While past interactions, relationships, behaviors, and actions shape and mold you into the person you are today, they don’t define you. You may not be able to go back in time and change how you were raised or who you were raised by, but you can actively work to change your future.
This is where reparenting comes in. Reparenting is a great and effective way that you can change your past into a more positive outcome going forward. Let’s learn more about what reparenting is and how reparenting yourself can help you manage anxiety effectively.
Understanding Anxiety and Its Triggers
Anxiety is a common emotion that many people can deal with. It’s a feeling that can come on in times of stress, worry, fear, or tension. There are many daily life experiences that can contribute to or be a trigger to anxiety, including:
- Feeling isolated
- Financial struggles
- Housing problems
- Lack of support
- Long work hours
- Losing a loved one
- Negative self-talk
A lot of anxiety can stem from adverse childhood experiences. Events like emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, neglect, being bullied, having an unresponsive primary caregiver, or losing a loved one can trigger problems.
What Is Reparenting?
One of the techniques for helping to manage anxiety is reparenting. Reparenting means working on becoming more compassionate, kind, and understanding to yourself and your own wants and needs, essentially becoming the parent for yourself that you did not have when you were a child.
Emotional regulation is one of the many skills that is formed through reparenting. As an adult, you can work toward identifying, acknowledging, understanding, and managing your own emotions. This helps you learn how to treat yourself more kindly, similar to building a healthy relationship between a parent and child.
These are just a few of the long-term benefits of parenting for anxiety management:
- Closure
- Development of healthy relationships
- Embracing fun and being creative
- Emotional healing
- Greater emotional intelligence
- Improved self-esteem
- Personal growth
- Secure attachment style
- Self-acceptance
- Self-care
Key Techniques in Reparenting Yourself
It took years to make you into the person you are today, which means that changing that is going to take some time. Reparenting isn’t something that is going to happen overnight. It takes hard work, dedication, and time.
The good news is that with the proper routine and schedule, you can start to form healthy habits so you can work towards reparenting yourself. Here are some of the key techniques of parenting to consider:
Self-Compassion
Having self-compassion may be one of the most important parts of parenting. You can’t choose your own parents. If you had a tough childhood, you don’t have anyone to blame for that. It’s important to give yourself a little grace. What happened during your childhood was out of your control, but you have full control of your future and what you plan to do with it.
Inner Dialogue
Past experiences have a way of making you believe things that aren’t necessarily true about yourself. It’s important to try to replace those negative self-views or self-talk you have with something that’s a little more positive. Start small by repeating a positive mantra or affirmation to yourself to work towards shifting your internal dialogue. It might be something like “I am safe” or “I am lovable”.
Setting Healthy Boundaries
Boundaries may seem like a harsh ask, but they protect your overall mental health and wellness. Self-care isn’t selfish. Your boundaries could be related to your emotions, physical space, sexual needs, time, finances, and more.
Nurturing Activities
There are many different nurturing activities that can help you connect with your inner child and bring you joy and comfort. You could write a letter to your younger self, use affirmations during your day, or visualize releasing any emotions you’re holding onto.
Next Steps
If you’re interested in learning more about how reparenting can help you cope with anxiety, reach out today to set up an initial consultation. Meanwhile, you can also learn more about anxiety treatment here.
