How Energy Healing, Like Reiki, Can Be Helpful For Children

Episode Transcript

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

Hi everyone, welcome to the show. I’m Dr. Nicole, and on today’s episode we’re talking about energy healing, spirituality, and a particular healing modality called Reiki. We’re going to delve into what Reiki is, how it can be helpful for children and really everyone in the family, along with how energy healing can combine with nutrition and other approaches to benefit kids and families, both physically and mentally. I’m really excited to have this conversation with my friend and colleague Serena Poon, who I know you’re going to love. Her energy and enthusiasm for this is just amazing, and I’ve been so excited to have this conversation today. So let me tell you a little bit about her.

She is a nutritional energy practitioner who fuses her expertise as a celebrity chef, holistic nutritionist and Reiki Master to serve her A-list clientele from the likes of Jerry Bruckheimer to Kerry Washington and many more. Serena Loves was launched in 2019, a lifestyle brand blog and TV show that encompasses all the pillars of optimal health and well-being. This is achieved through her method of culinary alchemy, which is a combination of education, integrative and functional nutrition, and healing energy. She is also the founder of Just Add Water, a wellness line of super nutrient foods and supplements. Serena is also just an amazing person with a wealth of experience and a heart and a passion to support all of us on our journey towards better health, and so I’m so glad to have you here today. Welcome, Serena! 

Serena Poon:

Thank you so much. And thank you for just a beautiful welcome, and thank you for having me. I’m so excited to dive into all of this with you and your audience. So yay! Thank you!

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

I’d love to start out — You have a really interesting story and journey as a healer, as a nutrition practitioner. I’d love to just start out by having you share: How did you get to this point of these different sorts of modalities and things merging together into the kind of work that you do today?

Serena Poon: 

Sometimes people sort of hear my background and they’re like, “Wait, she’s a chef nutritionist. I get that. But she also is a Reiki Master.” So I actually dove into health and wellness because of my parents. Both my parents had cancer at a very, very young age. They were both in their 40’s. Our daddy transitioned, and our mom is still with us. She was diagnosed two months after he passed. But it was their experience at such a young age that had me start diving into nutrition. I studied nutrition in college because I was interested, because I love to eat, really, and I just love food. But I was there to be an attorney. So I was pre-law, political science, but had a love for food. So I just wanted to know what was in it. But when my parents got sick, I really started to dive into plants and herbs and things sort of outside of the wheelhouse of our doctors. What we were guided and told to eat was definitely not what I guide and tell clients to do today. It was very, very basic, very fundamental, and quite honestly, very limited. So that’s when I started to dive into it. My parents both did Diagnostic Care, they did chemo and radiation, but they also did Chinese Teas. So just using traditional Chinese medicine, they drank these teas. So after my mom finished her treatment, I decided to go to culinary school instead of law school, to study the culinary arts to really understand how I could use food as medicine, but in a way that really nurtured us. It more than fed our body. It fed our senses, it fed our hearts. And so that’s what I did. I went to culinary school, studied more nutrition and continued. To this day, I’m still always constantly learning and studying. 

I’m in the process of being a caretaker, which I think a lot of your audience can relate to, whether you are parents, and I feel like most people listening are, or you’re care-taking for someone that you love. We so often leave ourselves out of that priority list. And it’s very natural, because you’re really focused on someone that you love, you’re really focused on making sure that they feel well, that they’re happy, that they’re healthy, and you forget that you’re a part of that equation. So I did that, and so in that process of care-taking for my parents and then for other people after that, I ended up having a lot of health issues of my own. I had just created so much inflammation in my own body, that I had to have surgery, and that removed some damaged tissue. In that surgery, I got MRSA, which is a deadly staph infection, and then that kind of became my health journey for the next several years. Multiple surgeries to try and get this infection, this bacteria out of my body. In that process — I was doing everything right, physically. I was doing everything right. I knew what to do with my body and nutrition-wise, but I was still kind of grappling with this healing journey and this infection. Then I started to work with an energy practitioner. She was a master, really, and committed as you do with the gym. So some of us can get ourselves to do 30 minutes to an hour of exercise every day, but we might not have a mindful practice, which might be meditation. We might not be serving what I call the energetic body, which still makes up all of us. So I committed to working with her on a regular basis, and that really started my path towards spirituality, towards mindfulness, meditation, and what led me to study Reiki. So she didn’t practice Reiki, she sort of just had her own, the “Noelle Way” to teach me everything that she knew, which was amazing but very overwhelming. I felt that I needed structure, so I studied Reiki. We’ll dive into Reiki in just a minute, but it was just the modality that I chose to really understand energy work. And so I learned that combination of something tangible, like our food, or supplements, tangible activities with energy work, and really addressing the energetic body and speaking up, that’s what really gives you optimal healing and optimal health and wellness. So that’s kind of how it all came together. Sounds at first, like it’s all over, but then when you hear the journey, it’s like it was actually quite organic how that all came together.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

Well, that’s why I wanted you to share the story, because I think it is so fascinating how everybody’s different personal experiences and experiences with their schooling, and what they delve into, how it all does come together into this amazing sort of fused approach, and you bring so many of these important pieces. I know that some listeners are familiar when we say things like energy, energy healing. Some are familiar with that. Some are going, “I feel like maybe I’ve heard that. Is that kind of a woo-woo thing?”, and then some are like, “I have no idea what you’re talking about right now.” So let’s delve into that to help give people a foundation around that. What are we really talking about, when you’re talking about this energy in the body, when you’re talking about Reiki, energy healing —What are we really talking about there?

Serena Poon: 

Okay, great. So I’ll just be really basic about it, in case there are people who have no idea. So Reiki, essentially, is a healing art. It’s a practice, and the roots of it are from Japan. Japanese origins. Basically, the word “Reiki” means universal life. So “Rei” is universal life, and “ki” means energy. So “Reiki” altogether is universal life energy. What we’re essentially doing when there’s a practitioner that’s working with Reiki, what’s happening is the person is almost — and you do have to have an open mind and be open to the notion that everything is energy. Everything in the universe is energy, and there is science to prove that. So you’re essentially almost like a conduit. You’re almost like a channel, and you’re connecting, intentionally, to that universal energy, and you’re directing that energy to a person, a place a thing, somewhere where there needs to be, or there needs flow — if there is something blocked, if there’s a healing, if there is an injury, a wound, an area that needs support, or flow. So conceptually, it might be kind of hard to understand what that means, and typically, with Reiki, what we’re doing is we’re working with the chakras. Some people don’t know what a chakra is. The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit language, and it basically means circle or wheel. Throughout our body — and this is with our Ayurvedic practices, say like Chinese medicine, there’s a belief if you know what Chi is — So chi, prana, you’ve probably heard these words before —  Chi, prana, life energy, reiki, it’s all kind of the same thing. The chakras, there are more than just seven, we kind of just focus on seven because that’s the basic seven, but there’s more than seven. The seven main chakras are these energy centers that are in alignment with our organ systems. So from the base of our spine to the top of our head, there are these energy centers, and they kind of spin, and this kind of maintains the balance of your energetic body, but it’s also the connection with what you cannot see, so this universal life energy that we’re speaking of, and then what you can see and feel and touch with your body. 

So these energy centers get blocked, no different than arteries get blocked, and our lymphatic system can get blocked. It’s the same thing with our energy centers. And so when you’re working with, let’s say a Reiki or energy practitioner, what their job is, or a part of their job is to kind of go through your seven chakras, no different than a doctor would go through all your organ systems, and then they see where the blocks are. Or if maybe the chakra spins, if everything is sort of healthy and in flow, it spins in a direction with ease — again, no different than the circulation of our body. When you have a good, healthy microvascular system, the blood flows evenly. So that’s what an energy practitioner is doing, it’s what a Reiki person is doing. They’re kind of going through those seven chakras, and they’re checking to see if there’s flow, and where there isn’t. Then they do the work to either unblock it and to make sure it’s flowing and flowing with ease, it’s not in all different directions, and that’s what they’re doing.

So within each energy centre it aligns with your organ system. So let’s say we’re talking about the first chakra, which is the root chakra. Your root chakra, that is what we call your stability and your security. When someone is feeling ungrounded, stressed, or anxious, that usually means there is either a block or something that’s imbalanced in that chakra system. That chakra system also kind of governs your legs, your blood, part of your adrenal glands, just that lower half of your body, so your legs, your joints, your muscles, all of that. So when you’re feeling grounded, when you stand with your feet shoulder width apart, and you kind of  stand with strength, you’re grounding, actually. And that makes you feel stronger. It makes you feel more in control. 

So all of it is kind of in alignment with each other. Once you have a sense of what they represent, you know where they are in your body, where it aligns with your physical body, and the needs of the organs in the physical body, it will make a lot more sense.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

I think that’s a great overview for people who are unfamiliar. Maybe people have heard of it, and just aren’t sure. It is a different way of thinking about things, but it is important to know that this is rooted in thousands of years of tradition. Chinese medicine has been around forever, Ayurvedic medicine, all of these things. So it’s grounded in these real principles of healing approaches that have been around forever. Actually there’s good research on — and in the peace that you said about “Everything is energy.” I mean, people go, “Oh, that’s woo-woo”, that’s just grounded in physics. People think of this as “Oh, it’s spiritual”, it’s like no, actually. That’s a principle of physics. These are real things. So I think it’s important for people to understand that just because this way of talking about, or thinking about things may be different from the allopathic medical or mental health model that people in the US or Western countries are familiar with, that actually, these things are very well accepted and grounded in principles of healing that have been around the world forever, and grounded in real principles of science. So I think that that’s just important for people to know, because sometimes we hear about something new or that just doesn’t easily fit with what we’ve understood, and we go, “Oh, that can’t really be a thing.”

Serena Poon: 

Right. Absolutely. And I love that you’re just reminding people of that. These are principles that have been in practice for hundreds, thousands of years. And again, when we’re talking about physics and science and maybe you think about what an atom is, like what is inside of an atom? I mean, that is just energy. And so, I think it’s just about a different perspective. Once you can look at it from that different perspective, a lot of it does make a lot of sense.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

I think one of the really interesting things — like this idea about energy, one of the ways that I think about it, and you can tell me if you think this is accurate or not, but I think about just the energy, that maybe we don’t label as that, but that we experience, like a vibe with people. For example, when we’re in a situation and suddenly you start feeling not so good about something. That’s a response to the energy of that situation, or that other person, or people that you feel a certain way around. You’re responding to the energy of them and what they’re putting out. That’s, I think, a tangible way. When I think about my kids who know me so well, they can come into a room and sort of read my energy right away without me saying anything. They sort of sense whether it’s a good time to ask me about something or not. We all have those experiences, and putting the word energy to that is just another way of thinking about that. But to me, that was what started to make this sort of make more sense. It was like “Oh yeah, I get that.”  The energy that we experience with other people, around other people, or in situations. Do you think that’s a helpful way for people to think about that?

Serena Poon: 

Of course, it really is, and I quite often use it as well, because I feel like everyone can really relate to exactly what you’re saying, which is that vibe. We use words like energy, there’s also frequency, there’s also resonance. I mean, these are words used in science, right? So that’s a perfect way to have someone connect. Exactly what you said: When you are in a room or situation with someone, and sometimes it feels different. Something feels off, something can feel good, something can feel great, it can feel yucky, really, it can feel like not in alignment with you.

That is essentially your energetic vibration, your frequency connecting with someone else’s, and there may not be alignment, because you may be at different frequencies. You’re vibrating, your energies are at different levels. So when we’re talking about Reiki, when we’re talking about energy work, the goal is to always have everything sort of in balance. You want things to be balanced. What happens is no different than what you’re talking about, Nicole, with feeling someone’s vibe, feeling someone’s energy as you walk into the room. That person might be in a good mood or bad mood. 

That’s happening within our body. So within our bodies, if there is an imbalance with these different energy centers, there’s dissonance within our body. That is what can create, in a tangible form, say disease or discomfort within your physical body. That is your physical body responding to your energetic body where there is no alignment. Does that make sense? So that’s what our physical body tells us.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

It makes so much sense, and in fact, I’m thinking about a patient that I saw this morning, who was describing without using those words, exactly that. This sense of “Things just are not coming together within me. I feel like I’m fighting against my body all the time”, just describing exactly that. I think for so many of our kids who have neurodevelopmental disorders or who have mental health challenges, or just are kind of dysregulated, this is a great way to think about that. We don’t have a good balance within them, they don’t have ease within their body, within their mind, they don’t have ease within their environment, and it’s this constant just trying to figure out how to manage that then in the day to day of life, and that comes out as a ton of behavioral symptoms, as a ton of emotional symptoms, all of these kinds of things, as well as all the physical symptoms we see with that because most of these kids with these kinds of behavioral or learning or developmental challenges, also have a whole lot of body, physiological imbalances, whether we’re talking about constipation or we’re talking about digestion problems or chronic headaches, or whatever it might be. So I think this idea of balancing those energies, balancing those systems, really makes sense when we just step back and think about what we observe in kids who are having these kinds of issues. 

Serena Poon: 

Absolutely. And the whole thing is kids — even as adults, we have so often a hard time expressing ourselves, right? And I think kids up to a certain age, there are no filters. They speak their hearts. And then things happen, of course, and then that can affect their voice, what they think is okay to say and not okay to say. Sometimes they have a hard time even articulating their feelings and their emotions, and all that energy is stored inside. There isn’t really a way to express it, kind of adding to what you’re talking about when you’re speaking of some of the frustrations and mental wellness around it. Reiki, even if you’re not teaching your child how to do it, as a parent or a practitioner, if you’re already a practitioner in some field of medicine, it’s something that just complements what you’re already doing. And that’s the beauty of it. You don’t really need any tools. You just need you. You need focused attention and just being very present and still, and just kind of tuning into your child, tuning into yourself to have your body, your physical body tell you: Where do I have discomfort right now? Where is it that I need a little bit more support? It’s your physical, your mental, and your energetic body kind of all working together to speak to you. So let’s say, you mentioned constipation. Great. It happens to kids a lot, and it’s not always the food. You know, I’ve taken out dairy, I’ve taken out this, my kid is on a dairy-free, gluten-free diet, and they get all the fibre and the fruit, and they’re still having some constipation issues. What may be surprising to a lot of people listening is that so often comes from that solar plexus. That third chakra is out of alignment or blocked for your child, because that chakra governs our personal power. With children, sometimes the constipation happens because it’s an unconscious way of control. They’re trying to have some sort of control and exercise control on their physical body and control in their decision making process. So sometimes just a blocked solar plexus, which also governs our digestive system, our liver, our gallbladder, our small intestine, our stomach, all of it — That can contribute to constipation on a very unconscious level for kids. I know it may sound like it’s sort of out there, but it is just a complimentary practice or an exercise that you can do as a parent or as a practitioner. You’re not adding in any medication. You’re not adding any even supplements to it, and it can really help shift the bowels and shift that area. So I’m open to any questions you might have about that.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

Well, I was going to actually just tell a little story related to that because I’ve always been open to all different kinds of modalities. So I’ve had an awareness of, and an openness around energy healing and energy medicine for a long time, but this was probably 17 years or so ago now. I had a patient here at the clinic. She was nine. Severe GI problems, which would lead to just impacted constipation. The type of constipation that she’d be in the ER, every few weeks to get cleaned out. Also happened to be quite significantly affected by autism and some other kinds of issues. They had done all the medical things, we were doing all of the good holistic nutrition kinds of things, all of that and still. Her mom came to me and said, “I heard about this guy who is coming to town”, and it wasn’t Reiki. But it was energy healing. And she was like, “I feel like, what do we have to lose? I’m just going to try it.” Even with my openness, I was like, “Okay, this is probably not going to do anything.” But in my mind, I was like, “You know what, it’s probably going to be a relaxing experience for her. That’s fine. Go ahead and do it.” And I will tell you what: It made a world of difference for her. They did a few sessions over the week that he was in town, and I could not believe the shift in this child’s GI system and starting to have normal functioning bowels and bowel movements, the motility issues improved. Because, obviously, things were moving through, her appetite, her willingness to eat more things, and I thought, “Well, okay. There you go.” It’s these things. We may not understand them, and they may be outside the realm of traditionally what we’ve thought about with addressing these things, but that was really my moment where I was like, “Okay, these types of modalities, this type of work can make a profound difference, even with all these other things that have been done”, and it was really a turning point for me to realize how powerful this can be.

Serena Poon:

Yeah, and thank you so much for sharing that. That is such a great example coming from you, and you’re a physician. To know that you experienced that, and to share that with your audience, I’m so grateful for you to share that story. I’m actually going to use that story, because it happens so often, especially with children because they’re in development. They’re trying to figure out who they are and they’re trying to figure out what their roles are, what they can say and what they can’t say. So much of that, and that is really kind of ground-rooted in those lower chakras, and supporting those lower chakras. So, in my method, and we’ve touched upon it, culinary alchemy — Why? Because it’s so hard for people to really conceptualize that which is not tangible, I use food and supplements to kind of bring the intangible to the tangible. So to make it very, very simple for anyone, not just parents, but I talk a lot about eating the rainbow, eating the colors of the rainbow, and how there are specific foods that really support each chakra and each body system. So let’s say the solar plexus —and I say eat the rainbow because every chakra is sort of governed by a color, as reflected in the auras. That’s a different conversation, but let’s just assume we’re going to work with the seven chakras instead of the 144 that there are, and let’s just work on the seven basic colors that are reflected in these chakras. With the solar plexus, that third chakra that governs the digestive system, that is reflected in the color yellow. So to make it really easy for people to remember what to eat, I say just eat things, eat foods that are sort of yellow. And that’s in a lot of legumes, soluble fibers, whole grains, dietary carbohydrates, yellow-colored foods, obviously. These are all foods that if you have a hard time remembering the whole giant list, they all fall within this space of supporting that solar plexus, which is supporting the digestive system. And once you can allow that, once that physical body is unblocked, like you said, she had impacted constipation — once it’s unblocked, there’s flow throughout the whole system. And then that just helps the full body feel more at ease, and then she’s also able to bring in the proper nutrients and actually absorb the proper nutrients. So sometimes it’s just one or two things within our energetic body that need to be balanced and allow flow, then it reflects on our physical body. But with these types of foods, eating these foods that are in alignment with the colors already helps you eat in alignment with the chakra system. That just makes it easier for people to remember. 

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

Yeah, that does really simplify it, and it makes it tangible. I love that that’s what you’re doing, because it makes it real like, “Okay, this is something I can do.” I’d love to have you talk about — because I think people are probably curious. What does this look like? When you say you’re doing Reiki, or the child that I mentioned, going for a healing session of this, can you just describe it so that people have a picture in their mind of what that looks like? I mean, I don’t know what images people have of what this might be, but I just want you to clarify for people what it actually looks like.

Serena Poon: 

Absolutely, because I do a lot of digital work as well. So ever since 2020 things really shifted to that space, and people often question whether or not digital work is effective when you’re not in person. But it really is because energy flows everywhere, we are all again, energy, and so we’re all connected. When I do a session on someone, whether it’s in person, or digitally, usually you’re going to be laying down. So you are laying down on a massage table, and I usually walk someone through a little bit of breath work. So I kind of do Reiki reading. So we kind of clear the room so that this is sort of your sacred space. No different than if you were saying, “Listen honey, take care of the kids and the dog for the next 45 minutes, I’m going to go take a bath, and this is going to be my sacred space.” for you. You are laying down, and we go through the breath work. It’s very, very short, it’s almost like box breathing, I called it the 4-4-4, but we do a little breath work so that we’re already bringing in light. I call it light so it’s tangible for you, because you can visualize light but it’s energy I work with. And then I’ll start at your cranium and I start working. Sometimes it’s hands-on, sometimes it’s hands-off. It just really depends on what I’m guided to do. A lot of practitioners will touch, there will be some hands on. And when you go through the teachings, and you become a master, you’re given symbols. So there’s different symbols that I will do with my hands. I’m actually doing it in my mind’s eye, but I’ll do it with my hands over different areas, depending on what I’m picking up on in this energetic read of what’s going on in that area of your body. So that first one, that’s your crown chakra, and that kind of governs your head. It’s just basically like the head and above neck and then we’ll walk through, we’ll go to the third eye, that’s sort of in the center of your head, like in your forehead, and then down to your throat chakra, and then down to your heart, and then your sacral. Your sacral is sort of kind of where your diaphragm is. It’s not quite your stomach, but just right below the heart. And then down to your sacral, that’s where your sexual organs are, that’s really governed reproductive organs, and then down to your root, which is the base of your spine. So I spend time in each area of your body checking, basically, checking to see if there’s blocks and things that need to be released, and I’ll be releasing. Every practitioner kind of has their own visual technique as to how they do it, but for me, because I can feel and see the energy, and I can see if there are blocks and things come up. It’s very interesting. So when you do a detox, things come up. You’ve got to kind of purge all the toxins. So anyone who’s ever done any cleansing or detox knows what’s coming out of your body, the first couple days, and then what’s coming out of your body towards the end when you’re done, when you’ve cleansed and purged all these toxins. 

The same thing is sort of happening energetically when I’m doing a Reiki session. So things are coming up to the surface to be removed, and then we’re allowing that energy center, that chakra to make sure it’s flowing. It’s no different than, again, your lymphatic system or your blood circulation, and you want it to be flowing. I go all the way from the top of your head, all the way to your feet. Depending on how long the session is, sometimes I’ll have people turnover, and then we work on the back of you. Some practitioners will keep their hands underneath you instead of having you flip over, because most people often either fall asleep or they are astral surfing in a different dimension, they’re just not conscious so we can place our hands underneath to address the chakras in the back side, so we go through this process until everything is sort of cleaned, everything is opened, release anything you don’t need, make sure everything is in flow, then we sort of close up the session. We kind of close up the session so that this is all in your bubble, your energy and you’re safe and protected from everything that you don’t need, not a natural part of you is outside of your bubble. So that’s basically what a session looks like. Oftentimes, emotional traumas will come up. Thoughts might come up, memories, different people, different things will come up during the session. Not just for me as a practitioner, but for the person receiving. And then afterward, sometimes people feel super-light, like they just got charged up with a battery pack. Sometimes people are very tired, and they need to just lay and rest. And sometimes people purge. Sometimes people have to use the restroom. Sometimes people may even throw up, they purge. It’s not a negative thing, because that’s literally just almost like energy toxins. Those are basically things that can happen. Very, very big on make sure you drink a lot of water before a session, and then after because water helps energy flow. Water helps everything flow. So hydration on all energy fields are very important, whether you’re talking physical or energetic. So that’s what a session looks like. 

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

Yeah, I think it’s so helpful to take people through that. And for those of you who are thinking, “Oh, I have a kid who will not lie still on a table” or “I have a kid who doesn’t tolerate touch”, the amazing thing about these modalities is because you’re working with energy, you can do that in so many different ways. I’ve seen practitioners do this with kids who start out running around the room, and then you watch them get stiller, calmer and more settled over the course of the session. So there are so many different ways to approach this, and so I just want parents to know that, even if you’re thinking, “Oh, my kid would never lie still there.” They don’t have to, because we’re working with energy, we can just be in the space with them. And many kids, even if they have sensory issues or other kinds of things, it can feel a little bit scary to them in new types of environments, around people. What I have found is that the people who tend to do this kind of energy work, the energy they bring to it, kids gravitate towards it. I have watched children who are highly hyper vigilant, anxious, resistive to everything, just sort of melt and attune to people, therapists who are working with them, whether it’s an energy worker or someone else. That’s really about the energy of that. I think that so many of these kids are super, super-sensitive to everything in and around them. So this energy work of sort of helping to contain that, to ground that — it’s so soothing to them. 

Serena Poon:

Well, yeah, because if you think about it, kids haven’t yet developed, and they might not have the tools yet. They’re in that growth process of discerning what simulations they need. So they’re so overstimulated, even if you’re mindful about the time they spend on devices or whatever it is, even if you are mindful, and there are limits that you give them in terms of that exposure, just in life, where we’re at right now, and the pace at which life is now, they’re just so overstimulated, and they don’t have the ability to discern what they need and what they don’t need, and most of them don’t really have the tools yet to calm themselves down, to calm there nervous system, which is why I think it’s amazing that some schools teach meditation. Some schools teach breathwork, some schools teach yoga. Because it’s so important. It’s just giving the kids a tool that they can do on their own, and as parents and practitioners, just that little bit of breathwork, getting that into their practice of their daily routine is so beneficial because it’s a tool that they can use on their own, even on a subconscious level. They’re able to do that. I think it’s just growing up. I mean, as adults, we start to figure out in our 20’s, you start to figure out like, “Wow, I need to maybe do this thing called meditation. I’m so stressed all the time. What can I do to lower my stress?” So we do that as adults, but kids just have — the stimuli are different, their ability to discern what they need or they don’t is different from us.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens: 

And I think it’s interesting, because so often what I talk about with parents is that how they are in interactions with their kids dictates a lot of how their kid is. So the energy that we bring to an interaction with our child. This really means we’ve got to learn how to manage our stimulation, how to manage and rein in and have flow and energy working for us because that’s the energy we bring to our interactions, our parenting with our kids, and so it becomes so important for us as well as our children. 

Serena Poon:

Oh, 100%. They read us, no different than they read the room. As you talked earlier, just that vibe and that frequency, they read that. Something that I teach people all the time is — since we’re talking about culinary alchemy and these tangible using food, When you’re preparing food for your kids, when you’re preparing food for your family, one of the best things you can do is is exercise this practice when you’re doing it. Something that I’ll share with your audience, that I share quite often, is just the extra step that you can take if you have a gratitude practice.

So even if you don’t have a gratitude practice, you can start. It’s never too late. And if you do have one, whether or not you journal it or you say it out loud, or you just say it in your head when you wake up or when you’re taking a shower, whenever you’re doing it. What you can do is take that practice one step further, and connect with one or two things on that list. Just one thing, two things, something that you’re deeply grateful for. So it could be your partner. It could be your children. It could be — I don’t know, your favorite meal, your favorite restaurant, whatever it is that you feel like connecting to. Connect to it until you have almost a physiological response. So connect to thinking about your partner, how grateful you are for them, until you can actually smell them, or feel the warmth of them next to you. Just take that extra moment or two to connect that feeling. Now you’ve made this connection with your body and mind, your emotional heart, and your energetic body. You know how that feels. Take this feeling, and then when you go to make a coffee or a tea, or a smoothie, or making dinner or lunch, just take a moment to now redirect this energy, this feeling that you have, because you’re physically connected with this feeling. Whether it’s warmth, whatever it is. Maybe you are salivating because you’re hungry. Connect to that feeling and then intentionally direct that feeling and that energy into that which you’re now going to put back into the body, with that which you are going to put into the bodies of the people that you love. Your partner, your spouse, your kids, whoever. And you’re going to do this anyway. You’re going to eat anyway. You’re going to feed them anyway. It’s just one extra step that you can do. You will see a difference because first of all, you have now shifted yourself into a much more parasympathetic state. So you’ve grounded yourself, whatever you put into your body, your digestive system will be able to receive and process better, because it’s in a relaxed state to do so. And then that frequency, that energy is now in what you’ve prepared to give to someone else. I would say just try it, see if there’s a difference before you send them off to school. Try it and see if it’s as much of a rush to get into the car, to get into school on time. Just see if there’s a shift, if you can do that, as a parent yourself. And I know it’s going to make a change for you, but it could very well make a change for your kids as well.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens:

I love that such a practical tool, and something that, as you said, we can embed — We’re feeding kids all the time, we’re prepping food for ourselves, for them all the time. So such an efficient thing to work in as well. And it’s interesting, as I heard you walking through that, I thought about the times that people have said things like “The most important ingredient in any meal is love” or “Food made with love.” Really, it tastes different, our experience of that food is different, and that’s what it brought to mind, and I really had not thought about that before, in terms of practically then thinking about How we can harness that and use that for good in our food preparation for ourselves and our kids. That is beautiful. Thank you.

Serena Poon:

You’re so welcome. And just try it. It really will make a difference. You’re so right, it is that secret ingredient. That’s why your grandmother’s recipe for your favorite pie will only taste that way from her. Even if she swears to you she used every single ingredient, she didn’t leave anything out, and you will do it exactly as directed and it won’t taste the same. It’s her energy, her frequency, her love that she’s put in that comes from her, directed to you. So that’s why it’ll

taste different. But you can now do that for your kids’ meals.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens:

And then it extends out to people being able to think about all the ways they could do that in other activities too. How can we be intentional about bringing that type of energy to giving our kids a bath or tucking them in at night or helping them through a difficult moment that they’re having or dealing with their next tantrum? How can we tap into that energy within ourselves to bring it to those situations? It not only helps us, but helps them. So it really opens up all kinds of possibilities for how to utilize that.

Serena Poon:

Yes, 100%. It absolutely does. Again, I just use this as sort of like a tangible tool, but really it’s just say, you will realize, “Oh I can bring this to all these other situations and all these other dynamics”, because now you know what that feels like. That’s the most important step. It’s just making that physical, that physiological connection to your heart, your mind, your energetic body. Now that you know what that feels like. 

Dr. Nicole Beurkens:

So good. I have a million more questions I could ask you, but I know that we need to wrap up. This was just such a wonderful, enlightening conversation. I know people are going to have lots of questions and want to learn more. Where can people find out more about your work, all of the great tools and things that you offer? Where should they go?

Serena Poon:

Yes! Thank you for asking. So they can go to my website, it’s serenaloves.com, or I’m quite active on Instagram at @chefserenapoon, and that’s my handle for all my social platforms, pretty much. So you can go to any of the social platforms, but I would say Instagram, and everything  kind of directs you wherever you want. So Instagram and the website are probably the two best places to get a hold of me.

Dr. Nicole Beurkens:

Awesome. And we’ll put all the information for that in the show notes. And I know that you’ve got your show that is on Instagram as well. It features great people, lots of amazing resources that you provide. So I really encourage all of you listening to check that out. Serena, I really want to thank you for taking the time out of your very, very busy schedule to be with us today, to share this really important, impactful information with our listeners. Thank you so much.

Serena Poon:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so grateful and I hope to see you soon!

Dr. Nicole Beurkens:

Yes! Next time I will be in LA, or you’ll be here or something. We will connect soon. And thank you as always to all of you for being here and for listening. We will catch you back here next week for our next episode of The Better Behavior Show.