Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I think that how we see ourselves and how we feel about ourselves can have a huge bearing on how others see us. As single parents, we can send out the message that we are sad, lonely and struggling—or we can let people know that we are happy, secure and feeling great about our lives.
I know that even the most optimistic person does NOT always feel sassy. We all have our bad days and those times when we are full of doubts and wondering how on earth we ever got to where we are, let alone how we are going to move out of it! But, we don’t have to stay in that self-pity, sad place. We can move ourselves a little bit out of the shadows and into the sunlight and try to not only feel differently, but send off a different vibe to those around us.
I think the people who can be most affected by our feelings of self-worth and self-determination are our children. When we are sad, depressed, or “emo” (eemoh) as my teenagers call it, we can pass that on to our children. They may feel sad also, or they may feel like they need to worry about us or cheer us up. This is not a healthy place for them to be. When we show them that we can be happy or at least have moments of happiness and feelings of contentment—they can feel good too, and relax and just be kids without having to worry about our emotional well-being.
Now, if you are seriously depressed, I am not advising you to just “snap out of it”—for serious depression that hangs on and lasts, you need to see a professional to help you heal and start to cope. But, if you are just getting into the habit of embracing sadness or anger or feeling sorry for yourself, you can choose a different way of being that could change your life entirely!
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