Meditacare. Small meditations for major ailments in children: Professor Tu-Anh Tran

- through Sophie Solere

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This manual of care through meditation presents twenty clinical cases and fourteen simple meditations allowing children to reduce their symptoms, better control their emotions and acquire greater self-confidence.

Tics, attention disorders, eating disorders, anxieties, school difficulties, insomnia, chronic pain, phobias, chronic and autoimmune diseases, asthma... For ten years, Professor Tu-Anh Tran, pediatrician for 25 years, and head of department at the University Hospital of Nîmes, relieves and often cures, through the practice of meditation, many of the ailments that affect his young patients. In order for the greatest number of children and adolescents to benefit from his method, in the fall of 2019 he published a practical manual entitled Meditacare. Small meditations for the great ailments of the child, accompanied by a downloadable audio version. “I have seen scattered children come to calmness with conscious breathing. I have seen sick children gain inner peace. Children who previously banged their heads against the walls to vent their anger and anguish, now take their steps delicately to the rhythm of their breath and smile as they walk," he writes in the introduction to his book, which is articulated in two stages. The first part presents the stories, the minor and major ailments of around twenty patients, indicating, each time, what their diagnosis was and the therapies to be prescribed. To Gaétan, 15 years old, intelligent and hardworking, an anxious schoolboy who loses all his means as soon as a teacher asks him a question, he offers to use what he calls an "SOS emergency kit" which aims to help the adolescent to quickly find peace in moments of crisis. To nine-year-old Salim, who suffers from phobias, he offers to practice a meditation which he baptized Méditabrave consisting in imagining the situation generating the phobia and living it to the end while remaining aware of its sensations. "This experience helps to defuse the phobia," he says. Ten-year-old Ilan, who has lived with asthma since he was little, is learning deep relaxation. He encourages him to practice the body scan technique, renamed Méditatscan, emphasizing the lungs, the most fragile organ in him, sending him tenderness based on another exercise called Méditatendre.

live more intensely

In the second part of the manual, Professor Tran explains with great precision ten meditation exercises, inspired by Buddhist and Christian spiritual traditions. Each exercise is accompanied by advice and explanations on how each meditation it prescribes works.
When a child asks him why he is sick, Professor Tran most often replies: “I don't know why. All I know is that you can use this disadvantage to your advantage, by becoming aware of your body and mind. From there, you can live every moment of your life in full consciousness, take advantage of every precious moment to live it intensely, ”he points out in the epilogue of the book.

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Sophie Solere

Sophie Solère is an economic and social journalist who has been interested for years in the environment and interdependence. She works for Buddhist News, a media platform dedicated to Buddhist spirituality and wisdom. By practicing yoga and meditative dance, Sophie discovered the power of spiritual journeys, which offer so many paths to (re)find yourself. She is dedicated to sharing inspiring stories and valuable advice on spiritual practice and the environment with Buddhist News readers.

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