Happy Siblings Day! This week we’re exploring the impact of our siblings (or lack of them) on our lives today. Grab your journal and prepare to astonish yourself with some insights you may never have considered (you were possibly a sibling before you even had access to language and memories)…
It’s a UK awareness day and I live in Ireland now so am EXTRA grateful for my brilliant brother who not only drove me and Rainbow MagnifiCat here more than 4 years ago but who, with his partner, moved here himself!
While we’ve had our ups and downs (swingset pic, geddit?), he’s the best brother I could have ever have hoped for and DEFINITELY my favourite (something I could never admit if I had more than one!)
The newsletter, Feel Better Every Week, has lots of ideas for working with any sibling wounds (not only helping you heal your past, present and future relationships with them but helping to improve your friendships with others, too). SIGN UP HERE
Are you an only child?
How did that impact you growing up?
Did you have lots of cousins and friends or did you feel isolated?
If you had a sibling, are you the eldest? Youngest? I share some Older Sister Confessions in the newsletter (if you sign up now, you can still access it in the archive).
Did this make you more responsible?
Were you babied?
Were you a middle child and pretty much ignored?
Maybe you had SEVERAL siblings? Many families find siblings grouped together with the oldest few taking on a semi parental role while the youngest few felt both resented and babied and left out?
Even if you shared the same parents, biologically and emotionally, you may have had very different experiences. Young parents v more settled parents parent differently! Parents learn from their mistakes so the eldest might sometimes feel like The First Pancake…
Maybe you moved around a lot so even though y’all grew up within the same family, some of you had more formative years in completely different places?
What did you wish your friends and wider family knew about you and your siblings?
Were you always aware of sibling/s that were no longer there? Maybe through leaving home? Maybe they died?
Maybe one or more had additional needs so you grew up helping even more?
What GIFTS did growing up with your sibling/s bring out in you? How did the dynamic help your Self*?
Perhaps you found out, decades later, that you had additional half siblings?
Write whatever springs to mind for you and give yourself some space to celebrate the good memories as well as mourning any losses (whether actual deaths or the loss of the hoped for better relationships with some of your siblings).
How might your life be different if you weren’t the only/eldest/middle/youngest/somewhere in between/only one?
Feel free to email eve@selfcarecoaching.net to let me know.
And feel free to share this post so others who may find it helpful can read it.
With love,
*that highest, wisest, truest, wildest, most miraculous part of yourself
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