The Centering Book: Awareness Activities for Children and Adults to Relax the Body and Mind

This book focuses on the techniques used by the Senoi Indians to develop full human potential through dream therapy and meditation techniques. As the preface promises, this tiny book provides the simple but powerful "core of a curriculum to develop affective, intuitive, and creative processes in students." Educational research has proven that human beings learn only what they can connect with an emotional state, that is, with a memory. Unless we are able to "peg" a new idea on something familiar, it does not make sense to us, and will, even if memorized, pass out of our short-term memory into immediate oblivion. Children learn best and fastest. Why? I have been told all my life that it is because the human brain develops faster before the age of two than at any other age. Human potential speaker Brian Tracy talks about the fact that all the necessary "don'ts" that parents must say to their children ultimately curb not only their unhealthy curiosity but unfortunately much of their healthy curiosity--and their concurrent free association method of learning. I definitely think the fact that children use a multisensory approach to learning is the reason that they learn so well. They sing, dance, draw, and act out every new concept until they understand it relative to their own world--unless told "don't" by a concerned or busy parent.Often if a child does not have enough information to develop an idea to their satisfaction, they will initiate a persistent "why" campaign in an effort to get any available "big" person to give them the information they need to understand what eludes them. Until another new idea distracts them, that is. However, sometimes the interruption provides just the right idea that helps the searched for concept to click at last. Creativity is, after all, defined as the juxtaposition of two unlike things in a new way that reveals a previously unseen aspect of one or both of the two unlike things. What if we taught children how to learn rather than teaching them what we want them to know? Children are inherently curious and voracious learners unless stunted by external circumstances. This book gives specific exercises for developing skills that help children approach their lives with the perspective of an active learner. If I had known what a jewel this book is when I first bought it at a book clearing house, I would have--1. Bought more than one copy of it.2. Recommended it to others while it was still possibly in print.If you teach or work with people, this is a great book to find and read. If you are interested in dream therapy, this is a great start. Instead of translating specific images, it teaches the reader to continue, lead, use, and interact successfully with their dreams. To the authors: please reprint this book!