You too can be a Calm Muma
How do you manage stress? Do you exercise, go out for coffee or some other form of self care? There is growing interest in mindfulness as a means of taking a mental break and bringing us back into the present moment. It is easy to get caught up in our busy mind chatter and for the focus to be past or future orientated. If your first response is that I don’t have time to practise mindfulness then you are someone that could benefit from giving it a go.
Contrary to pre conceived ideas you don’t need a lot of time or a quiet dark room to practise. Research (Lam et al. 2015) measured the pre and post perception of stress scores with a group of mental health professionals who completed five minutes a day for a week. After a week their stress scores significantly reduced and they reported feeling more mindful of times they felt upset, being more able to control things that mattered in life, less nervous, coping with tasks they had to do and less angered by things they couldn’t control. Many tasks relating to domestic and child care fall to mums to manage. This can lead to a sense that things are piling up and can’t be managed. These positive attitude changes would be really helpful the next time your child refuses to sleep or is having an almighty tantrum.
I have taught mindfulness skills to many time poor mums. It is important to create a sustainable habit such as waking up five minutes early, using time your child has a nap or just before bed to practise. Starting with five minutes a day is all it takes. It is important to be on the lookout for thoughts that criticise whether you are doing it correctly or feeling relaxed enough afterwards. Just making the time is an act of self-care.
We can also use the breath and our five senses to bring ourselves into the present moment. Next time you are playing with your child, cooking, cleaning or walking down the street, try to pay attention to everything you can notice. By doing this you are being present and by default less stressed by what else you need to do.
