Question

I'd just like to add on to the question that was asked about a daughter who's angry and misbehaves. What happens if the child continues to throw tantrums? Because when the child is alright, it's fine, but when his emotion gets over top him, he gets very unreasonable and very stubborn and refuses to listen to any explanation at all and as much as the parents like to understand the anger and try to put down the anger, he starts to pour oil onto the fire again and he starts to boil up again the parents. So how do you react to such a situation where the child has this continuous sort of anger or sort of emotional stuff?

Answer

Sometimes our retreatants throw their own tantrums, if you want to call it that. They get lost in what we call a Multiple Hindrance Attack; they're going a bit crazy. What Steve or I will do at that time is ask them to feel their body, bring their attention to their body, feel the feet. We'll ask them to feel each part of their body, and by the time we get through doing that, usually the hindrance has gone away. If you can encourage the child just to feel, get them back to their body, without trying to explain anything intellectually, tell them to stop or anything, but just try and bring them back to the body, maybe it'll work for the child, too. It certainly works for retreatants who are having tantrums, so hopefully it'll work for the child, too. Some children are very difficult, but if you fall into the tantrum with them, it's not going to help anybody. If one person is suffering, try not to add yourself to it. And by being more focused, perhaps you'll understand what to do then.

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