|
Alex
Telman Please Note:
|
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is an Energy Disorderby James Hyman In order to write about ADD, I must first address the prevalent perception of human behavior from the standpoint of western psychological dimensions. Specifically, the classification of aberrant behavior, in children as well as adults. In my work with deep emotional release therapy, I often work with people who were labeled with ADD, either as children or as adults. In the 50’s and 60’s, there was no classification known as ADD. Back then, in more archaic times, a child who today would be classified as hyperactive or ADD, would have been seen as problematic, a difficult child in the classroom, or just a slow learner. My path of study has taken me through shamanism, eastern and western metaphysics, yoga, Chinese and Tibetan martial arts, and various healing systems. When I began my studies in these areas, my interest level was so high, that for the first time in my life, I experienced none of the difficulty in concentrating I had during childhood. I began to look back on my entire education in the school system, and realized that I had been programmed to think of myself as average. In reality, as a child, I had very little interest in what I was being forced to learn, and in the methods of learning that were available to me. Currently, as I work with the Deep Emotional Release Bodywork, numerous people have come to me who have been labeled ADD, or their children have. Some people, who have not been officially labeled, also tell the same story: As children, sometimes they seemed to have a great deal of difficulty concentrating; or focusing their attention. As they begin to tell bits and pieces of their story, a similar theme appears. In school, or at home, they did not have much interest in what they were being taught They had a feeling of being different and not being able to “get it.” At the same time, they had a tendency to be very curious about many things. It is this intense interest in knowing things that resulted in the the mind moving too quickly from one thing to another. They were not empowered for this extensive curiosity In working with the childhood issues of almost everybody who I have seen in my twenty year practice of Deep Emotional Release Bodywork, this theme arises continuously in all of us. As children, when we enter into school in the early years, we have an incredible amount of energy, or life force available to us. Our main interest in life is play, not school. Children have a natural love for learning, but most have to be broken in to the routine of school. Who among us doesn’t remember feeling scared and frightened, at least once during the early grades. For many of us, the first day of school stands out as one of the most traumatic days of our lives. We’ve all experienced playground trauma. The one time in our lives when we were humiliated, hurt, or forced to bear the brunt of the cruelty of children, or even of teachers. Many of us, even the ones who were considered the most popular, have the memory, at least sometimes, of feeling alone, not good enough, and like the whole world was against us. This was part of growing up. As they prepare us for the nine to five, it can be traumatic. The ones who experience the least childhood trauma, are the ones who fit in the best. The socialization process evolves, as we grow up, going from grade to grade. More and more, we are trained to physically sit still in a chair; behind a desk for hours; rewarded with maybe fifteen to twenty minute play periods. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and maybe some time at lunch. This to rid ourselves, through intensified play, of excess energy, so that again we can go back to the classroom, sit still and pay attention. Isn’t it possible, that some children have an extreme amount of physical and mental energy that our school system, since it tends to strive towards homogeneity of ideas and behavior, has never understood. What would have happened to some of these children, had they been allowed to let the energy carry them wherever it needed to go, until it found it’s natural resting place. There, their attention, like a butterfly, would alight. What I have found in my experience with ADD, is the healing of this process begins when the child releases the emotional charge or frustration of the pent up energy. For the child this means an opportunity to begin to view themselves not from a negative self-defeating and painful image, but to connect with their internal energy as the root of absolute creativity. The adult caretaker will also experience the same sense of upliftment, that they are not dealing with a problem, but with a puzzle or riddle that begs to be solved through the relationship of understanding between parent and child. We are living in a time of dramatic evolution in consciousness
and our children, in their raw form, may be much more highly evolved
than we are. By seeing them from the different perspective of their
unique possibilities, and not enclosing them in an archaic framework
of psychological definitions and limitations, we let them carve
out their individual path of learning. By admitting that we do not
understand it, they will assist us in our growth process by teaching
us what they need to know.
|
|
|