Learn the best tips for including self-care in your life as a busy mom
Women’s self-care routines, tips and ideas are becoming more and more popular in google search as an increasing number of moms find themselves becoming more stressed with their everyday lives.
Self-care in my life as a busy mom seems like an impossible reality…. I have 4 kids, how on earth would I have time to think about myself when every possible minute I am catering to my kiddos’ every needs?
But I know the importance of self-care. Moms need to take care of themselves if they want to be able to take care of their children.
Self care is important!! The truth is, you will be a better mom if you invest in yourself first. And life just gets more fun after you do that!
What is Self Care?
Rina Meushaw, from Balanced Working Moms, explains it simply:
“Self-Care is about taking care of yourself and the things that are important to you so you can enjoy your one precious, gorgeous life.” -Rina Meushaw
Beautifully stated!
It’s not a far off reality, it doesn’t involve a lot of money or a lot of time. Self-care is for all moms, no matter what situation or life stage they are in. Self-care is important with the goal of helping yourself to ultimately feel better day after day.
The Dimensions of Self-Care
When practicing self-care, the end goal is to incorporate activities that include a mix of each of The 5 Dimensions into normal everyday lifestyle.
- Physical: Health eating, sleep, exercise, medical health and self appearance
- Social: Having a strong relationship with those people surrounding you in your everyday life
- Intellectual: pursuit of learning, becoming educated and involved in new ideas and concepts
- Emotional: Having a clear idea of your feelings, stress management and how you show love towards others
- Spiritual: Focusing on your spiritual relationship, your values and your beliefs
How Do You Accomplish Self-Care?
Develop a routine that works best for your schedule
Are you are morning person or an evening person. Do you like to wake up early and get a fresh start to the day or do you like to unwind after the kids go to bed. Whichever woman you are, block off that 15-30 minutes of ME TIME, and don’t let anything get in the way of it.
Once you have developed a routine, it’s important to stick to the routine and make it a habit
Usually your body adapts to changes in which things become second nature in a matter of 30-90 days. Don’t give up after 7 days of trying a new routine or a new ritual. Give it some time and eventually your routine will feel more natural.
For example, when the clocks turn back, it’s hard to adjust to the time change, but after several weeks, everyone in the family is back on track and it’s like the clocks had never changed.
The same goes for you and putting in a slot of time for your own personal “Self-Care”. Block off 15- 30 minutes a day to devote just to you, MOM, and your body and mind will surely appreciate it weeks from now.
Make A List of 5 Things You Want To Focus On During Your Self-Care Time
Some examples of some action items you may want to consider putting on your self-care list include:
- Bible Study
- Worship Music or Relaxing Music
- Praying
- Drinking Water
- Eating a Healthy Snack while reading a book
- Exercise or yoga
- Words of Affirmation over yourself
- Speak Words of Affirmation over your loved ones, or even over those you have a distant relationship with
- Mental Role Play how you can be a better mom to your children
- Work on a hobby: adult coloring book, knitting, journaling
- Take a 15-20 min cat nap and get some much needed rest
- Organize your to-do lists and calendar, have a plan for the week
At the end of your alone time away from distractions, devote the last 2 minutes to having a plan for the next 24 hours. What is the one thing you want to focus on that will ultimately improve the way you take care of yourself?
Related: 50 Self Care Ideas For First Time Moms by MamaBuzz
Make A Lifestyle Change
Maybe today you want to devote your attention to drinking more water and putting away all the soda in the house. Maybe you just might want to dump the soda out completely.
Or do you feel like today is the day you want to speak positively about the people surrounding you? There might be too much negativity and complaining in the house and you want to make a change to bring peace into your home – you know it starts with you, Mom, and your words.
Whatever area in your life that you feel called to make a change in, start there. Self-Care is ongoing, it’s not just the 15-30 minutes of “me time” but it’s the 24 hours, day-after-day time that really makes self-care a reality.
It’s a lifestyle change, it’s a commitment to yourself. Yes, as a mom you have far more important things to do and focus on, but just think how much better you will feel knowing that you are your best self and your children are seeing what a great example of a mom really is.
“A Mother’s Harvest” by Mara Beth Sorenson
Excerpt from A Mother’s Harvest: “Being a Mom is one of the toughest jobs you will ever have. We realize that the greatest gift that we can give our kids is a future. The legacy that we pass onto our children is like a harvest we reap after we sow into their lives….”
Benefits of Self-Care
There is no better way to explain the benefits for Self-Care than by giving you one of my favorite Bible verses:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” -Galatians 5:22-23
Benefits of Self-Care:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Faithfulness
- Gentleness
- Self Control
With much practice, discipline, focus, drive and devotion, your commitment to Self-Care and “Taking-Care-of-Mommy-First” mentality will ultimately lead to much better things. You will effortlessly be pouring out joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control all around your home and into your family. Mom life just got a lot better.
We all know that more is caught than taught. What better lesson to teach your children than the concept of Self-Care. Even through the struggles and the endless hours of parenting, Mommy was able to maintain her cool and look good doing it! 🙂
Related: 7 Tips To Find Balance Between Work and Family
Now Is Your Time!
So now that you have a clear understanding of what Self-Care is all about and how to incorporate it into your life, what area do you think you want to focus on first? I would love to hear from you. Comment below and let me know your struggles and successes with Self-Care and mommy life.
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Love how you broke it down with the dimensions. It’s something I hadn’t thought of especially with a lot of self care talk lately. Thank for all the valuable tips and information!
Angel, Glad you enjoyed it and hope the tips help you.
I never thought of planning out my week in my Happy Planner as self-care.
But, truly, it is! It takes me a good, thirty minutes or so, and I actually feel better afterwards.
I also get a lot of spiritual self care in, because it’s my job, but that’s about it.
Everything else is lacking. Definitely something I need to work on!
Thanks for sharing!
Emily, I love your Happy Planner routine! 30 minutes is awesome! Glad you enjoyed this post.
I understand the 4 kids taking up so much ofnyiur time! I have 8 kids, but the youngest are teenagers now (whole different kind of chaos, lol).
Love your ideas especially taking a few minutes at the end of each self care time to think about the next 24 hours. I’m currently working on getting to sleep earlier each night as well as a little bit of pampering each day. I got myself a massage chair for Christmas and have been spending 15 minutes in it every day.
Shannah, wow you have your hands full! Good for you. That’s amazing all that you manage. You so deserve your alone time (in that amazing massage chair!)
I’ve never seen self care broken down into dimensions. It’s a great way to look at it because you think of things as self care that you might not normally. When I think of self care, I usualy picture a relaxing bath or writing in my journal. A night out with friends is self care because it can be uplifting. Eating a healthy snack is also self care because you are nourishing your body. Thank you for sharing.
Darcy, Glad you saw self-care in a different way. It doesn’t have to be too complicated but what’s most important is that you are focused on yourself and nothing else!
Just love the way your broke it out into those dimesions. It’s seems so easy to get stuck in just one of them.
Julia, I’m glad you enjoyed the post! Hope it helps you.
These are great tips! I think I will wake up earlier and read the Bible. I was doing this at the beginning of the year and fell off. This is a great reminder.
Andrea, I’m glad this inspired you. Reading the Bible first thing in the morning is a great way to start the day!
So needed to see this! It’s usually everyone else’s care before mine!
Rashmi, definitely take the time, even if it’s a short period of time, to take care of yourself!
I love that you broke down self are into the different dimensions, so it’s more evident what activities actually fall under the “taking care of yourself” umbrella. I also like that you’ve pointed out that kids learn by seeing us model a behaviour rather than us telling them to do a behaviour. Prioritizing taking care of ourselves is definitely a skill to pass along to our offspring.
Anna, I’m glad you liked it. Our kids can learn so much from us without us even realizing it.
Self-care nowadays seems to be an act of the past.
It’s hard to keep up with everything but our health is only in our hands and we shouldn’t compromise on it no matter what. At times, we need to give a break to our busy schedules, start talking to ourselves, listen to music and enjoy the nature around us to be stress-free.
You’ve laid out everything in detail, and I loved your post.
I’m so glad you liked it. Yes, it’s important to take care of our body and mind and work towards being stress-free! Agreed.