Last month in the Ask Yourself exercises you worked on deepening your understanding of your romantic relationship. We start the new year with a new challenge and opportunity. Our theme this month is parenting. This month you will journey into who you are as a parent, how you feel about being a parent and your relationship with your children.
Aurelia Psychology’s Ask Yourself series
For those of you who are new to Ask Yourself, you will get questions each month to help you increase your self-awareness and self-acceptance. These questions are similar to those that therapists ask their clients during sessions.
We will regularly post these questions on our social media platforms. Do check them out! At the end of the month you will also get to download our free workbook to help you continue the exploration.
How to journal mindfully
For this month, we will share with you a series of questions to help you reflect on your role as a parent and your relationship with parenting a well as on your relationship with your children.
You will need a quiet, private and comfortable space, a notebook and pen/pencil, about 15 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Go through each question on the day we share them with you. Then write down all that comes to your mind about that question/topic. Allow your mind to roam free. Then, write down what you feel and this about each question.
You are not trying to solve any problems. You are simply an observer of your own self. No feeling or through is bad or wrong. Cultivate acceptance instead of judgement or self-censorship. See if you can find the courage to go deep into yourself.
When your time to reflect is up, leave your feelings, thoughts and words in the notebook.
The next day, repeat the process. However, do not look at what you have written previously. Reserve just one day of the week for revisiting what you have written during the week.
Reflecting on parenting
If during this month of journaling on parenting, you come to realize that things could be better, do remember that a lot can be done to improve relationship quality. You may recognize that your relationship with your children could be de better or that you are struggling to trust yourself as a parent. Just as with any healthy habit, small things done often, consistently and well, bring results in due course. Have a look at our free parenting workbook to get ideas on what those small things could be.
Matleena Vanhanen is a licensed Counselling Psychologist with over 20 years of experience working in Europe and the Middle East. She has a practice of couples and individual therapy at the MapleTree Center in Dubai.
