5 ways to manage my mental health that I have learnt from my children

Heather Black
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

Most parents try to help their children to learn to understand the world around then and to understand their own feelings and those of others but it occurs to me that our children can teach us so much about how to see the world and how to manage it’s impact on us. So here are the 5 ways to manage my mental health that I have learnt from my children.

  1. Be silly
Jumping in muddy puddles.

My children are ridiculous.

Together they make up games with rules that I don’t think either of them have any idea of and they shriek with laughter as they jump about and role around the room shouting silly words in silly voices or wiggling their bottoms while dancing to made up songs or telling jokes that only they find funny. But this is when they are at their happiest, it also correlates that when they have had chance to be at their silliest, they can then be at their most focused and interested. I strive to copy them in their balance of flat out silliness and focused seriousness.

2. Laugh

The silliness and the laughter go hand in hand. The release of the endorphins caused by laughter, especially spontaneous social laughter, causes feelings of euphoria as well as working as a natural pain killer. That is a win win scenario in my books!

3. Cry

Although it is not quite so acceptable for an adult to burst into histrionics at the drop of a hat as it is for the under 5s crying is still an important thing that we need to allow ourselves to do. Scientific theories of crying differ due to the many different reasons for, and kinds of, crying, however crying is widely regarded as a release of emotion . Life can be frustrating, and hard, and some days a good cry is just what you need to get your feelings out and pick you self up to fight another day.

4. Be curious

One of the things I absolutely love the most is the look on the faces of children when they are seeing something for the first time or something that they are interested by. The look of wonder and amazement is beautiful and their curiosity for the world is so endless and enthusiastic it is hard not to succumb to it’s infectiousness. I try my best to see the world through my children's eyes whenever possible.

Teaching his sister about the Marvel Universe

5. Learn

Every day is a learning day in our house. The children are at that amazing age where they are learning so much every single day, seeing new things and making sense of the world. Be it teaching each other about their favorite superheroes or learning about different places in the world watching Go Jetters, their appetite for new information is inexhaustible. In turn they teach me to see the world through theirs eyes, to look at things from different perspectives and to question my assumptions which I think is pretty impressive when your only 4 and 1!

)

Heather Black

Written by

I am the Founder and writer of Mothering, Mental Health & Me, which aims to make Maternal Mental Health more visible

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