Starting a business venture and raising a family can be the most stressful thing for a working mom. You're juggling family life, work-life and side hustle all in one. Managing different personalities and duties throughout your day.
I understand your struggle as I'm a working mom, managing my family with the help of a wonderful husband, and working on my business on my lunch break and at night.
I came up with 5 self-care routines that I use on myself, and they seem to help ease the anxiety of a busy life. I hope you use some of these methods, and drop me a comment to let me know how they work for you.
5 Important Reasons Why You Need Self-Care Routine
You need this, and that is plain and simple. Being a busy parent and spouse can sometimes push you into anxiety, and then BOOM, your brain comes to a halting stop. Creating these routines has really allowed me to set boundaries with myself. I know we all are superwomen and men. But we can't do it all, although we will try. We want to cut down on the chaos and get things done without losing your mind.
1. Helps Reduce Stress / Reduce Anxiety
Stress for me, as an ADHD woman, can come off as being impatient, and taking tasks personally, mind racing, and moving at the speed of light like an insane person, never finishing one job ultimately. You can't get anything complete if your stress and anxiety are high.
When my heart begins to race, and everything seems to be one blur. During this moment, I learned to STOP; I need a moment. I noticed my heart rate elevates, and I feel the urge to move on impulse when everyone and everything is coming at me all at once. My emotional and mental health are being pushed to a limit.
I take several deep breaths, close my eyes, and say, I can do this with ease and precision. Taking this full one to two minutes of decompaction allows everything around me to slow down. If the atmosphere is still stressful, I get up from my desk and go to the bath to calm myself, which works for the home. Bring your awareness to your breathing or focus to one point. This is a perfect self-care tip anyone can use at any time.
2. Prevent Burnout
Burnout can be very easy to do when your stress levels are elevated and you haven't done anything to calm your nerves. Some people may cry, get upset, or get snappy.
It's a mental and physical kill joy; you're completely exhausted and dread any action with people, places, and things. Leaving this unchecked will cause physical and psychological illness that affects your state of being.
I have had my days when getting out of bed was painful, and depression started. I didn't like the feeling and started to get active, getting to bed on time, and giving myself a morning routine that prepares me for the day and helps me look forward to what's ahead.
I try not to focus on the negative, which gives me an optimistic outlook on my day.
3. Help you Feel Well-rested and Energized.
The worst feeling ever is waking in the morning feeling tired and angry and not wanting to do your tasks for the day because you didn't get the rest you needed to start your day with energy.
Getting an excellent short night-time routine really helps with winding down for the night. Noting too grand but a little something to ease you right into counting sheep for the night.
One of my favorite night-time rituals is my night-time tea. I put it together myself for just this reason.
I needed to settle for the night to be well-rested for the next day, so I came up with this tea recipe in 5 Ways to Incorporate Herbalism into Your Daily Life(A Sips Of Tea Please). This blog will tell you what I use and what each herb does to relax you for the night.
4. Aids in Maintaining Focus and Refocusing.
A self-care routine helps with focusing on your tasks and pushing procrastination out of the way. Some days, the most challenging thing is staying on task, hours go by, and your brain has checked out. Now you find yourself on social- media scrolling for hours and never realized 2 hours have gone by and not a single task has been done.
When you noticed your mind drifts off, it's time to reroute to get your brain to refocus on the job at hand. First off, never ever get on social media for a brain break that will lead you down the rabbit hole. You should have a scheduled time to do all your emails and social media; that should not be the first thing you do.
I will get up from my desk, take a walk, get a snack, or have a bathroom break. Somedays, I may run the vacuum in the office just to get a moment of not thinking.
If I am at home, I will do the same or take a five-minute mediation from YouTube to get me back on track to complete my task.
5. Promotes Positive Healthy Outcomes.
We all want to be positive during the whole day and taking small self-care checks or routines to help keep things on the up and not come crashing down. When you schedule your practices throughout the day, it becomes a routine that you really do not have to think about.
A tea/ coffee break is something simple that will help with your relationship with the people around you. The routine of starting the Keurig, placing the K-cup in the dispenser, the smell of fresh brewing coffee, My favorite is Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll, adding your cream and sugar or just black as I sometimes like, experience enjoy that short period of time.
You're using all of your senses to make you feel good at that moment, and that first sip of that coffee is like heaven on earth. In that short 5 min time out, you have created something that resets your mind and makes you ready to take on the rest of the day. You're getting the physical, mental, and emotions involved; this sends signals through your whole body and releases hormones and happiness that will affect your response to things around you.
How Self-Care Helps Your Family
Your family is essential, and stressing about life challenges takes the joy of being with your family. Whether you believe it or not, what energy you serve your family is what energy they will pick up on. It most definitely will change the mood of everyone in the home.
Making sure you take some time to bring your stress levels down before interacting with your family. Clear that bad mojo so you can have a much more favorable encounter with your loved ones. Your kids and husband will thank you for it.
I have had a times where I come home like a raging storm, and one simple thing could change my mood for hours. Now, this is the hard part. When you notice that your mood is horrible, and everything is pissing you off. Stop and tell your family, Hey, Mom had a bad day, Let me get my bearings, and we can talk about all the things you want to.
As a mom of 4, my kids miss me, and when I come home, they want to hug me, kiss me and tell me about their day. I try someday to let go of that end of workday energy go before I get home. I listen to my favorite songs and sing along, or classical music to calm me. I may listen to my audiobooks or even my favorite spooky podcast.
Whatever I do, I try to fix it before seeing my family. When I can't let it go, that's when all hell breaks loose. Terrible traffic, people annoying me, anything just adds on to that feeling.
Using the time you have before you see your loved ones help save them from your blow-up. Because you couldn't handle the anxiety before getting home, and now all your kids are rushing to talk to you, and you blow.
That's not fair for your family; even if you need a few minutes in the car before walking in the door, do it. Take some deep breaths and release your bullshit; it's not your family's fault. The more you worked on that and became aware of your feelings, the better you can respond to what's going on around you.
You want a happy family that wants to talk to you when you get home, not a family that runs away the moment you walk through the door.
Self-Care Is A Priority, Not A Luxury
Now I know you have a million things to do, kids, husband, work in the day, and side hustling at night. Hunny, you need some me-time. It's not selfish to take a day or even just a few hours to relax. It's called self-care because you have to take care of self-first or be in a world of trouble.
You are a priority, and if you're not taking care of yourself, the stress will put you in a world of problems. Self-care is a priority, not a luxury.
Feeling refreshed and renewed helps you tackle that never-ending list; you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to feel brand new. Going to the hairdresser and nail shop is terrific, but if you don't have the time or funds, doing it yourself isn't a bad idea. It's a necessity to take some time for self-care.
Your emotional and mental state depends on taking time to regenerate your state of mind. In this next section, I will talk to you about a few cheap Do it your self ways to get some self-care into your daily living.
How Do Self-care At Home For Cheap
I am the queen of doing it yourself; I love nothing more than to do self-care and relaxation on myself. Don't get me wrong, I love to get my hair done and my nails, but if I can save money and time by doing it myself, I will.
The comfort of doing your own self-care routine can be refreshing, something you needed to keep moving through the day. So knowing that this is something I love, I listed 7 things I use to help me relax.
1. My skin is essential to keep up with; I love the way my skin glows and how smooth it is, so the Original Jade Roller and Gua Sha Set was a great buy. Stimulate my skin to apply my cleanses and Serums, and Moisturizers. It's such a
2. AAHHH who doesn't like a long bath with Epsom salt and fragrances, examples of products I use, BodyRestore Shower Steamers , Buff City Soap Epsom Salts, Shower Oils, and if I don't want to soak but want to relax in a shower, the Shower Fizzies.
3. I made myself a meditation 8 Minute Clear Mind, and it works wonders; I do this whenever my mind feels chaotic.
4. I love to journal when I'm not writing blogs or content. I journal In my Calico Goal journal that my daughter and I collaborated on. I look for more room to write, so an 8x 10 journal helps keep me on track with my goal. Best thing I ever made. I use it all the time.
5. If you like to read as I do. Read The Extremely Busy Woman's Guide to Self-Care: Do Less, Achieve More, and Live the Life You Want (A Self Care Journal Gift for Women and Busy Moms. Excellent book with some great ideas for a busy mom. It is an interactive activity book, and this book makes you think and see how to be mindful and careful with yourself.
6. I love this 52 card set. When you run out of ideas or want some random surprise check out: 52 Stress Less & Self Care Cards - Mindfulness & Meditation Exercises - Anxie
7. I know this is weird, but this simple work-like item helps with my anxiety and puts my to-do list to work. I schedule out my week using Trello, and Buffer works wonders for me in my content.
Now, these excellent tips should help you spend some time and love on yourself, and seriously using some of the 7 self-care items I listed will help you so much. Selfcare is about self-love and knowing when you need time to refresh you, all of you. Don't burn yourself out trying to be everything for everybody. Take some time to be yourself; so you can be all you can for others.
That's all I have for this week. Love ya !!! Until next time Hunns.
