by Jayne Clarkson

Created on: May 26, 2009   Last Updated: December 10, 2009

The idea of applying spiritual to empower ourselves and our children, is an interesting one. When some people hear the term spiritual energy , they have a negative response. Many people have had negative experiences in their spiritual lives. There are many reasons for this. Maybe they  have grown up in a rigid , restrictive atmosphere.

 There may have been little tolerance of spiritual ideas. It could be that the idea of spirituality, has just been too confusing. In our modern society, we lead relatively secular lives . Yet it is possible, to find much comfort from our own individual sense of spirituality and for this to be transferred to our children.

There are of course many different strands of spirituality, from organised religion, to new age and belief in angels. The great difficulty often when encouraging youngsters in developing a spiritual life is to help them to understand what spirituality means. I am a Christian and taking Christianity as an example, it is often difficult for young people to understand the issues in a church environment.

The liturgy is often pretty high brow and difficult to understand.  Many youngsters get bored and just  switch off. The key is often to translate one key message into a form that young people can understand. Using props such as puppets, or plays and question sessions are useful. Kids are like the rest of us, issues are more easily understood when they can relate to them.

Speaking about spirituality in a more general sense, I think it is very helpful to children to understand, how many things considered spiritual are very inspiring and comforting. For example, the feeling of expansiveness when listening to music or witnessing a beautiful sunset.

 The very fact that a spiritual life is open to all of us is comforting and inspires confidence. Whatever our age or faith  , believer or non believer, any form of spirituality, involves a very visceral, instinctive reaction which does not need or even defies, explanation. Children are very open to  this. In fact the ability of children to take things on face value, which many  adults have lost , gives them a great advantage .

Finally, I think meditation and prayer, are very simple but powerful techniques in a spiritual life. Again , they don't have to be denominational. The meditational technique of breath counting ( counting up to four on the in breath) is available to anyone, whatever their age.

 It teaches you how to make peace with yourself over time and garners a little head space. Many people pray as it is, finding it both a comfort and confidence booster. Allowing yourself to pass your burdens on to a divinity or outside power is very liberating and often allows people to let things go and move on.

In our very complicated modern world, there is often a great need for escape. I believe that adherence to any of these techniques can aid both this and our development as people, whatever our age.

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