I’m extremely happy to be taking part in Dr Sue Morter’s year-long course called Live Awake. I’ve printed out the first part of the workbook, and I love browsing through its beautiful pictures. One of the techniques she teaches is about concentrating on the subject—the Self—instead of the object, which can be a person, thing, event, or anything “outside” of us.

For the past few weeks, Marcel (6 years old) and Aliya (4 years old) have been shouting at each other during arguments several times a day. Sometimes, it gets so bad that there’s kicking and hitting involved. Today, when Marcel started shouting at Aliya, I asked him if he would like to see what happens to his energy field when he does that. He agreed. His eyes widened when he saw the illustration of a person who throws all their energy onto the object and has a very thin energy field around them.

“This is what happens to your field when you shout at Aliya,” I said.

Then I pointed to another illustration of a person who concentrates on the subject and has a big and strong energy field.

“This is what happens when you go within, let yourself feel the feelings in your body, and ideally, belly breathe.”

“Does Aliya have such a little energy field when I shout as well?” he asked.

“If she shouts back, then yes.” I answered.

After our conversation, every time I raised my voice even a little bit, Marcel reminded me that my energy field was shrinking!

We went outside for a few hours, and when we got back, I came into the kitchen where all three of them were sitting by the table. It was quiet, and I saw them breathing deeply into their bellies. Then Marcel started giving Aliya more instructions on breathing.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Aliya just said something which wasn’t nice, so I taught her how to breathe because she didn’t know how.” Marcel replied calmly.