How To Incorporate Self-Care into Your Busy Mom-Life
In honor of Labor Day, I decided that we needed to take a moment to honor the hardest workers out there, the unseen heroes, the ones that are on the clock 24/7, Moms.
We’ve all heard the saying ‘The hardest job out there is being a mom, but also the most rewarding’. It is an incredible honor and an amazing experience, but I think we can all admit that it can also be a draining, thankless job that requires immense dedication and energy.
We are literally doing our best to craft our little molds of clay into decent, caring, happy human beings and it can be exhausting. We can also get so consumed in our children that sometimes we forget about ourselves.
Self-care can feel like a taboo and foreign subject to us moms. We feel guilt when we think about putting ourselves first even for short periods of time.
It’s a sad, but true fact. We are so focused on putting our kids first and 95% of the time, that’s what I feel we should and need to be doing, but that other 5% should be kept for us.
Making time for self-care is not a bad thing. In fact, it not only helps you as a person but helps you to be a better mom.
Why Self-Care is Important?
How can we expect to provide the best we can for our little ones if we aren’t making time to take care of ourselves?
Self-care contributes to your physical, emotional, and mental health, which in turn helps you to be a better person, mom, and caregiver. Making time for this is not only important, it’s essential.
This is also a great tool to include in your parenting repertoire. Role modeling this behavior for your children is a great way for them to learn about how to best take care of themselves as they grow into adults and beyond.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care can mean taking time to support your:
- – Physical health through exercise, balanced nutrition, and getting an adequate amount of sleep
- – Emotional and mental health by engaging in activities that you enjoy or find relaxing and help to reduce stress and burnout
Incorporating this into your daily/weekly/monthly routines is invaluable to your health and well-being.
Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Sometimes in order for us to be able to enjoy some of these self-care activities we need a little help.
Tap into your village and ask for assistance with your little one so you can have time to make yourself a priority.
Chances are that you may have creeping pangs of guilt when asking for help to do something for yourself.
Break that habit of feeling guilty about taking time for self-care. Embrace that it’s not selfish, it’s essential and important to your physical, mental, and emotional health.
Accept the help and reciprocate it in return. Everyone needs some time for a little self-care activity and we need to help break down the barriers of this being a taboo act.
10 Ideas for Fun Self-Care Activities for Moms
So, let’s talk about some fun ideas of how to build in some self-care for mamas. Some of these involve a little more time and money than others, but all are great ways to indulge in some essential self-care.
- Hair Appointment
- – Schedule a cut, color, blowout, or all three. Looking good on the outside helps us to feel good on the inside.
- Mani/Pedi
- – Pamper yourself with a relaxing session of getting your nails buffed, massaged, manicured, and polished.
- Massage
- – Those stress knots aren’t going to work themselves out. Book that massage.
- Relaxing Bath
- – Enjoy a relaxing bath in your own home. Light some candles, throw in some Epsom salt and bath oils, put on some sultry music, lay back, and soak it up.
- Yoga
- – Meld into the movements and deep breathing that this exercise provides for the mind and body.
- Meditation
- – Take the time to tune out the world and get in tune with yourself. Let your mind focus on your breathing and your intentions, and get a little exercise for your emotional and mental health.
- Journal
- – Let it out. Write down your thoughts, feelings, a poem, a short story, (a blog post – it’s very therapeutic).
- Facial
- – Show your face some love with a facial. Enjoy this in the comfort of your home with a self-applied face treatment or book an appointment and be pampered by a professional.
- Take a Walk in Nature
- – Get outside and walk. Soak in your surroundings, enjoy the physical movement, listen to the music of the world or a podcast from your headphones, whatever floats your boat.
- Read a Good Book
- – Grab a cup of coffee/tea/wine (depending on the time of day) and get lost in a good book.
Conclusion
Try to find ways to involve self-care in your day-to-day, even in small amounts. For those bigger or more time-consuming activities, reach out to family and friends to help with your little ones.
Self-care is not something that you should feel guilty about. We need to break this mindset and think of it as a positive behavior that we can pass on to our children.
Self-care is not selfish, it’s essential.
My E-Book, The Warrior’s Guide to Motherhood: Survive & Thrive, is a great resource for learning more about self-care. Sign up for my email list to claim your free copy of my E-Book and learn more about self-care and why it’s important.
Cheers, Warriors!
I hope you enjoyed reading this post and found it entertaining, educational, inspiring—hopefully, all three. Please be sure to leave any comments or questions you have in the Comments section below.
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