I’m often guilty of googling a lot of really random things trying to find blogs or articles with good life hacks or just overall good suggestions if I feel like I could be doing something easier. A lot of times I’ll add in the tags “working mom” or “busy mom” because I want to know that what I’m looking for is more tailored to my lifestyle and actually something someone in my shoes has created and is an attainable goal. A lot of times, it just isn’t there. Which is why I created this blog. If I’m looking for this information then I know hundreds of other women are too.
Jumping into today’s topic, when we were in the thick of covid, “self-care” was a huge topic. Magazines, bloggers, YouTuber’s, etc all had posts titled “Make self-care part of your routine”, “why self-care is important” and on and on and on.
How many times have we heard women literally say they have no idea who they are because they lost themselves trying to do all the things but all the things didn’t include taking care of themselves? Too many.
“Self-care” comes in many shapes and forms. It’s not all about a beauty routine. Self-care should be about finding what puts you at ease; mind, body and soul.
How can I ease anxiousness and stress in my life? How can I surround myself with calm? How can I feel good about myself physically? What can I do that makes me feel happy and content?
These questions are really important for me because they are my foundation for creating and maintaining a happy, healthy home and work environment.
Today’s focus is the mind part of “mind, body and soul”. The more calm my mind is, the better I am at making decisions, I’m happier, I have less stress and I tend to do more things that are beneficial to my overall wellbeing like eating healthier and exercising.
Setting myself up mentally for the coming week is a big deal for me. When everyone’s heads hit the pillow Sunday night having backpacks ready to go for the morning, the house tidied (not cleaned), food in the house for the weekly meals and laundry put away make me feel good.
I understand that for many meal planning/ prepping is a thing but I just cannot bring myself to spend an entire day of my weekend cooking. Being with my family on the weekend and spending quality time together is one of my top priorities as a working parent. By simply creating a meal list and ensuring I have ingredients at the ready is good enough for me.
There’s something about having the laundry done and put away prior to the craziness of the week starting that helps keep me in a positive head space throughout the week. I’m not sure what it is… maybe it’s just having the room that we typically drop stuff and walk into daily tidied that helps. It may also be that I like to have my closet put together with all my things. I generally like to pull my clothes for the next day out the night before and having everything in its spot gives me a full plate of choices.
A tidy house every night is key for both my husband and I. Note I did not say clean! I realized after the birth of my oldest that spending hours on the weekend cleaning was not going to work anymore. I’m a deep cleaner, not a surface cleaner when I’m cleaning. Once we realized that the hours of cleaning I was doing and the backlog of cleaning was affecting my mental health, we purchased a robotic vacuum and hired a housekeeper to come do the deep cleans. Best decision I ever made. Now, at the end of the night, everything just needs to be picked up and put back in it’s respective place. Countertops and tables are wiped down and robotic vacuums are emptied for the next day’s cleaning. Being able to wake up in the morning and not immediately look around and say ‘what a dump’ is cathartic and allows me to drink my first cup of coffee and start my day in peace.
Creating lists also plays a huge part in my mental game. Laying awake at night, putting a to-do list together in my head is a non-starter for me. I always feel that if I don’t write it down right then that I’ll forget it and that makes me anxious. I fully utilize the notes app on my phone for to-do lists as well as my Alexa lists for shopping needs so that I can have it down and can get it out of my mind. Other lists I keep, gift lists for people for when they say something or I think of something, travel destinations, project lists, and more.
Deescalating from my day is a necessity for me. If all the things I said above don’t get done, I can figure out a way and deal but giving myself some time to prepare for rest (I know that may sound weird) is mandatory. How do I do this? I check my calendar for the next day before bed to ensure I know what to expect and pull out anything that is needed for the next day. And then I simply read. I read really easy books that won’t cause me to think too much or may ramp myself up, like a suspense novel.
Lastly, I have set sleep time and wake up times. Knowing that I need to be in bed at a certain time and falling asleep so that I know I get x amount of sleep prior to when I have to wake up is significant for me. I can make it through a day on 4-5 hours of sleep but I schedule 8 hours because right now, I have a little one sleep training and he may need his mommy for an hour or two during the night. If he doesn’t, yay me, I get 8 hours of sleep.
My self-care starts with getting and being mentally calm and prepared. By preparing for the known, I can more easily handle the unknown. Some people meditate or journal, I prepare.
In part two of this post, I’ll talk about how I physically prepare myself to tackle the week feeling ready and energized.