A little bit of stress is often unavoidable in life, but moms often experience much more than most people. Whether you’re a stay at home parent totally rocking your duties in your abode or you’re a busy working mom with a million tasks on your plate, you might be stressing a little more than the rest. But everyone deserves to practice self care, wind down and relax when they need it.
While not all stress is equal, much of it can be caused — and solved — by lifestyle. Just like everyone needs some dedicated time to themselves to rest and relieve stress, there are habits you can pick up within your daily life to relieve you of some of your stress. Often, it’s the little things that carry you through.
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1. Get Enough Sleep Each Night
When you’re tired, groggy and unfocused, life will seem more chaotic and overwhelming. Even though it can sometimes feel tempting to get more done after the kids are in bed or take some alone time well into the night, getting enough sleep will make you more productive and efficient at all the things that need doing during the day. The average adult needs at least seven hours of sleep each night in order to remain awake, alert and healthy.
Sure, rest takes time, but it’s time well spent. You’ll start to see a more relaxed and capable mood emerge when you allow yourself to properly rest.
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2. Get Organized
One of the best ways to alleviate stress is to stay organized. The tasks pile up — especially when you have kids to keep track of — but simply keeping organized can help you plan your days and relax into your schedule. You can rest assured that you’re not forgetting things or leaving tasks behind.
Using planners, calendars and to-do lists can work wonders for keeping your days running smoothly. You can utilize your child’s school planner for activities, assignments and even tasks they need to complete, and use your own to-do list and calendar for daily tasks and appointments.
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3. Use Aromatherapy
If you’re on the hunt for something a bit more luxurious to relieve some of life’s stresses, some simple aromatherapy can relax you and give you what you need for your mood in the moment. Essential oils, candles and incense are all great additions to your home, and you can even take essential oils on the go or find rollerball forms to wear like perfume. Scents like lavender, sage, chamomile and jasmine are all calming and relaxing.
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4. Meditate
While meditation can take up larger chunks of time, it doesn’t always have to. You can take a half hour, but you can also take a just couple minutes to sit in silence and reset. There are so many meditation tools, apps and exercises out there that offer all kinds of tracks and courses, some of which only take five minutes or less each day. Meditation can reduce stress and give you more time to think and ponder. Often, even a few short minutes can impact the rest of your day positively.
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5. Engage With Meaningful Content
People often underestimate the power of content like shows, books, movies, podcasts and music, but there’s no denying the impact they have on our lives. Listening to music you love, engaging with thoughtful podcasts and finding reading material that you enjoy can give you some mental time to yourself, even while you’re tackling other tasks.
Whether you play your favorite music in the car rather than the kids’ choices, put on a podcast during your morning run or wind down with a book before you go to bed, it’s important to consume content that brings you joy and lets you exercise your mind in ways beyond the day to day.
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6. Meal Prep
Cooking every meal every day can be one of the big, dreaded tasks that takes up too much time and effort. When you meal prep, you’re taking one thing off your to-do list at least a few days out of the week. While you still need to take the time to cook, meal prepping allows you to make your favorite meals in large batches so all you have to do is heat up your food to get a home cooked meal every day of the week.
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7. Take Some Time to Yourself
Carving time out for yourself can often be one of the most difficult things to do, especially as a busy mom. However, it’s also one of the most important. Taking some alone time to focus on you is crucial, no matter what you do with it. You can go to a yoga class, work on a creative project or even just take a nap. There are no rules on how you spend this time.
Giving yourself some intentional breathing room can relax and rejuvenate you, so you can show up better for yourself and those around you.
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Chill Out
Moms need stress relief more than anyone else out there, and there are little things you can do to minimize your stress every single day. You deserve to take care of you, especially when you spend so much time taking care of others. When you take the time to look after your needs, you can decrease your stress and move through your days a little bit smoother than before.
