BEING BRAVE EVEN WHEN YOU'RE AFRAID
Remember when you just went for it? When you literally dove into the deepest end with abandon? When fear wasn’t an option? The first episode of “How to Raise a Parent” explores how fear gets hardwired into adults while also proposing how to reclaim your bravery.
The proposed solution to reclaiming courage? Observe children. While not every child is fearless, many kids take what adults consider to be “risks” all the time — often because nothing bad has happened (yet) and they don’t know any better! They’re not expecting to fall or fail, and, as such, have much less to fear. Watching kids take risks is a great way to remember how we can take them too.
Saying yes to anything new is certainly scary when you’re faced with the unknown, are already multitasking, and are probably fighting just to get enough sleep let alone reinvent yourself. But in the messy mix of raising tiny humans lies a gateway for rediscovery. Watching kids be exactly who they are is an incredible opportunity to remember who we are too, not just as parents but as individuals.
But how do you exercise a muscle if it hasn’t been worked out in years? How do you exercise agency if you’re a woman, a mother, who has forgotten how to be someone other than "mom?" Apparently doing something, taking any action, is the key first step. So is telling yourself it’s OK to be scared while you’re doing it. Being brave doesn’t mean you eliminate all fear but it does mean you take the next step anyway. This podcast reminds us that by observing children, not even necessarily our own, we can learn to worry less, trust more and cross the proverbial monkey bars even if we are afraid to fall.