Dealing with Childhood Emotions: The Locational Assist
A major part of the skill of parenting young kids ends up being able to successfully work with and deal with their emotional ups and downs. One of my very favorite Scientology tools for this, which is shocking in both its simplicity as well as its near-magical effectiveness, is called the Locational Assist.
An “Assist” is a simple process or procedure that can be used to relieve upset, physical pain or discomfort. In this case, the Locational Assist is used to bring someone’s attention back to the environment, as opposed to being concentrated on an injury or upset.
Let me give you a recent example of this in action from this evening, when I went out sledding with my 4 year old.
We were going down the hill as the sun started to set and I noticed that my son started to get a bit banged up the more we stayed out. I have noticed when he begins to get tired or hungry, he is apt to get small injuries more often and get extra upset about them. He bonked his head on one trip down the hill. After that, while doing the last sledding run of the day, he got hit in the face. Tears were flowing. I knew it was getting to be dinner time and I had a kid about to go into full-on meltdown mode.
I picked him up as he was crying and sniffling and walked over to a brick wall and had him look at it. Then I pointed out some twinkling lights on a home in the distance and he protested “I don’t want to look at the lights” having already glanced up at them.
“I understand” and I said and carried on. “Look at that tree” I said.
Henry reached out and with a triumphant scream punched a clump of snow out of the center of the tree branches and started giggling.
Happiness was restored and we were able to head home without any more upset.
It really changed his emotional state completely with just 3 commands.
This simple tool can really save a parent from being the effect of these big emotions that kids can get into sometimes.
The Locational Assist is one of a host of various tools that you can learn about on the free on-line course available here.