Is there a way to learn how to identify/manage my own emotions so that I can help my kids?
I’ve come to realise through my parenting journey that I have no idea how to healthily manage my own emotions let alone the big ones my kids face! How do I learn this stuff when emotions were never felt, honoured or even acknowledged when I was a kid? Now my own kids are suffering because I barely know what to do with mine let alone theirs & I so want to be able to guide them in this space so that we can break the generational curse of never learning and building resilience with our emotions.
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Psychologist can help with this. In a nutshell you could start with labelling emotions. E.g. I feel angry because... I feel happy because... make them a part of everyday language in your home. If you find difficulties with emotional regulation first part would be recognising when you need to walk away and calm down. If we allow the emotional brain to take over we are not communicating or thinking rationally. This is when we say the things we do not mean. It's like an overheating computer that doesn't work properly and will eventually crash if you do not give it time to cool down. So take a break, engage calm breathing and revisit what upset you when you are calm. You are not agreeing with someone or avoiding the situation completely. You are approaching it calmly. You can further read about validating your children's emotions by reading about emotion coaching. E.g. I can see that you are upset because... Pychologist can help further x