Emotions are key elements in building confident and resilient children. We can not raise children like this if we “adults” don’t know how to face/deal with our own emotions.
Emotional awareness isn’t an easy topic to absorb, it takes time to build in you the practice of acknowledging all that happens inside you. Be kind to your self.
Start by giving you time to feel what you are feeling, without acting out, just breath your pain as much as you need it, till it dissipates. If you can, you can verbalice to you or whoever is in front of you: I am feeling angry… I am feeling sad… I am feeling frustrated, whatever emotion you are feeling. And then, if you can, identify the “area” of your body that is feeling “affected” by this emotion. Through the breathing, observe how the “pain” goes away.
These little practices of “awareness”, will make the difference between: being reactive or being “conscious”. At the same time, you are teaching your kids to feel what they are feeling without making out a big mess. It could also be “excitement”, feel it going through you, without making big deal of it. Emotions are to be felt not be shamed about. There are not “good” or “bad” emotions, they are just that, emotions. So let them pass through you with “equanimity”. Use the breathing as your anchor to swim the more “difficult” ones.
ANA HARO 