Self-appreciation supports me

In my last post I appreciated my little girl. I actually find her extremely easy to appreciate, so I'm putting a conscious focus on generating appreciations of me these days. Since J is so bright, I sometimes forget to shine the light on myself.

I've been a parent for five years now. One of the things I most appreciate about myself as a parent is my ability to see the truth of any situation. Instead of letting my parenting be guided by rules and my personas, I focus on being present to 'what is'.

About 7 years ago, I learned how to distinguish between 'reality' and 'story'. This has been of incredible assistance to my parenting.

Simply put: 'reality'= the world as 3 or more people would agree to it, 'story' = the details and imaginations I add.

For example: My child cried when I dropped her off at school. I judge myself to be a bad parent because I should be staying with her at home since she misses me so much, she is being traumatized ....

The reality here (as 3 or more people would agree) is that I dropped my child off at school and she cried.

The story here is everything else. All the judgments I have about myself, all the worry I have about her. Those stories are all personal to me. You'd be hard pressed to find 3 or more people to agree to those descriptions.

In knowing the difference between 'reality' and 'story', I can simply meet my child afresh in every moment, prepared to respond to her. If she is crying, I listen to her without self-judgment and without perpetuating the situation by reading a lot of misleading story into it.

I so appreciate my ability to do this. The result is that my daughter is free to express and return to harmony quickly. Even better, I am free to be in flow however she is.

With appreciation to you and your unique parenting gifts,
love Helen
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Helen Daniels loves to explore parenting, passion and purpose with others. Contact her for a free coaching consultation.

http://www.helendaniels.com
helen@helendaniels.com