Mother’s Day
May is the month we celebrate Mother’s Day. We often wait for others to provide us with breakfast in bed, five minutes peace and some indulgent gifts. However, it is important that as mothers we do not wait until this one day in the year for others to acknowledge our efforts, time, love and kindness. We as parents and particularly mothers need to show appreciation to ourselves and engage in self care routines to replenish our energies and keep our minds and bodies well.
Below are five tips for caring for yourself year round.
Pamper Day
Today our shopping centres offer a huge range of activities to engage in that involve self care and relaxation. These include having a hair wash, head massage and blow wave, 30 minute massage, cafes and nail bars. Even if you can not afford these indulgences you can make some time at home to soak in the bath, do your nails, put on a face mask and relax on the couch.
Yoga Session
Regularly engaging in self care activities such as yoga can help relax our mind and our bodies. It is the opportunity to leave the daily activities behind and have an hour of peace and pay attention to yourself.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the practice of letting go of the past and what is going to happen in the future and instead focusing on the present moment and what is happening around you right now. This is a time of no judgement, good or bad, but rather just being. There are some fantastic apps with short mediation and mindfulness scripts that allow you to readily access mindfulness practice at home on your time. Some apps that provide short mindfulness exercises are
Exercise
Whether it be gentle or more intense exercise it is important for our mind and body to engage in it regularly. Exercise stimulates brain chemicals that can contribute to a increased feelings of happiness and being relaxed. We also know that regular exercise can boost endurance, helps your cardiovascular system work more efficiently and as a consequence your have more energy to tackle your every day activities. The other added benefit is that exercise helps improve sleep, as you fall asleep faster and it deepen your sleep. A cautionary note however is not to exercise too close to bedtime as this will energies your brain and body.
Date/Friend Night
One of the other most important things to do for ourselves is to nurture our intimate and close adult relationships. This is a child free night in the literal and figurative sense, in that there will be no children along for the ride and it is a challenge to try not to speak about the children about instead about your interests, hobbies and dreams.
Take care…. all year round.