As I sit here on a Friday night with about 10 spare minutes before I have to pick up my daughter, I am enjoying and embracing a few moments to myself to decompress from the week and reflect. Recently, I have had several conversations about self-care and what that means to us as busy moms or working professionals or both. With Spring here and Summer approaching, I’m sure we are all looking at ourselves and thinking about the usual self care topics.
“How do I lose those extra 10 lbs. before getting into a bathing suit?”
“Maybe I should think about shaving my legs again?”
Self-tanner or try to sit in the sun at my kids’ next sporting event?”
While these are all normal questions (relatively speaking) we may ask ourselves, self -care goes so much deeper than that. With our busy daily schedules, it is so easy to literally make it from start to finish and never take a single moment for ourselves. I bet half the time you are even wondering if you ate 3 meals that day. Where does this lead to? Extreme burnout and fatigue! Trust me, I have absolutely been there. In fact, I will be completely candid and tell you that I spent the evening of Valentine’s Day crying and breaking down to my husband that I had hit a wall. It was a rare moment for me but one that I hope you all can relate to on some level. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we take on the weight of the world at the expense of our own well-being and happiness?
For me, I have this strange sense that I can’t relax or unwind unless everything is taken care of. House is clean and perfect, laundry is done, lunches are made and everything is right in the world. You can guess how many times that happens in my household just like I’m sure it is a rare occasion in yours.
I find that I have to force myself at times to really sit down for a few minutes and take a breather, enjoy a hot bath or pick up a book for a quick chapter read, browse social media to escape, or even put on a favorite TV show or movie, yet all of these things allow me to hit the refresh button and get back to that never ending to do list a little later.
Self-care can also include small things that make us feel good about ourselves. One of these things for me is the simple act of getting my eyebrows done. It literally costs me $8 to have them threaded and if I time it right, less than 30 minutes back and forth from the house, yet it is always the errand that I put last on my weekend list. Once I do make it a priority (usually when I just can’t stand it anymore), for some reason, I just feel refreshed and renewed. It sounds silly but these small little acts that we do for ourselves can really make the difference between overextending ourselves and truly being the best moms, wives, sisters and friends we can be.
While finding balance is one of the hardest things to do, it is so critical to our mental health and ultimately to our physical health as well. As you walk through each day over the next week, try to think consciously about taking those few minutes to yourself, or maybe look ahead and try to sneak away for a quick pedicure on your way home one day. I guarantee it will make a huge difference to your outlook and you will be a much better mom when you walk through those doors at the end of the day.