Baby Steps Back to Self-Care

 

Self-care and wellness are two of my favorite things to read about, practice, and share with others. So it's pretty ironic that when I became a mom, I forgot how to care for myself. I guess I figured that my extended maternity leave was enough since it felt like a gigantic step to taking care of my needs and desire to be home longer with my little one, after waiting 37 years to become a mom. 

But now, 4 and a half months in and baby’s first bad cold later, I'm realizing I really need to make a new momma self-care plan and stick to it! This isn't just essential to my health but to my family’s wellbeing too, because everything runs more smoothly when the momma bear is happy and peaceful. I know it's not realistic to be happy all the time and I want to honor all my feelings, but I do want to stay more grounded and feel more peaceful at least. 

Time flies in general but you really truly don't see it with your bare eyes as much as when you watch a baby grow and change! It's incredible all that she's learned and how much she's grown over the past four and a half months! If I think about it too long, I already feel nostalgic and want time to slow down, but I know the only way to “slow time down” is by being more mindful and savoring every moment that we have with this bright-eyed, amazing little human who has chosen us as her parents.

So how to get started? Well, regular, daily bite-sized pieces of self-care (or “baby steps” quite fittingly) are always my go-to way to begin a new habit and help it stick. And what I've found helpful as well is using social media and/or my blog to post my progress and help hold me accountable. So starting today--because why wait until tomorrow when you can do something about it today?!--I will carve out at least a few minutes of each day for myself. That means practicing more self-advocacy, delegating, communicating my needs, and taking better care of myself in return. 

For me, expressing my creativity and being in nature are my favorite things to do for myself. These have been my self-care favorites since before becoming a momma, so in a way, by practicing them a little bit everyday now, I will also be helping reestablish my unique identity apart from my greatest role ever of being my baby's momma. I know my daughter someday will want to learn what her momma likes to do, in addition to playing with and taking care of her children. I also know how important it is to model self-care for my daughter so she can begin good, healthy habits early in her life. So by taking better care of myself, I really am taking better care of my daughter. So here's to guilt free self-care!

What things do you do for yourself? Are you making time for those things right now? How can you sprinkle in a few minutes of one of these things you like to do for yourself everyday?

If you’d like support, I’m here for you. You can learn more about my life coaching services at: http://owningyourgoodness.wordpress.com.

The Courageous Act of Rest

 

Sometimes I put pressure on myself to get stuff done, to do magic tricks and juggle caring for my four-month-old while taking care of our home and starting my own business. But then there are days when my baby girl has a cold and so do I and both our energy is waning and all we can muster is snuggling on the couch, nursing and napping. And that is productive. It's just not how we’re taught to view productivity. Rest is so underrated but so so necessary for everything to run smoothly. I've come to believe that colds have a way of slowing us down so we’re forced to rest. But what if we incorporated rest in our everyday lives? Would we feel better? Have less colds? I think we just might.

But how can we get everything done that we need to get done while also making time for rest? I know for me, since becoming a mom, I've found time for rest when breastfeeding. But I find myself still trying to multitask and for example write a blog post or read articles while nursing. What if I took more time to take deep belly breaths instead? Or if I distanced myself from technology more and colored instead? Creativity is rest for me. Collaging relaxes me. It's challenging to do though while breastfeeding but visualizing is entirely possible. And using our minds to improve our wellness is also a creative and valuable task.

I read a quote earlier today about how we can make any task a meditation by focusing on that one thing mindfully. Or by NOT multitasking. Yes, unitasking may be the key to finding windows of rest in our day. I know, I know, it goes against all we've been taught, but what if we gave it a try for at least a few minutes during each of our days? How would our lives change? How would our health change? How would we feel? I dare you to give it a try. 

What part of your day can you dedicate to unitasking?


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