Stress reduction techniques to help you lower your stress levels NOW!

Stress reduction techniques for mums who feel like they have the world on their shoulders. Mum Guilt, stress and tension doesn’t need to be your constant companion!

Most women would raise their hand and agree that they need stress reduction techniques to reduce stress on a regular basis.

Every mother I talk to is almost always so busy that they need to have diaries, reminders and lots of colours on their calendar, to help them remember what has to happen when, for whom, and what we need to take!

Being a parent - especially a mum - means we are what my mother calls ‘the hub of the wheel’; the central operating system of family organisations.

This post will cover a few stress techniques for busy mums, simple enough to use regularly but also deep enough to make a real difference in your life when you can put them into your busy schedule.

Most Mums are so busy looking after everyone else, we don’t often take time to take care of ourselves.

One thing we can do to start taking care of ourselves, more affectively, is to set aside some regular time for a mindfulness practice.

What is a mindfulness practice?

This can be a short, simple regular practice that we do in our daily lives to help us focus our minds on being calm and with more of a single focus, rather than having 2000 tabs open at once in our heads (whoever came up with this example hit the nail right on the head, right?).

As we train our minds to be better at focusing on one thing at a time, this can start to give us the break we need mentally, but also help us train our minds to have a much better mental focusing ability overall, as well.

I’ve got a 10 minute mindful activity on my YouTube channel here, if you need some inspiration, and I also run regular mindfulness sessions inside my finding peace membership, launching Jan 2024.

Stress Technique for Busy Mums #2:

The second stress reduction technique is grounding yourself regularly by using your five senses. Sitting with your child or without your child, you can start to focus one by one on each of your five senses, bringing attention to each one. This helps you to be more in the present, less future focused, and enables you to live in your body rather than mentally in the future with little regard for how your body is feeling at this moment.

As mums we are often unable to make the time to be aware of our bodies. In fact, our emotions and feelings are not just experienced in our minds; but in our bodies as well. So, without stopping and allowing ourselves to feel, accept and process, we can find ourselves with all these ‘stuck’ emotions which often snowball into a big easily-explodable mum who ends up feeling guilty for yelling at her kids over ‘something small’.

If you’ve been here - or you are here right now - and you want to STOP it? My committed clients have experienced more peace within the week; and halved their stress levels (doubling their peace) within at least 8 weeks and even less! Wow! Join me for a short-term, 2-session package here.

Stress Reduction Technique for Busy Mums #3:

The third stress reduction technique involves using your vocal chords to stimulate your vagus nerve, which therefore helps you to physiologically calm your body as well as integrate some of the emotion and the stress that you’ve been feeling, with your body, and therefore your experience.

The activity I recommend for this particular technique is to do what I do with clients; called the ‘floppy sigh’.

Firstly, take yourself to a quiet space either in your house, or somewhere in the natural world.

(Make sure you have a little bit of space around you so that the sounds you are making are not either inhibiting you or influencing someone else around you.)

Then, arms above your head, take a really deep breath, and drop your arms dramatically, at the same time as you make the lowest and loud sound that you can, pushing all of the air out of your lungs quickly as you make the noise.

(You might think I’m crazy, but I’m telling you that this releases a huge amount of pent-up emotion when you do it three or four times and then move on with your day!)

I have used this strategy with children, myself and my clients; and the results are in. It is so freeing, relaxing and removes a tonne of tension.

Try doing this 2 to 3 times a week for three or four weeks and this will be amazing for your wellbeing!

We all know what it’s like being a busy mum these days - and too many of us are depleted emotionally & mentally, and time-poor too. Using these stress reduction techniques for busy mums, can help you create simple ways to build better wellbeing into your life, sustainably.

What do you think? Are these techniques something you can see yourself using? Pop a comment below and let me know!

Need some more peace - or a few strategies?

Miranda is a teacher-turned stress management and emotional wellbeing coach, for mums who are finding life overwhelming and stressful. She also authors wellbeing books such as Stop Mum Guilt and fantasy novels, as well as creates physical journals and products for women. If you feel overwhelmed, or are sick and tired of feeling that horrible guilt you carry around in your chest for ‘not doing everything well enough’, grab your 30% off call here as a new client!