Other Resources
Infancy, Early Childhood, and Attachment
Very exciting material on the communication/language of babies in the first few months of life is at Dunstan Baby Language.
Thich Nhat Hanh and Imaginal Nurturing
Thich Nhat Hanh, devoted his life to world peace (he was nominated by Martin Luther King for the Nobel Peace prize of 1967) and to making Buddhist practices such as mindfulness accessible and relevant to people throughout the world in the 20th and 21st centuries. An embodiment of calm, he has much to offer our society in which anxiety has become a serious widespread problem.
Thich Nhat Hanh published many books all of which are very down to earth. Peace is Every Breath is one of my favourites, and in his book Reconciliation, he shares thoughts that are very much in keeping with Imaginal Nurturing:
The five-year-old child within needs a lot of compassion and attention. It would be nice if every day we would find a few minutes to sit down and practice this meditation:
“Breathing in, I see myself as a five-year-old child. Breathing out, I smile with compassion to the five-year-old child in me.”
It would be very healing and very comforting, because the five-year-old child in us is still alive and needs to be taken care of. With acknowledgement and communication, we can see that child responding to us and she or he begins feeling better. If she feels better, we feel better also and we start to feel great freedom.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Reconciliation [p. 66]