What about you as a parent? We usually just look at our kids. What do they need? Where are the areas that they need support in? How can we help them cope? How do we support them better? How do we create a sensory corner if they're overwhelmed or include movement breaks when feeling lethargic? Or not motivated. But what about us? Do we know that we're different from our kids? We have a different identity, we're independent of our children, and we have our own needs. YOU have needs. This might include a sensory profile for your specific sensory needs.
Something to look back at when you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed or when you're feeling quite tired and you don't really know why - it might be 9 o’clock in the morning is our own sensory profile. If we create a sensory profile for our kids, we can also create one for ourselves.
Do you perhaps get overwhelmed when going into the grocery store? Is it all the lights? Is it? Maybe all the sounds or people walking past me, bumping into me a little? And how do I ensure that I don't become overwhelmed or overstimulated? Maybe I can take my noise, canceling headphones with me. Maybe I do a yoga session before buying groceries or perhaps a short meditation in the car.
We have to look after ourselves, like the very famous psychologist Abraham Maslow said, we have to look at ourselves before we can look after another person, you have to look at your own needs. You have to figure out why your bucket is empty. Why are you not having enough energy today and then providing the input that you require or need? So my challenge for you today is to create your own sensory profile.
Look at the different environments that you go into and really observe your body and your senses and how you react to these environments, and then write them down. How do you feel, and why do you think you felt over or understimulated in these different environments? And then look at self-regulation techniques, look at how can you create that calm and that silence within these different environments? Maybe it's something you do before, during, or after, or all of the above. But look after you today, and then hopefully, that's going to become a habit, which you can do every day because that's what you deserve.
Talk to you soon.
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