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Taking a moment of calm – Take a few minutes out of your day to do a short and easy mindfulness activity. Maybe this is a short journalling session, or doing a 3 minute body scan meditation. Just take a second for yourself. I wrote “Mindfulness for Mums” to share short, simple and effective mindfulness tips that can be introduced into your day to help you find the calm in the chaos of motherhood. How we breathe tells our body and brain how we feel. Taking a few minutes each day to do some focused breathing is one of the most helpful things you can fit into your day. Firstly, notice how you breathe during the day and try and get into the habit of breathing in through your nose rather than in through your mouth. Then choose a time in the day to do some belly breathing: take a big deep breath in through the nose and feel your belly rise, then out through the mouth and feel your belly fall. A Sensory Activity Breathe and Focus - Take 3 deep breaths from your belly. Notice how your body feels when you do so. Something that affects us all in motherhood is the volume of noise. This could be the general busyness of our minds or the noise from our children’s overexcitement, whinging or crying. Something I hear often from other mums is how much we all crave peace!
Bedtime is an important (and troublesome) time for many young families! How do you approach bedtime with your kids? When we tune into our senses and the present moment, we first notice gaps in our mental chatter, which instantly relieves stress. Remember: ‘what you dwell on you can become’. By dwelling on the enjoyable aspects of life; learning to appreciate them and giving them your full attention, day by day, you can begin habitually to help overcome that feeling of merely existing on a treadmill. N on-Identification .Realize that the emotions you are experiencing make for a fleeting experience, one that will soon pass. It isn’t who you are.As we go about our daily lives, we can notice the sensations of things, the food we eat, the air moving past the body as we walk. Keep it regular As mother’s we are under so much pressure, not just with the things we have to do for our families, but we are under so much pressure from ourselves to get it done and to do it right. Mindfulness for mums is a way to reduce this pressure, if not just for a little bit, to give our mind and our bodies a rest and so we can be the best mums, friends and partners we can be. Having a bad day, needing to ask for help or not handling a situation well is expected.Just as you pause and think about how you respond to your child, do the same for yourself. Detach/Disconnect - from the outside world or social media if it makes you compare or become anxious. Also family members who make you feel this way too!
Connect - to baby and your partner. Hugs, smiles, laughter, tenderness. Be in your bubble. It's about you and no-one else right now. I ask this question all the time. If I’m in ahurry in a slow grocery store line up, I ask myself, “Can I fix this problem?” ifthe answer isno,getting upset isn’t going to change the outcome.There are a number of different ways we can learn to be mindful and id like to share some activities with you that are simple and effective to use: Lying down, ask your child to place a teddy on their tummy. You can place a teddy on your tummy too! So why is mindfulness for mothers so important? Look at the five minutes you take from your day to practice mindfulness as little snippets of self-care time, a time where your mind gets a break, where you can re-energise and refocus. It might not be the weekend away you need, but it’s 15-20 minutes a day just for you, to recalibrate.
Compromise - this does not mean giving up or giving in! It means finding your middle-ground and where you can accept life as it is. What good will it do to fight it? How will using your energy fighting it make you feel about yourself and others? What can you do to find compromise? For parents who are in a stressful or upsetting situation with their child, a popular mindfulness exercise known as S.T.O.P & R.A.I.N. published in N.Y. Times mindfulness for children guideis a great tool. Notice any feelings and emotions as they arise. Can you let these come and go without pushing away those that you don’t like, or jumping on to those that you do like? Include everything within your awareness with a kindly perspective. You are more than a mom or wife, you are you, and there are things you enjoyed before you became a mom or a wife.
Breathe from your belly, not your throat. Stressful breathing is fast and high up in our bodies which leads to tension and pain. A good pattern is to inhale for a count of 4, hold for 3 and exhale for 5. Firstly, let’s chat about your fantastic new book! Can you tell us a bit about Mindfulness for Mums ? Paying more attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you – can improve your mental wellbeing. Just look to your baby for inspiration. Babies are, in fact, great teachers of mindfulness because they always live in the moment! I know this might sound counter-intuitive – to focus on something we are trying to stop, but this is singlehandedly the biggest technique that has helped me squash my worries.
As a bipolar sufferer, my mind never slows down, and my anxiety can often be through the roof. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t managed it as well as I could have, many times it has completely consumed me because I have forgotten to take more control. It was at my last psychiatrist appointment that she spoke to me about mindfulness for mums. Ever laid awake at night with a racing mind, trying to remmeber what the kids need in their bags for the next day? And the day after that? And everything you have to get ready for the weekend? And those projects you’ve been neglecting? And your health and fitness? And your relationships? Begin by grounding your feet into the ground, drop your shoulders and release any tension in your body. Notice the single task you are completing in that moment then continue by breathing in for a count of four, hold for two, breathe out for four. As you breathe out, you can think or say a mindful affirmation.Using our senses! We tell young children to do this so much, yet when we grow up we go into thinking mode rather than senses mode. Take some time to use your senses either in the inside or outside environment, really focus on what you see, hear, can touch, taste our smell. This sounds really simple, but it’s so effective to help your brain work and connect with the present moment.you A Mindful Activity
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