about how other people's thoughts and emotions affect us.

We are like sponges, absorbing energy from people around us.  When we are with loving, happy people, we tend to feel good.  When we are with people who are sad, unhappy, nervous, or angry, we tend to feel bad.  We easily pick up others' energy, thoughts and emotions.  Children, especially sensitive children, are especially vulnerable to "absorbing" others' psychic energy. 

Sometimes children "act up", whine, or get "difficult" because they have absorbed negative energy from others.  This could have easily happened at daycare, school, the mall, or even your home.  Children are very connected to their parents, so they might have even picked up your stress and worries.

  5.  Offer tools to protect her sensitivity from other people's energy and emotions.

It is very important that you protect your child from other people's energy, thoughts and emotions.  Following are some tools you can use to help your child and yourself!

•  white (and other colors) light bubble of protection.  Light is a form of energy.  Visualizing light with the intent of protection is a very real and powerful tool to energetically shield us from negative energy.  This is especially important for sensitive children.  Shield your child (or ask her to shield herself) before going to public places, whenever she feels uncomfortable and when she is with someone who is angry or upset.  Shields wear off, so you will need to reapply them again approximately every 12 hours.

"Ask your child to imagine herself inside a bubble of white light.  Explain to her that only Love comes through this bubble and that all yucky and bad energy stays out.

"You might also ask her to choose a color and make the bubble this special color."

 

•  "shake your woolies out".  In her book The Wise Child, Sonia Choquette, describes "the woolies" as the sticky, icky feeling we get when someone or something disrupts our inner harmony or equilibrium.  In other words, when someone makes us feel uncomfortable.  Children can get woolies from kids they don't like, from being in school, or from any unpleasant atmosphere or situation.  This can leave them feeling anxious, irritable, restless and uncomfortable.  If your child has the woolies, try this exercise (taken from The Wise Child):

"Ask your child to jump up and down (preferably outside!) for one or two minutes.  (Jump ropes are great for this or she can dance to an energetic, happy song.)   Next, ask her to close her eyes and place both feet firmly on the ground.

" Ask her to breathe in and out very deeply and slowly and pretend that she is a tree.  Tell her to imagine the energy from the earth climbing up through her roots, her trunk, her branches, her leaves, and out into space.

"During this exercise, guide your child through this imagery one step at a time, all the while asking her to breathe slowly in and out, until she feels clear of all "wooly" energy."

 

• Go outside in nature.  Nothing clears your energy body (aura) from negativity better than nature.  Go outside to play or go for a walk.

• Clear the aura with white light.  Imagine a bright, cleansing white light entering your child's body through the top of her head.  See this white light deeply cleaning everything it touches as it goes down the neck, shoulders, arms, chest, legs, and feet.  Imagine your child's body glowing with white light from inside.  (You can also teach your child to do this herself).

  6.  Play intuitive games. 

Encourage telepathic communication by playing "guessing" games.

• "Who's on the Phone" game.  Before anyone answers the phone, ask your children to "guess" who's calling.  Tell them the answer must be the first thing that pops into their heads.  And that they have to say the name before you pick up the phone.  This teaches them to think fast and to trust their first answers... their intuition.

• "Guess the Color & Shape" game.   A fun game, which involves different colored shapes made out of construction paper.  (You can cut a red triangle, a blue square, a yellow circle, etc.)  Then, pick a shape without your child seeing which one and say, "Guess which color I'm holding in my hands!"  or "Ask your angels to tell you what color I'm holding in my hands."  You can then ask her to guess the shape.  After that, you can ask her to guess what color AND shape you are holding.  A modification of this game would be to put a colored shape in a brown bag, then have your child guess what color or shape is in the bag.

Always reinforce your child's intuition with your positive response.  Even if she is wrong, look for something correct.  For example, in the "Who's on the Phone" game, you can say, "You said Daddy and it is a man calling from the store and Daddy is a man.  You are right; it is a man, very good."  NEVER tell your child that she is wrong; simply say "you will do even better next time."  When she is right, be very enthusiastic.  When the phone rings again, say "you were right last time; who is it this time?"

7.  Talk to your child about angels.

Angels are very real beings who are messengers of God.  We all have at least 2 guardian angels with us from the time we are born until we pass away.  Angels are always loving and never judge us.  They can guide us to make decisions that will make us happy and can keep us safe.  Angels serve as wonderful "babysitters", so you can ask your child's angels to keep her safe and help her during the day when you are not able to be with her.  You can tell your child that when we feels sad or alone, she can talk to her angels who are always with her to help her feel better.  Remind your child that angels do not have a physical body, so they might appear to her as little colored lights floating in the room or they might take on the appearance of an angel with wings so that she can recognize it.  (To learn more about angels, read my article "Our Heavenly Helpers.")

  8.  Encourage your child to look within for guidance.

Provide opportunities for your child to look within for guidance.  Encourage her to ask her inner guidance (you might call it "God", "her angels", "her body", etc.) to tell her what is best for her in specific situations.  For example, when you go to a restaurant and are looking at the menu, ask your child to ask her "inner guidance" or "your body" what would be best for her to eat at that time.  Another opportunity would be when she has to choose between two things or activities, like going to grandma's house or to the playground with Daddy.  Ask her to ask her "inner guidance" what would make her feel better.

  9.  Let your child know when to keep it a "secret".  

While intuitive feelings are natural, some people do not yet understand their intuitive nature.  You may want to suggest to your child that she keep her intuitive experiences a secret from those who might make fun of them or give her a hard time about being psychic or intuitive.  Talking about angels or "the woolies" may not be well received by a skeptical and insensitive teacher, for example, or a friend who hasn't  been introduced to the world of intuition.

  10.  Find support.   

Find friends whom you and your child feel comfortable speaking about intuitive experiences.  A place where you feel safe and relaxed about sharing how you really feel and think.  It can make a big difference to be with people who encourage you to follow your inner guidance and listen to your heart!

Set the intention to find these people in your life, then pay attention to the signs you get that will lead you in finding your support group.

For a long time, society has encouraged us to "go with the program" without question, but often doing so goes against what our heart and inner guidance tells us is right for ourselves.  Intuition is a gift from God, it is the voice of our soul.   You are giving your child a very important gift by nurturing, encouraging, and protecting her intuition.  You are helping her look within for her truth, regardless of what others tell her.  By nurturing your child's intuition, you are empowering her from within!  You are empowering her to be true to herself!

By Dumari Dancoes, ATP

Last Revised: Septemer 2004

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