What self-care is and why parents need to practice it

Self care is a current trend in the mindset of parentseverywhere (or at least all those with access to social media!)

What is self-care? To me, it falls into two separate categories.

1: Taking actualtime OUT to pursue things to ‘care’ for yourself, ie a manicure or timeaway from the kids and other responsibilities, (lucky!!)

2: Actually doingthings that are ‘normal’, everyday activities but which give yousatisfaction and essentially ‘fill your cup’ through doing them. This may meanmaking sure your favourite cup of tea is on hand, or that you regularlyschedule time to catch up with a friend (with or without kids), or make a timeto read to your children and actually play with them for FUN.

Why do we need to practice this?

As the saying goes, ‘Youcan’t pour from an empty cup’.  In order to be the best YOU possible, we needto infuse self-care into our days, into our thinking, and ensure we aren’tbecoming Mummy martyrs (where we sacrifice ourselves constantly for the good ofour families).

Looking after ourselves is needed, so we can a) enjoy ourlives, and b) be emotionally and physically AWARE of what is going on in ourfamilies and with our children; and c) be emotionally and physically andmentally AVAILABLE in order to help, influence and support our children and/orspouse as they need it.

In a perfect world, this would work all the time!!

However even when we don’t manage to make time forself-care, or we can’t be everything to all people-we can say ‘I tried.’

Leaving an intentional space for self-care is exactly what we can do.

Here are a few ideas that I find helpful to fill myemotional and mental cup, daily:

-Spending 5 minutes by myself

-Reading a book to my child (or letting them read it to me)

-Gardening is very therapeutic!

-Hanging out the washing by myself

-Blogging (yep! This was as a result of some self-care!)

-Gratitude Journaling!

-Doing the 3 things in my free Guide to feeling motivated, successful and confident as a Mama!

How do you go about practising self-care in your daily life? Shoot me a comment and let me know!

Better yet, if you liked this blog post, share it via Facebook or Instagram! xx

Would you like to join my email series about how you can practically infuse self-care into your daily life? Join me at the form below and receive updates, course invitations, weekly encouragement and practical tips!

Miranda xxx