How focussing on myself helped me help my son

By Silvana Ghoussain

My mindset is to always try to look at the positives in any situation, rather than simply focusing on the negatives…

I started meditation walking many years ago. It’s a practice I learnt when I was staying with Buddhist monks (in a world very different to what I’m living in now!).

I learnt to walk and be guided by my thoughts, to take in, and be fully immersed in what was around me. This type of meditation has helped me focus on my ongoing fitness journey; the one that has lead to me being a boxing coach and competing in body building.

The Covid outbreak has absolutely been difficult for all of us but with the right framing and mindset, I do believe that within it could lie opportunity. For me, I decided to grab opportunity with both hands during our lockdown and committed to studying and personal development.

It can be difficult to keep motivated by yourself, so I was fortunate that my new bodybuilding coach, Cristiana Ramon, kept in touch and kept me accountable.

I’m convinced that doing the ground work for my studies, and remaining focused on my own goals allowed for other things to happen in different areas of my life. It felt like this focus transferred over into giving me the tools I needed to advocate for my son who has an ASD diagnosis; we were successful in getting some much needed early intervention supports via an increase in funding and additional supports. 

This commitment and focus also led to a work opportunity in the gym I attended.  My coach, who had been working in the background without me knowing, was behind some of this ‘good luck’ by securing work there for me! I am now surrounded by a team that understand my circumstances and is ready to help in anyway. I’m grateful and humble to have that support system because sometimes it’s hard to find real people that support you on your journey and who are truly compassionate towards your own set of circumstances.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I made a commitment to myself in one area, and that overflowed into other areas of my life.

Now, I’m getting ready to compete with body building again at on 31st of October in ICN in Sydney.  

I’ll give it all I’ve got. My son gives me the drive to keep pushing forward. I know that within his struggles, my son’s strengths come through. We work on developing those strengths and part of that is allowing him to grow through sport activities. And, it can be a ripple effect; he sees me out there in the gym and he’s curious about what I do. It also helps give him focus for certain periods of time. It’s his happy place to keep active too!

So, what do you think you can do for yourself, that will in turn benefit those closest to you, without you even realising it?  

Maybe it’s sport, art, music, or something else?  Create the ripple effect and watch it transform not only you, but those around you!

Lioness My Fighting Spirit – https://www.silvanaghoussain.com.au/