Daily Practice
- Try and get out into nature, or outdoors, even for a few minutes. Nature has an amazing way of calming, recharging, and slowing us down. Touch a tree or a flower, smell the air, or listen to the rain. When you’re outside take 5 deep breaths and soak in the fresh air. It will help you reset, and bring your awareness back to now.
- Embrace blank space on your calendar. We are always trying to get so much done, and we usually overestimate how much we can physically, or mentally, accomplish in a day. Take a look at your calendar each day for the upcoming week, or month, and make sure that blank space is there. If it isn’t, find the things that aren’t high on your priority list to eliminate.
Sleep
- Who is tired? Or more likely sleep-deprived. Go to bed early! It may not be every night, but try to regularly find nights that you can get to bed before 10 pm. The stuff to get done late at night will always be there. The benefit of getting in that extra sleep is huge.
- Ways to get yourself ready for an earlier bedtime?
- Don’t get sucked into staring at your phone mindlessly. It will lead to a 30 minute (or more!) time suck. Keep electronics out of your hand for 30 minutes to an hour before bed.
- If you like reading or journaling before bed do that for 20 minutes before bed.
- Do some stretches for 10 minutes. They can help you sleep better. You can even keep a yoga mat next to your bed as your reminder.
- Are you regularly going through your to-do list in your head when you should be trying to sleep? Have a notepad next to your bed to do a brain dump before getting to sleep.
Positive affirmations
- Using positive affirmations every single day can help reduce stress, make you more confident, and make you happier. You can say the phrase of positive affirmation to yourself silently in your head, look at yourself in the mirror and say it, or write it down. You can even record yourself saying it, and listen to it throughout the day.
- Sometimes moms need their own specific affirmations, including working and stay-at-home moms, and single moms. Here are 100 of them to help you get started. And another 100 for good measure.
Meditation/Mindfulness
Meditation and mindfulness doesn’t have to be time consuming, or look a certain way.
- A couple we pulled from this article that lists 45 self-care practices are super simple and easy. (1) Just be still. It only takes a minute. Look around and notice your surroundings. Take a breath. (2) Take deep breaths at a stop light. This is a way to sneak in meditation with no excuses for lack of time. Take a few deep breaths and focus on the present. Check in with yourself in the nooks and crannies of your day, and you will feel better for it.
Mindfulness and meditation while cleaning? Why not!
- Here’s the ‘Housework Meditation’ technique you can incorporate: Focus only on the task at hand, and your breathing. Breathe normally, just pay attention to it, and the task at hand. Try and catch yourself when you start thinking about something else, something irrelevant to the task at hand. Then – without berating yourself for losing concentration – move your focus back to the task at hand. Repeat until the task is done.
- You can also incorporate mindfulness when you’re washing dishes, doing laundry, and de-cluttering. Melissa from Mindful Minutes also discusses sweeping in this article. “The repetitive nature of this common household chore may offer you some relaxation, if you can bring your attention to just the recurring actions you’re engaging in. You can also try incorporating a mantra while you sweep—any mantra would work, for example silently saying “May I be happy” as you take one sweeping step, and “May I feel at peace,” as you sweep again.”
Exercise
It’s a challenge for many of us to exercise regularly, even if we truly want to. But you don’t have to look for that block of time that seems so elusive. This article shares 25 ways you can sneak in more exercise by incorporating it into your daily life.
Here are some ideas:
- In the car. Did you know that deep breathing is excellent for building core strength? Take a deep breath into your back, pushing against the seat of the car. I like “box breathing” in the car. Inhale for a count of four, hold it for four, feeling your ribs expand, exhale for a count of four, feeling your core engage and ribs come back together, hold it for four.
- Brushing your teeth. Squat while brushing your teeth! You can get over 100 squats done per day brushing for 2 minutes twice a day.
- Glute squeezes any time you’re sitting down, watching tv, at dinner, working, or driving.
- Picking up toys – Lunge down to the floor to pick up the toys, exhale on the way up. Switch legs often. It actually helps your back as well.
- Doing dishes – Calf raises at the sink, as many as you can.