Self Care ? What does it look like to you?

Many of us as mothers, put ourselves last, which yes is the norm and I suppose the maternal thing we do anyway. We hold the family together don’t we? Run a home, make sure the fridge is stocked, house cleaned, school prep done and taken care of, even some of us are working too. Whether a stay at home mum or a working mum it is overall a tiring job , but one yet so rewarding. We tend to live a lot of the time on auto pilot.. well I know I do. Becoming a mother has taught me so much about myself and brought a huge amount of self awareness to my behaviours, my emotions and much more. Constantly worrying if I’m a good mum, if I will fail my children … what can I do better ? To add I live with anxiety from past trauma too, so always live life on edge and constantly busy. That word BUSY. To be able to SLOW DOWN and take time for me, or be PRESENT is something I really struggle with. As I mentioned the auto pilot thing, this is how I feel I can live my life a lot of the time. Before the Covid Pandemic hit, I had got myself into a good place of self care. I viewed self care as slowing down. Slowing down to me was nightly meditations and hot bubble baths filled up with bath salts… to help renew my energy. Also using adult colouring books once or twice a week to help with my anxiety and PTSD. These things done regularly changed me as a mother , as a person. I became less tense which I’m sure my kids picked up on, I became more present… worried less and really looked at the little things in life, such as watching the sun rise over London from my living room window and taking a look around my 3 bedroom home and feeling forever grateful to call it home. Little acts of SELF CARE as a mother really have a knock on effect on other areas of your life . Also a happy mum means happy kids doesnt it? Kids don’t need a perfect mum, they just want and need a happy mum! Self care looks different for everybody, whilst mine might be hot bubble baths and a 10 minute Chakra meditation, it may be 30 minutes of reading in bed to another , or enjoying a cup of coffee alone after the school run and it not going cold. Little acts of self care make a world of difference beauts and it’s not something we should feel guilty about. Your a human being too, not just a mum. I’m Rebecca. Your Jade. Your Sarah. Your Jackie . Etc etc. Throughout the lockdowns I struggled at times as a single mother, and yes my self care rituals went right out the window … I’m still struggling now to implement them back in … but I will take it day by day. Even if I just achieve a little bit of colouring in then that’s what self care looks like to me right now. Setting my alarm 45 minutes earlier to get up and have my coffee on my own and watch the sun rise… no I will not feel mum guilt as I need that time to center myself , and prep for the day ahead which in turn means a less stressed mum and a happier mum.. which then means HAPPY KIDS. What’s your little acts of self care? I would love to hear about them!