After 9 months of beautiful anticipation, our sweet baby girl finally arrived three weeks ago today! As new parents, we prepared as best we could by taking classes, reading articles and talking with experienced friends and family, but at the same time we didn't really know what to expect. We knew there'd be sleepless nights and there'd be crying but we also knew we'd fall instantly in love forever with our amazing creation.
Through that love and exhaustion and because of about 7 years of studying wellness-related topics on my own, I’ve realized that the trick, for me at least, is to practice self-kindness and love as often as possible. And when I feel super tired, I'm more susceptible to stress, but if I remind myself in those moments of afterwards to breathe and ground myself, I feel better.
That is why finding mindfulness throughout the day, but especially in the middle of the night when our baby girl needs us, helps me keep going and focus on the amazing little human in front of me.
For me, finding mindfulness means taking the time to breathe, to go easy on myself when I don't have all the answers, to go at my own pace, to not feel pressured by others' ideas or expectations. Finding mindfulness really means making it a priority to savor as many moments as possible. I don't want to say every moment because when you haven't slept very many hours, some memories get blurry but practicing self-love and kindness by treating yourself nicely requires not being hard on yourself when you forget to savor every minute. We are human after all. But if we can return to mindful awareness as often as possible or as soon as we remember, we can savor so much more in life and enjoy all the beauty becoming a parent has to offer.
May we never lose sight of the sheer miracle of life we created!
How do you practice mindfulness when you're feeling really tired?
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