When you’re a parent, you’re constantly juggling many duties from your job to your kids’ activities to the housework and more, which leaves little time and energy to concentrate on your personal needs. Self-care can easily become neglected as you go about your day to day life. Although this constant selfless giving as a parent feels right, habitually putting your needs last can harm your physical and mental health. You may become agitated, exhausted, stressed, and prone to full-blown burnout.
By taking better care of yourself, you’ll be able to satisfy your own needs, making you better able to care for your family. If you’re not sure where to start, here are some simple self-care techniques you can introduce to your lifestyle straight away.
1. Exercise
It can be difficult for moms to maintain the regular exercise schedule they indulged in before the little ones came along. However, there are steps you can take to get more active again.
One of the best ways to be active as a mom is to select activities you can do with your kids, such as swimming or even outdoor play. These will not only improve your own health, but you’ll help to improve theirs too. For example, my parents often took us for a family walk after supper or for hikes and bike rides together. Growing up with such an active lifestyle modelled for me has helped me to keep it up with my own children.
There are numerous ways to incorporate exercise into your routine as a mom. If you have room in your home, you can create a fun exercise space where the kids can “workout” while you do. If you don’t have space, you can use home workout videos or even find simple exercises (such as a series of squats, planks, etc) that you can do in your living room with your kids.
My goal with my kids this year is to go for a short run each day. My youngest is high energy and often starts running circles around the house just because. We have a route we run together that takes about 20 minutes, and I find that all of us feel happier and more refreshed after getting out for that run.
2. Wake up Early
Starting your day as early as possible is one of the simplest methods to guarantee you don’t miss out on the alone time you desperately need. Of course, you shouldn’t skimp on sleep if you need it, but the mornings can be an excellent time for self-care.
Exercise, pray, journal, read a book, or give yourself a brief at-home massage – these are all simple ways to feel better about yourself and start the day right.
3. Include Micro Self Care in Your Routine
Let’s face it, with so many errands to run, it is impractical to take hour-long champagne baths or go cloud-watching every day. The key is to practise self-care frequently to easily fit it into your hectic schedule. Maybe once a month you can ask your partner or mom to take the kids so you can have a facial or go for coffee without kids in tow; on a daily basis, you’ll feed to find micro self care routines that fit into your schedule.
Try writing for five minutes in your journal before you go to bed, listening to your favourite podcast or music while you drive the kids around or wash the disehs, making your favourite dish on the weekends, or even something as simple as taking five minutes for breathing exercises.
Again, you can involve the kids in these practices. Some moms have a mandatory “quiet time” after lunch, where the children can sit in their bed doing quiet activities such as reading, listening to an audiobook, or playing with small toys, while Mom also has some quiet time to read or drink a coffee. Have the kids sit and breathe deep with you for a few minutes. Take turns giving each other a shoulder massage or brushing each other’s hair.
4. Take Care of Your Overall Health
Since when did you last have a complete physical examination? You are vital to your family, so never neglect your own health. Make time to arrange dentist appointments and book that doctor’s appointment that you might have been putting off. As you get older, it becomes more important to do routine scans that can help detect health problems such as cancer before they get too serious.
Exhaustion, depression, weight gain, skin problems and many other “minor” health concerns we may overlook can point to deeper health problems. All of these self-care tips are meant to help reduce stress in our lives, which can contribute to overall health. Taking high-quality supplements and improving your gut health can also help you function better and have more energy to chase your kids.
In addition, get your hearing tested if you think your hearing is declining so that you can monitor the health of your ears. Regular testing can help identify any changes in your hearing and ensure appropriate treatment is given. It can help you prevent any long-term damage to your hearing and prevent permanent hearing loss or other ear infections that could impair your quality of life.
Make sure that you’re also visiting your dentist regularly. If you check out this family dentist in Ballwin now, they’ll tell you although brushing and flossing every day are great ways of taking care of your teeth, there are still some issues that only dentists can diagnose. Regular checkups can help you catch those issues before they become bigger health problems.
5. Sleep Well
Sleeping enough is a fundamental self-care habit. It reduces stress, enhances cardiovascular health, fortifies the immune system, and sharpens memory.
While routinely cutting back on sleep affects cognitive performance, it also increases your risk of illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease. If you wake up tired even when you feel you’ve spent enough time asleep, your mattress may be at fault. An older mattress or one that doesn’t fit your body type may be causing you to sleep poorly. It may be time to shop for a new, comfortable mattress, such as those supplied by Archers Sleep Centre, to get the rest that you deserve.
That way, even if you are inclined to complete a few extra things when the kids are sleeping, you won’t be compromising your sleep.
What self-care do you practice? Share your tips in the comments below!
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