Develop Your True Self Throughout Parenting

The belief of identifying who your "true self" is a shared perspective among many cultures, who recognize the authentic self is both good and moral. With this belief, it emphasizes that anyone can grow and change for the better, no matter your past, to eventually succeed in achieving well-balanced mental health and happiness.

However, discovering your true authentic self is can be difficult when you're a parent, since you're on a personal journey but also guiding and loving your children. The beauty of self-discovery is that you must incorporate your loved ones to help you fulfill your best human potential.

Be Grateful

When we're grateful, we're able to form new social relations and strengthen old ones. Our brains become conditioned to seek and identify the positives, which becomes a great coping strategy when we become faced by stressors.

Parenting and life, in general, is hard. With so many ups and downs, it can be hard to isolate what exactly we should be grateful for. However, children are naturally mindful in the way that they are genuinely curious and excited about life. Parents can reflect on what their children are grateful for, to help be reminded of how beautiful life really is.

Set Goals

When one thinks of goal setting, they might think of the generic steps of becoming academically or professionally successful. It's easy to think of success in terms of finances or getting material things. But setting goals in order to achieve happiness can be an influential motivator to help you discover your true self throughout parenting.

Most of us think that in order to be a good parent, our personal needs should be placed last, after the children and spouse's happiness. However, in order to be your best self, it's important to take the steps in acknowledging what you need and value, and then make the goals to follow suit.

Personal Awareness

Parents are intuitively in tune with their children's emotional, mental, physical, social, and spiritual needs. Right from infancy, parental instincts naturally kick into full gear, so we know how to recognize and adapt to our child's growing needs. What most parents might not realize is those instincts that are working in overdrive to help us care for our children, are the same ones that can be used in our own personal awareness.

Emotional intelligence helps us to recognize and understand our body cues, emotions, behaviors, needs, and values while being aware of how it impacts us and our loved ones. Once one recognizes, understands, and expresses needs in a healthy way,  is when the parent can begin to identify their true self.

Have a Purpose

Sometimes, a parent might feel like they've lost who they were, or feel stuck. In order to keep moving forward, it can be helpful to be reminded of how special being a parent really is.

Yet sometimes "just being a parent" doesn't feel meaningful enough... and that's okay. Discovering your true self implies finding what your own personalized purpose is, and then pursuing it. Whether it's financial or professional success, altruistic work, traveling the world, or advocating for a cause: this purpose belongs to you and no one else.

Laugh Daily

Laughing truly is the best medicine in helping us feel good, be authentic, and being comfortable with ourselves. In fact, The Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute states that our brain releases neurotransmitter chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins each time we laugh.

Finding a reason to laugh daily isn't as difficult as you might think. Parents can look to their children, the experts of silliness, for a dose of comedic relief. There are also more sophisticated ways to attain a few giggles throughout the day: being silly with your partner, exchanging funny one-liners with your co-workers, or turning on a comedy special on Netflix.

Make Time For You

Now that you've begun to realize your true potential by acknowledging your true self, you might feel like it's time to hit the ground running. With so many ideas of how to apply your purpose, chasing after what feels real, and setting personal goals, it can be an intoxicating feeling.

However, as great as it feels to be on top of the world, it's essential to maintain a healthy consistency of doing things solely for your well-being. Even when you feel like everything is going right, whether personally or along  your parenting journey, it's important to keep in mind: "you can't drink from an empty cup." Self-care should be your focus whenever possible.

Source: https://www.moms.com/ways-develop-true-self-parenting/