Our young ones are not feeling good. That’s the conclusion of studies conducted by Dr. Gayle Kimball including over 4,000 youth in 88 countries. She has written several books and developed spiritual tools to help kids and teenagers with mental health. Gayle participated in a ConnectIONS Live webinar which you can watch at the IONS member portal in its entirety.
Why spiritual tools are needed for young people
Around 10 minutes in, Gayle shares that “the youth anxiety epidemic requires psi tools.” The numbers are alarming: according to a 2023 CDC report on Youth Risk Behavior, 57% of high school girls felt persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, almost twice as much as the 29% for boys. As many as 13% of young girls had attempted suicide.
“Young people are telling us that they are in crisis”, concluded Dr. Kathleen Ehtier.
Why do we see this rise? The isolation during COVID plays a central role – as does the harms of social media. Gayle’s interviews with global youth focus on pressure to succeed and worry about the planetary future. Sleep deprivation is common (80%), and tied to social media.
Gayle spots another problem: No one is sitting down and talking to teenagers – they’re just handed questionnaires. To amend this, Gayle highlights the importance of conversation for mental health: lecturing or telling our kids what to do isn’t effective. It’s better to explain with stories and ask questions, then listen without judgment.
Healing of mental health problems through psi and subtle energy
So how do we talk to our young ones about the solutions to mental health problems? Gayle covers some fundamental information that can help adults share about psi solutions to mental health issues, and explain the underlying science in a way that will make even skeptical teenagers listen attentively.
She starts by explaining how we can facilitate the healing of mental health problems through psi and subtle energy. Physics has shown that mind influences matter. Simply observing something can change its state, as demonstrated in the famous double-slit experiment. Everything is waves and vibrations – this is why energy healing works.
More precisely: When energy moves in coherent waves, it creates resonance. HeartMath Institute has shown that we are influenced by the Earth’s and the sun’s magnetic resonance activity. And as our mental state is, in essence, nothing but energy, it makes sense that we can use energy to balance it.
And it’s a two-way relationship: we feed the Earth’s “info field”, hopefully with heart-centered coherence. This state of heart-centered coherence can be achieved by meditating with heart focus. Meditating with heart-focus is one of the techniques suggested for healing, especially for older children and teens.
Gayle explains this about 21 minutes into the video. You can teach children the following steps to experience heart coherence:
- Imagine breathing through your heart.
- Focus on a time when you felt great appreciation/gratitude/love.
- Listen to your heart. If you have a question, you will get the answer.
Energy anatomy and some remarkable cases of healing through psi
Gayle also shares some mind-blowing anecdotes by scientist Bill Bengston, who has cured mice and humans with stage 4 cancer with resonance and information. To do so, he used his “cycling technique”, which can be transmitted to water. In short: he thinks of at least 20 things he wants in the future, and then conveys the information to the patient’s information field. This method has also been used at hospitals for treating COVID patients. Those who received the healing water did much better than the control group.
Gayle also suggests explaining our subtle energy anatomy to children, the part of our anatomy they forgot to teach us in school. There’s evidence for biofields/auras, chakras, meridians, and nadis. We can work with these parts of our energy bodies to increase wellbeing.
About 25 minutes in, she shares how we can also work with our aura to feel better, for example, before an important test.
For skeptical teenagers, she speaks about evidence of the power of thought and intention. Some examples mentioned are how one patient with Dissociative Identity Disorder can have different diseases and reactions in their different personas.
There are also famous experiments showing muscle growth simply by imagining working out. Another remarkable experiment showed that tea, wine, and chocolate were voted as tasting better when they had been sent positive intentions (experiments by IONS Dean Radin and Stephan Schwartz).
Calm Parents and Children: A Guidebook
Finally, Gayle shares some psi tools for resilience and stress reduction for youth from her book Calm Parents and Children: A Guidebook. Herself and various people have contributed to the compilation:
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- Soft belly breath: James Gordon (MD) shares a breathing technique to help calm anxiety. You inhale and imagine smelling roses, then exhale while imagining blowing out a candle.
- Shaking, dancing, drawing your feelings, and spending time in nature are other stress-reducing practices he shared.
- Brain gym: Any movements that cross the body’s midline help balance the two brain hemispheres. Gayle also shares a self-hug that calms nerves and can be done among people without drawing attention: Place one hand in the opposite armpit, and let the other hand grab the opposite arm. Hold for some moments, then switch. This is a good exercise for kids who are stressed, for example, during a test.
- Yoga can be done by children or teenagers.
- EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or tapping means tapping on certain acupressure points that relax the nervous system. For even better results, it can be done in group.
- Ho’oponopono is a Hawaiian forgiveness practice. In its fullness, it is a ritual used to heal family relationships. Modern interpretations include the mantra “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” Saying this mantra alone can be powerful in releasing grudges and rekindling relationships.
- Daily gratitude journal (suggested by Prof. Robt Emmons) helps see life through a more positive lens. It consists of writing down a few things you’re grateful for each day. With a daily gratitude practice, we attune the retinal activating system, the filter through which we perceive reality, to look for the good in everything.
- Make a vision board or movie about your desired future.
- Do a kind act daily. Kind acts help reduce depression! These acts can be discussed at the dinner table. Gayle suggests taking turns listening to each member of your household.
- Limit social media and isolation.
- Use energy tools and exercises for kids to ground, center, energize, build boundaries, and healing. For example, for energizing, you can imagine a gold sun that you’re stepping into.
Through spiritual and energy healing techniques, young people can feel empowered to balance their own state of being, without always needing something external. Spiritual tools can help young people alleviate stress and anxiety by helping them feel a connection to something bigger. A comforting feeling in today’s disconnected world!
We are pleased to share the following resources mentioned in the ConnectIONS Live webinar:
- Gayle is writing a book about how families apply world religions. If you have any nominations of interviewees, please contact gkimball@csuchico.edu
- Powerpoint from Presentation
- Web resources for parents and children
- Books: Calm Parents and Children, Answers to Kids’ Keep Questions in Photos, CD “Mind Power for Kids”
- Parenting Skills video
- Cosmic Kids Yoga
- Mindfulness and Relaxation Books for Kids
- The Five Elements for Children
- Strategies to manage screen time with kids
- The Seven Spiritual Laws for Parents, Deepak Chopra
- Just Breathe: Meditation, Mindfulness, Movement, and More, Mallika Chopra
- Find Your Calm: A Mindful Approach To Relieve Anxiety And Grow Your Bravery, Gabi Garcia
- The Mindful Child and Mindful Games, Susan Kaiser Greenland
- Anxious Kids Anxious Parents, Reid Wilson and Lynn Lyons
- Transforming Stress for Teens, Rollin McCraty, et al.
- The Spiritual Child, Lisa Miller
- Reiki Meditation Children’s Manual, Angela Newman
- Meditation for Children, Deborah Rozman
- Sitting Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids, Elaine Snell
- Imagine Meditation Cards for Kids – Award-Winning Mindfulness kit of XL Cards with Calming Guided Meditations for Empowerment, Focus and Relaxation
- Mindfulness Moments for Kids, Kira Willey and Anni Betts
- The 5 Love Languages for Children, Chapman & Campbell
- How to Talk So Children Will Listen and Listen So Children Will Talk, Farber & Mazllish
