A beginner’s guide to mindfulness for mums

mindfulness for mums
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*This is a guest post 

Every mum needs to take a moment to breathe so she can relax and enjoy life.

As a mum, you’re busy. Period. The vast majority of your day focuses on getting kids ready — for school or daycare or the day in general — cooking meals and cleaning the house. If you work outside the home, you have the added responsibility of doing your job. All of these tasks are exhausting and stressful. More often than not, you are so focused on the needs of others, you don’t take the time to focus on yourself.

Being mindful means you spend your day being fully present and aware of what you are doing and where you are. If you are mindful, you don’t get overwhelmed or overreact to what is going on around you. By practicing mindfulness every day, it becomes easier to incorporate into your life.

As a parent, you know at any given moment there can be a lot of stuff going on around you. Your child can be throwing a temper tantrum while you are trying to talk on the phone or prepare dinner or shop. You may be at the park trying to talk to friends and keep an eye on your child. If you have more than one child, you know your attention is divided in multiple directions no matter where you are.

And this is just focusing on your family. It doesn’t account for your mind wandering to what you have to do at work. You can feel like you’re being pulled in multiple directions and feel incredibly stressed. However, it’s possible to learn mindfulness and stay calm and focused throughout the day. Below are a few useful tips to become more mindful.

Take a Few Moments Every Day to Focus

You don’t need to set aside a lot of time to become mindful and focused. Even 5 minutes will be enough. Take a few deep breaths and focus on what is going on around you. You don’t have to try to change anything in your environment or shut out any distractions. You just need to be aware of what is occurring. Try not to judge what’s happening. Just take it all in.

Of course, if you’d like to find a quiet space to be by yourself to meditate, that’s okay, too. The most important aspect of this exercise is to be in the moment and take in what is happening right then. This can be done first thing in the morning when you wake up, before you get out of bed, or right before you go to bed. You can also do this throughout the day when you find a good moment.

Keep People Close to You Who Make You Feel Complete

When you focus on your family, you often don’t have time to talk to the other people who mean the most to you. It’s not done on purpose, of course. It’s just because you are so busy. Whether it’s extended family or friends, it’s important to stay in touch with people who make you laugh, who inspire you and who encourage you to do your best.

These same people can also be there for you when you need to vent some frustration or stress and help you find ways to solve problems. Taking a few moments to connect with loved ones can, in return, make you feel love and connected, which contributes to your happiness.

Do Something Just for You

Does wearing bright colours make you happy? What about a certain type of shoes? Do you enjoy the sight and scent of flowers? Maybe you enjoy being outside. If so, take time to work on your yard or plant a garden. Making small changes to your life like adding bright colors or flowers or having a garden can give you a sense of accomplishment and reconnect you with the earth.

When you feel more confident and happy, you are more mindful. Take a small step to improve your mood, and it might change your outlook on the world. If you’re happy, you’ll be able to handle stress better, and you’ll just feel good.

Find Time to Exercise

You hear all the time how important it is to exercise, but when your day is filled with running errands, going to the office or taking kids to school and sporting events, it can be nearly impossible to find time to go to the gym. After all, that is at least an hour commitment out of your day. And, let’s be honest, there’s probably something more exciting you want to do in that hour than get sweaty.

Exercise is important not only to keep you healthy, but also because it increases your energy levels and releases endorphins, which can bring about feelings of well-being and euphoria. Exercise also helps relieve stress. All of these aspects contribute to you being more mindful of what is going on around you and helping you get through those busy days.

Exercise doesn’t have to be a gigantic commitment. It absolutely can be if that’s what you prefer, but if you only have time to squeeze in 20 minutes every day to exercise, then do it. And it doesn’t have to be intense. It can involve your family:

  • Take a 20-minute walk
  • Dance with your kids
  • Chase your kids around the yard

Yoga can also be another good way to get in exercise and quiet moments of reflection. It’s possible yoga may be more of a time commitment than just 20 minutes, but if that’s what you want to do, do it. To be the best you can be for your family, you have to take some time for yourself. Yoga, like any exercise, can be a great way to refocus and recharge.

As a mum, you have a lot of stuff to do throughout the day — and some of those days are going to be more overwhelming than others. However, by being mindful of what is going on around you and taking a few moments each day to focus, you’ll be able to find productive and stress-free methods to deal with whatever life throws your way. This will allow you to be happy and enjoy your family and life.

Author bio: Jennifer Landis is the passionate freelance writer and healthy living blogger behind the blog Mindfulness Mama.

Picture credit: Designed by Freepik

18 comments

  1. Such important advice! So right that mums often forget to take time out and do something just for them – my “special” time is my blog, and the quiet moments I get in the morning when the kids have gone to school. I relish those moments! Will definitely start to try and be more mindful when doing more mundane things, too – live more in the moment!

  2. I feel busy enough without a kid, I can’t imagine how tough and busy life becomes when you have kids. It must be so important to take time out for yourself when ever you can x

  3. It’s so important to have some time out. I agree totally with all the suggestions, I just wish that I was better at implementing them all. Lovely tips. I shall try harder!

  4. Yes to this! It can be so easy to neglect ourselves can’t it?! We have so much going on, sadly it is often the case. These tips are fab to get back to loving ourselves again! After all, we are all superheroes, so that needs some pretty serious looking after 😉

  5. It must be so intense being a parent so I applaud that you are promoting mindfulness for mums. I like the sound of yoga, I have done it before and it is a good way to take time out x

  6. I was introduced to mindfulness through having cbt. It’s great. I always take time out and I love dancing with the kids. X

  7. Take a Few Moments Every Day to Focus – it’s something I try to get, sometimes it’s hard and I miss out, but it helps with the stress xx

  8. I would like to try to do something just for me more often because when I do, I must admit, it makes me feel wonderful. For example having a facial. This makes me feel special because it is entirely just for me. Even thinking about my upcoming appointment relaxes me and makes me feel happy, it is quite like the Christmas Eve feeling that I used to have and enjoy as a child!

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