I had briefly touched upon this topic in an earlier post titled "What's your slash?". A recent interaction motivated me to expand on the same.
A "slash" implies that you explore multiple roles in your lifetime by trying out and building expertise on various skills. But before adding slashes to your life, it is important to find an "anchor" to hold onto.
Anchor doesn't just mean a hobby / interest. It is what makes you come alive, what inspires you to wake up every single morning.
"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde
A Google search of the meaning of the word "Anchor" returns this phrase -
"a person or thing which provides stability or confidence in an otherwise uncertain situation."
An anchor is extremely important for women and especially stay-at-home mothers who do thankless, often under-appreciated task of managing home and kids.
Anchor activities are those that inspire you to come alive, be creative, experiment with new ideas , build self-esteem, and demonstrate your identity. It increases your self confidence and a positive outlook towards life and people.
Without an anchor, the reactions can fall anywhere under this spectrum:
- dullness, irritability
- finding fault in others
- feeling jealous of others' success/happiness
- being egoistic
- getting defensive
- indulging in self-pity
- depression, anger
- chronic mental illness
If you haven't figured out your "anchor", reflect on your past - go back to your childhood and teen years.
What activities made you happy?
What subjects interested you the most in school/college?
What were the topics that you passionately discussed about?
Come back to your present life.
What kind of books do you like to read?
What articles do you stop to read when you browse through your FB/twitter timeline?
What activities do you like to do when you get a few minutes/hours of "me-time"?
In this Information Age, there are plenty of opportunities to build expertise and showcase your skills (and become financially independent too), if you can consciously invest time and effort.
Refresh your favorite subjects, register as an online home-tutor (vedantu.com is one such tutoring service)
Write stories and self-publish on Kindle
Start a home-baking hobby, there are plenty of recipes out there
Learn a new language using duolingo app and take up teaching/translation assignments
Learn a new art/craft hobby, explore pinterest, create something nice
Select and complete courses of your liking from Coursera, Udemy, Udacity etc
If a mother is confident and happy, then the whole family is happy.
Find and hold onto that "anchor". You owe it to yourself and your family.