I want to start by wishing all you mamas out there a very happy belated Mother’s Day!
After celebrating yesterday with my family, and being pampered and thanked for being a mom, I got to thinking of this topic — finding time for me In a day.
I have blogged about this before, but I find it continuously creeps into my life, which tells me I need to do a better job at it.
I was recently at one of my mom and baby group sessions that take place every Thursday afternoon. The topic on this particular Thursday was “Celebrating You”. Wow was this an emotional afternoon! Little did I know that we would be going around in a circle and sharing our intimate stories of motherhood — what we need to work on and what we do for ourselves as mothers to take care of ourselves. What an amazing therapy session, let me tell you!
When it came my turn, I expressed my “struggle” as having too high of expectations on myself and for myself in a day, and my “one thing to work on” is trying to find a couple minutes of “me time” in a day. I expressed that my issue is not that I don’t get this time (my husband is great at taking care of his share of the responsibilities), but rather that I fill this time with hundreds of tasks. I end up burning out, rather than re-charging.
The nurse putting on the session made an excellent suggestion that I wanted to share with all of you — start by giving yourself 10 minutes a day. Just 10 minutes. During that time, do something for you. Read a book. Sip on tea (or better yet, a glass of wine — come on, you know you deserve it). Call a friend. Go for a walk. Have a bath. Close your eyes. Do nothing. Whatever it is, do something for you to re-charge.
Start with 10 minutes. Hopefully you can obtain more, but start with this. It truly makes a difference. Make a conscious effort in your day to do this. Incorporate it into your routine. This should be as important of a step in your day as brushing your teeth or eating breakfast. Try it. The results are amazing!
Happy 10 minutes!
M.J.
