Where the Rainbow ends E-Book

Kirsten Schwörer

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 78

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Kirsten Schwörer was born on March 26, 1970 in Darmstadt. She spent her childhood and youth in Darmstadt, Rio de Janeiro, Iserlohn and Berlin, where she had gained much insight and collected many ideas on the diversity of people, cultures and religions and their convictions, and learned how to be open to anything that is new or different. Since the birth of her first child in 2001, she became in-creasingly involved in spirituality, alternative methods of healing, ancient knowledge and the forces of natures, and completed a number of courses in these areas. This included intense training to become a spiritual energetic healer, as well as Reiki Master training. At the end of 2014, she founded her energetic healing practice. In 2015, she started cooperation with a day care center on a voluntary basis and led children aged three to six through the dream trips presented in this book along with suggestions and background information. The fantastic stories in this book are illustrated and do address our various senses. Regardless, if meeting a sympatric elf, swimming with a dolphin to visit a magical secret underwater-village or realizing that a dark old forest suddenly turns into a glamorous cathedral: reading or listening to the stories creates a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere. The listener or reader - regardless if child or adult - calms down, relaxes and is able to find strength and tranquility in body, soul and mind.

Leseprobe

Kirsten Schwörer

Where the

Rainbow ends

Whimsical Dreamland Stories forthe Young and the Young atHeart

Kirsten Schwörer

Where the Rainbow ends

Whimsical Dreamland Stories for the Young and the Youngat Heart

Bibliographical information of the German National Library

The German National Library lists this publication in the GermanNational Bibliography: detailed bibliographical data is availableonline at www.dnb.de.

Copyright © 2018 Kirsten Schwörer

This work, including all of its parts, is protected by copyright. Anykind of use outside the limits of copyright law without the consentof the author is strictly prohibited and punishable by law.

Cover design:

Kirsten Schwörer

Cover motif:

Watercolor by Kirsten Schwörer

Illustrations:

Ink drawings:

Kirsten Schwörer

Typesetting and

Production:

tredition GmbH

Halenreie 40-44

22359 Hamburg

Translation:

Mark Ordon/A.M.TRANS Übersetzungen

Angelika Meyer

ISBN 978-3-7439-8834-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-3-7345-1237-7 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-3-7345-1238-4 (e-Book)

1st completely revised edition 2018

In memory of my teacherand great philanthropistFrans Janssen.

Contents

Preface

Tips to prepare a beautiful dream trip experience

Create space

Introduction to the story

Conclusion

Fantasy journeys and dream trips

Your Friend, the Water Elf

The Tree Palace

A Walk along the Sea

The Lake of Happiness

Encounter under the Old Tree

A Trip with the Dolphin

Encounter in the Winter Forest

The Night Walk

Close to the Sky

Your Place under the Tree

Your Big Dragon Friend

The Magic Crystal

Special elements in my dream trips

Experiencing Nature: Water, Meadows and Forests

The Effects of Color

Creatures from Other Dimensions

To wrap up on a good note

Acknowledgments

About the author

Preface

I have neither an education in psychology in a classic sense, nor am I a trained educator. Yet over the past few years, during my encounters with children and teenagers, it had struck me again and again how little time and space we as adults give our children to find peace and relaxation.

Rushing from appointment to appointment, the schedules of many kids today are packed fuller than that of a high-profile manager. It’s therefore no wonder that not only attentiondeficit disorders, poor concentration or behavioral problems can be observed in children, but even disorders like depression or burn-out syndrome are occurring ever more frequently.

My children were lucky. Their parents and grandparents, along with their social and school environment attached great importance to the fact that children not only need to perform, but also need to be able to pull back, find peace on their own or in a group, and consciously and actively relax.

I have already experienced a lot in my life, and have lived in the countryside, in a small village, as well as in big cities. I noticed that finding the time to relax is not a high priority in many places. Generally speaking, I see that people in big cities are more hectic, imbalanced and “scheduled” that in the countryside, where people are more at leisure.

What had worked for my children in times when there was a lot of hustle and bustle around them was to log off and relax with the help of dream trips or fantasy journeys. For the most part, we would read stories out loud in the evening or listen to stories as audio plays, for example.

Children generally find it attractive and exciting to listen to a story, and so the desire grew in me to share my stories and experiences, which I had up till now collected for myself, with others.

I began to look into opportunities, the ways and places where I could tell these stories. My intuition told me to call one of my neighborhood preschools and offer my dream trips on a voluntary basis. You can call it a coincidence, but I think it was providence: at this very preschool there was a person who had worked on meditative exercises and relaxation techniques with children, but had been out sick for some time. After a short interview, it quickly became clear that I would fit into the team well, and since then, once a week, I’ve been happily working at the preschool with two groups of up to eight children and sharing my own fantasy journeys with them.

Even a few of the teachers join in the fun now and then, and let themselves be swept away into a dream world, where the hectic rush, pressure, anxiety, stress, the demand to perform, etc., do not exist.

At the beginning, I would use texts of other authors as an aid, but I quickly realized that I wanted to add my own personal touch and started to write my own stories. It made things feel much more harmonious for me as well during the exercises with the kids.

It was a beautiful moment when I could experience how the stories just gushed out of me. To make sure that the numerous ideas and concepts which flowed into the dream sentences did not get lost, I wrote them all down. And very soon, the idea for this book was born.

In addition to the stories themselves, I also included a few tips in this little book, which came from my experience with preschoolers and my own children, along with an explanation of the typical elements used in my dream trips. I hope that they will prove helpful for anybody who would like to work with children in a similar manner.

I wish my readers (both those reading to themselves and out loud) and listeners lots of fun and relaxation with my dream and relaxation journeys.

Tips to prepare a beautiful dream trip experience

Create space

It would be very helpful to have a separate room available for such exercises. At the preschool, the gymnasium did the job perfectly - it’s a place where kids come together for special community activities.

I think it’s very important that such exercises are not conducted in the children’s usual environment, where there are many distractions. Rather you need a separate place, in which kids will learn little by little that this is where they are able and allowed to relax.

At home, you can emphasize the special mood of such a timeout by, for example, lighting a nice candle or incense. The normal light should be dimmed or completely switched off, and all phones switched to silent mode, so everybody knows that the next 30 to 45 minutes are reserved for me only!

At the preschool, we lay seats and thick mats next to each other in a star formation. The kids may bring along a fleece blanket so that they feel especially cuddly and cozy.

Introduction to the story

Once the kids have come together and already quieted down a bit, there are a few rules of the game which I always agree upon with my groups.

This includes for example, asking everybody to think if they don’t need to still go to the toilet before I start to tell my story.

When the kids are finally lying or sitting at their spots and have enough space around them so they don’t get in each other’s way, I ask them once more if they really want to listen to the story and if they are able to (and I know quite well from educators that they can) be very quiet when listening to the story and not chat with anybody. I look at every single child and ask for a confirmation: yes, I want to sit quietly and listen to the story!

Of course, now and again you will have one or two troublemakers, who just cannot stop whispering and chattering. I warn these kids once or twice with a silent request, yet ask them to be quiet as we had agreed. If that doesn’t work, I interrupt the story and ask the children to leave the room, while patiently and fondly explaining why.

So far, I have never had any of my story kids talk back or discuss when they had to leave the room. And the next time, in the following week, these very children would be especially quiet and attentive.

Yet another way, which has worked well for me to make sure that the flow of the story is not disturbed too much while I tell it is an agreement that if somebody realizes that he or she cannot sit or lie quietly and does not want not listen to the story anymore, he or she should get up and quietly leave the room so that other kids are not disturbed.

I then begin with my introductory words to the story. You will find these words at the beginning of every story:

Make yourself very comfortable …

stretch out really good…

breathe in deeply…and breathe out again…in one more time …and out…

You might still hear some noise in this room…or even coming from outside…but with each breath, the noise doesn’t matter anymore…and you already feel how calm you are… If you want, you can close your eyes…and take a deep breath one more time…and breathe out again…

If the children already have a certain routine to dive into dream trips, or if you have enough time, the introductory part can be somewhat intensified, for example with the following introduction:

Make yourself very comfortable …

stretch out really good …

breathe in deeply …

and breathe out again …

in one more time…and out…

and in one more time … and out again …