I have a question for you. Which gets more air time in your head—your perceived weaknesses as an introvert… or your strengths?
When I’m not on top of it, weakness easily wins out.
It’s far too easy to feel like I’m falling short, to worry that my kids will remember a mom who was always shuffling them off to different parts of the house so she could get some space. A mom who seemed agitated and discouraged. A mom who doubted whether she was really suited for the craziness of parenthood.
There’s a reason for this!
We’re biologically wired to dwell more on the negative than the positive, to ensure that we learn from negative experiences and continue to survive as a species. (It’s called negativity bias.)
So if your head is often in a negative space, you’re not doing it wrong—You’re just human!
That said, you CAN draw on your higher brain and learn to give waaaay more air time to your strengths. ❤️
Our strengths may be quieter and less flashy than our counterparts’ strengths, but they still have an incredible impact on our families, communities, and the world. The first step is simply knowing what they are.
7 Introvert Superpowers That Make You a Strong Mom
1. You are aware of your kids’ emotional lives.
A social situation that’s giving your son anxiety, an upcoming test that’s stressing your daughter out, etc. You pick up on subtle cues that might go right over another parent’s head, allowing you to feel out your kids’ underlying emotional needs.
2. Because you’re a natural listener and you take the time to really get to know them, your children tend to open up to you.
They’re your world, your safe circle. You don’t want a hundred friends; you want them. You invest in them, and they can feel that.
3. You’re an internal processor, which means that—when you’re taking care of yourself—you don’t often say something in the heat of the moment that you’ll regret later.
You listen more than you speak, and words don’t usually fly off your tongue before you’re ready to say them. This quality often spares you and your loved ones the pain of words not meant to be said.
4. You’re used to being different. 🙂
It’s said that two-thirds of the population is extroverted, and in our society, it often feels like much more than that! The experience of being introverted in what often feels like an extroverted world allows you to give your children space for feeling different themselves, in their own, individual ways.
5. You feel deeply, a quality that allows you to be extremely empathetic.
Brené Brown says empathy is the antidote to shame. My bet is that your kids will grow up feeling more free to be themselves because of your ability to hear them and to empathize with their struggles.
6. You treasure wide-open blocks of time and, for the most part, enjoy an unhurried lifestyle as a family.
You don’t feel as much pressure to keep up; you’re happy doing things your own way, at your own pace.
7. You trust your intuition and parent more from your gut than from outside influences and expectations.
When my kids were little, I read allllll the books. What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Parenting with Love & Logic, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk, and more.
But after I got through the whirlwind of learning to take care of a newborn and handle the mood swings of a threenager, my parenting reading dropped dramatically off.
I realized that reading a lot about parenting tends to drown out the voice in my heart, the one that seems to know—on instinct—how I want to parent my kids.
“I have seen firsthand how difficult it is for introverts to take stock of their own talents, and how powerful it is when they finally do.” -Susan Cain
More from Episode 46 of “Life On Purpose with Erica Layne”
Here’s what else you can hear in the latest episode of the podcast!
- Try-On Session: A segment where I propose a new thought you can try on for size. Today’s thought: “I choose to” instead of “I have to.”
- Declutter, De-stress: Have you read Messy Minimalism: Realistic Strategies for the Rest of Us by Rachelle Crawford yet? Today’s decluttering tip is to read this fantastic book! You don’t have to be naturally neat to be a minimalist (in fact, minimalism is probably the most helpful for those of us who aren’t!). Rachelle is a great storyteller who writes with a lot of humor, so the book is genuinely a fun, engaging read (which can be hard to find in nonfiction!).
Listen to the full episode in your favorite podcast app, or in the audio player below, and be sure to hit follow!
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Show produced by Astronomic Audio
xo!
