Stressed mum? Mindful practices to be a stress-free mum in 2023

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Photo by Anthony Tran from Unsplash

Between the everyday caregiving demands, little time for oneself, working from home, skyrocketing inflation rates that change our perception of finances each day, and the continually evolving Covid-19 landscape, highly stressed mums find themselves at their breaking point. 

As a self-proclaimed stressed mum, I am constantly whipped in so many different directions each new day that sometimes I’m unsure if it’s night or day. So mindfulness for mums? Is that even possible, you may ask yourself? What if I tell you that by learning how to focus on advocating for change in what’s outside of our control and making tiny changes to those small items within our actual locus of control, we can all learn to cope better with the many stressors facing us these days? 

Mindfulness is the tool every mum can adopt to slow down time and freeze the busyness or at least the perception of busyness. And it can change your life from the inside out! In this article, I’ll provide five simple, tried, and tested mindfulness tips for mums that you can start practicing immediately and calm down the chaos around you – perfect for every stressed mum!

Regularly Check In With Yourself

Begin with paying more attention and perceiving what you feel like and what your body and mind actually need. At the end of the day, mindfulness is anything you do to take better care of yourself.

And I’m not suggesting making the initial down payment for the car of your dreams. That is not what mindfulness is about. Instead, Mindfulness is about practicing small acts of self-care. For example, mindfulness is when you enjoy when your partner brings you a glass of fresh water while you’re breastfeeding or just holds the baby while you take a 10-minute break to enjoy your lunch and favourite gummy vitamins in front of the TV. 

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Photo by Picsea from Unsplash

All these small activities can make a significant impact on your sense of well-being and mindfulness. Know what you like and communicate with your partner to help you achieve these small pleasures. After all, comforts that make you feel more like yourself always help!

Take A Breathing Break When You Feel Overwhelmed

In my personal opinion, tuning into our breath is one of the most important mindfulness tools we can start practicing. Sometimes, when I feel overwhelmed by being a new parent, I realize that my breath is shallow or that I’m barely breathing at all.

Taking multiple breathing breaks during the day helps me reduce the stress and tension I face daily. Keep in mind that it’s scientifically proven that holding your breath and not taking deep breaths into your stomach deprive your body of oxygen, which significantly contributes to anxiety, stress, exhaustion, and sometimes even sickness.

Instead, take a breathing break to simply tune into your breath so that you can begin to think and act more clearly and get ahold of your emotional intelligence. That’s what mindfulness is all about.

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Start Setting Intentions For Each New Day 

Start setting intentions for yourself slowly, with one new intention each day. For example, you can set your daily intention during your three-minute morning routine before you jump out of bed to see why your baby is crying. For day no.1, you can go with something like—today, I will become more aware of how I speak to my husband. Pretty easy, right? 

After making the intention, you should practice paying extra attention for the entire day. Watch your behaviours and thoughts. Then, when you become angry with your partner because of the way they left the dishes under the sink, you will remember your intention and stop yourself from overreacting.    

Tomorrow, come up with a new intention for the day. For instance, today, I will become more aware of how much I complain about the things I really should not. On the third day, you can plan to tune into your bodily sensations, slow down, and connect with the moment.

You see, as each new morning arises, the previous day’s intention will remain in the back of your mind. Ultimately, you’ll begin practicing all the intentions you make subconsciously and create new, healthy habits for your everyday life.

Make Some Time For Yourself! 

Know that if you sometimes feel like it’s tough to find some time for yourself, you’re definitely not alone! Nevertheless, it’s time (pun intended) to start considering your time from another angle or perspective. 

You get the time is always there because it’s a constant, so everything is about making that time. Start by putting ten to fifteen minutes in your daily calendar as a gentle reminder to take some time for yourself and do what you want to do. 

Practicing mindfulness to be a stress-free mum doesn’t need to be a significant time commitment or something outside of your everyday routines. Sometimes it’s as simple as going outside and walking in the sun or taking a hot shower that gets the job done. So make some time for yourself on your daily agenda, and enjoy it!

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Start A Worry Journal And Write In It Every Single Night

As new mums, we often and regularly worry about everything. The bad thing about those worries is that they could quickly drag us down and litter our minds with negativity. So how do we get rid of them for good? My favourite technique to crush my worries is to write them down in the “worry journal” I keep in the drawer of my bed table. 

At first, I know this technique might sound counter-intuitive as I’m suggesting you focus on something you’re trying to stop. Nevertheless, starting and keeping a worry journal is a cognitive-behavioural therapy known to ease symptoms of stress and anxiety significantly. Cognitive therapies focus on identifying maladaptive ways and patterns of thinking, emotional behaviour, or responses and substituting those thoughts with desirable patterns of thinking and emotional behaviour and responses.

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Once I write down my worries, I can rest easy knowing that my concerns won’t be forgotten. In that context, you should also start writing down your fears in a journal right before you turn in for the night. Believe it or not, this practice will tell signal your brain that while your fears are important to you, you can always come back to try and solve them, but for now, you’re giving your brain permission to let go of them and focus on getting a good nights’ sleep.

Final Thoughts

Practicing mindfulness while being a mum requires a lot of patience—with oneself. If you begin practicing mindfulness and struggle with your practice, that’s perfectly okay. Try again. Practicing mindfulness to be a stress-free mum has to be a judgment-free zone, and it takes a while until one gets there. But once you get there, it’s all uphill.

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