You finally sit down to what seems like your first quiet cup of coffee for the year, the house is quiet, the baby is finally asleep, the kids are all back at school and with that realization, you let out a sigh of relief. The summer holidays were great - with quality family time together, some adventures, some moments you’d all rather forget, perhaps blood was drawn! But the new school year brings the smell of clean, mite free hair and renewed hope for a settled and productive school year for all. You deserve a medal of motherhood for making it through another summer. Perhaps, you will even miss them.
Letting out a deep sigh, a friend recently said, "fatherhood is hard. We all know motherhood is hard," he continued, "but fatherhood is hard too."I really heard that. We don’t give the dads enough credit. I would like to acknowledge the men in our lives who hold the structure of the masculine, of the family and who in many cases also bear the greater financial load. Raising teens is difficult for all of us. Mothers get emotionally sidelined as our teens fight us off to discover new tribes across the way, but father’s often get completely frozen out, sometimes for decades. It’s often easier for dads to relate to the younger children in the family, who still simply want to play. Men often don’t know how to relate to their sulky teenage daughters revealing too much skin and attitude, or to their angry teenage sons who are establishing and struggling with their own power balance, and the confrontations can be isolating and disconcerting.
The remedies homeopathy offers are not only for the kids going back to school but also for the parents. For exhausted moms and overburdened dads, and of course for kids who are not completely relaxed or confident or interested in going back to school, and why should they be? This is often the time parents call for a consultation, once the new year has started and the dust has settled, and finally you have time to organize your thoughts and get on top things.
How Does it Work?
I generally start a homeopathic consultation with questions about family predispositions. This gives me an idea of imprints in family systems, such as allergies or mental health issues. Later this will be useful if I encounter some resistance to a well selected remedy or series of remedies. This imprint can be cleared with a remedy that matches the family predisposition such as Tuberculinum, when there has been a history of lung disease, asthma or allergies in the family line. Then I ask about the mother’s pregnancy and the child’s birth and medications the mother may have taken prior to the pregnancy and birth. I ask about the child’s medical history, milestones and medications including vaccination and antibiotic history.
And then I ask you to tell me about yourself or your child. What do you or they like to do, to eat, to wear. Are they hot or cold, adventurous or quiet, do they have a large circle of friends, are they afraid of the dark? Are they thirsty or can they go the whole day without drinking? Are they clingy and attached or fiercely independent, do they like salt? How is their bowel motion? How do they sleep? How is their confidence? Are they climbers, are they jealous, or overly responsible? Are they highly intelligent with little patience or sensitive and sympathetic?
And then we look at symptoms. Why are you here, and what are you hoping to solve? And these can be physical symptoms such as a tendency to sprain her ankles easily, eczema or recurrent ear infections. Or they can be emotional or nurological symptoms such as a lack of confidence or a tendency to bully or violent outbursts and tantrums or compulsive behaviors and inflexibility. Often, they are both, which helps me build a more comprehensive picture.
And then we try get to the root cause. Did something happen around the time you started to feel touched out? Perhaps you had another baby while you were still nursing the first, or perhaps your partner started a new job, or perhaps you moved away from your support system. What may have triggered your child’s outbursts? Were they vaccinated, did they have Strep, was it treated with antibiotics? How is their gut health?
And with all this information, I build a picture of a homeopathic remedy that best matches the description of you or your child. And then I decide on potency, depending on the state of health and the state of pathology. Sometimes, like in the case of eczema, we don’t want to go in too strong with a low a potency or in the case of the old and frail, a high potency may not resonate. So there are many factors that influence my decision about how much and how often and how high or low a potency I give. And then we watch and see how the organism responds to the remedy….
Often, I don’t hear back from parents after working with their children quite extensively for months. And then I get a message about a different child in the family with an attached note saying, Sara is doing really well. She’s so much better and maturing beautifully, and that’s when I know, the remedy was good. It takes time to fine tune the remedy or sequence of remedies but once we get it right, you see a strengthening, a calmness, an integration and a wonderful happy and balanced child emerging.
But back to, Back to school….
Now that the kids are back at school, take some time to assess how you are feeling. Maybe you need a treatment or a massage. Maybe this is the time to start therpay or go see your acupuncturist. I recommend everyone in the household dose up on vitamin C for the first few weeks of the year, during changes of seasons and during times of general stress on the family. A wedding, a new baby, having family come stay or a trip away, are stressful occasions. Not because they are necessarily difficult but because they interrupt or disturb the natural rhythms of family life. And this alone can create stress on the psyche or the body of an individual. I also recommend a daily dose of zinc, an essential mineral sorely lacking in most of our food and essential for brain and cell health. And if there’s tension in the body, magnesium in the form of either a supplement or Epsom salt baths, which can do wonders to encourage relaxed sleep and to calm the nervous system.
Your Daily Practice
Often we set time for morning prayers or intentions for the day. Now is the time to also set up positive health practices for the body. A morning walk, jog, yoga or Tai Chi, a weekly dance class or racket ball game can be essential for mental and emotional health. And for our creative and social lives, perhaps a drawing class, dinner with girlfriends, a shiur (class in philosophy or religion), meditation, breathwork and a healthy eating plan to help establish a smooth entry into the new school year.
Wishing you all a great year !
Some Different Types of Magnesium
Glycinate – calming, chelating (detoxing), good for sleep.
Sulphate - good for sore muscles, found in Epsom salt.
Threonate – supports memory, anxiety, brain health.
Citrate – for constipation, bowel regulation.
Oxide – the cheapest but not the most bioavailable, good for sports in small doses throughout the day, heartburn, and indigestion.
Note : Any references to homeoepthic medicines in this article are purely literary references and not recommendations. Homeopathy doesn't work that way. Please consult a qualified homeopath before taking any homeopathic remedies.
Rebecca Bermeister is a certified Classical Homeopath available for online consultations or treatments from her home clinic in Pardes Chanah, Israel.
She can be reached via her webpage www.rebhomeopath.com
email - rebhomeopath@gmail.com
Whatsapp - +972(0)547793606
and Homeopathy for Acute Family Care may be purchased here.
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