When you feel angry... does that mean that is who you are? When you are thinking "I am not good enough," does that mean you are actually not good enough? No, it doesn't. But how is that possible if you are the one who experienced those emotions and you are the one who had that thought? One day my daughter was super mad about something, and often times that anger can consume every part of you, but as I glanced over at her I could see from the look on her face that she was observing herself be mad. Wow!!! I didn't learn to do this until I was in my early 20's. Shoot I didn't even know this was a thing until then. It's like there is a part of you that is mad and another part of you watching yourself be mad, noticing you be mad. I asked her later that night if she was "seeing" or "observing" herself go through the emotions of anger and she laughed and said "yes, but I didn't want to stop being mad." 🤯 This concept of separating yourself from your emotions, thoughts, body and circumstances is quite difficult, even for adults. But you can plant seeds of this "knowing" in your kids by asking questions. These questions help them reflect and notice how they experience emotions and create thoughts. That awareness then leads to eventually understanding that they are more than those thoughts and emotions. And when they understand that they are more than those thoughts and emotions, they can ACTUALLY BECOME more than those thoughts and emotions because they know there is more to them. They learn to not accept those things as WHO THEY ARE, they use them to find WHO THEY ARE. Inner Strength is knowing who you are, beyond the noise outside of you but also beyond the noise within you. This is why we think it is important for kids to know who they are by:
Being aware of that voice in their head (negative self-talk) and knowing that is not who they are
Being aware of their emotions, accepting them and learning to manage them
Being aware of their Intuition and light within them that shines bright and is loving, confident, strong
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