Being a single, working, homeschooling mother of 4 who is building her own business, you can imagine that I may have some stress in my life. This week, in particular, the pressure was so thick you could almost see it in the air. I was overwhelmed, feeling like I was not getting anything done and what I was getting done was not good enough. Feeling like I am being pulled in a million different directions, all while wanting never to leave my bed. I want to find positive motivation, but all I am getting is ahead is filled with negative thoughts such as…

Thoughts that come up frequently:

• How will I ever be able to wake up early to teacher Emma before work?
• I never have enough energy to work on my next blog after work.
• There is never time for me to take care of myself.
• I will be alone forever?
• I am not a good mother because I am always working. 
• Do I have any clean underwear?

The list of negative thoughts was endless, but I have learned different tools to help me in this exact situation over the past five years. So I stopped and asked myself, why are you feeling so overwhelmed? Why is it stronger than in the last few weeks or months? And do you know what my answer was? 

I stopped taking care of myself!

What made it even worse was I wasn’t even stopping to acknowledge the actions I was taking to take care of myself, like showing or doing my make-up or even 5 min stretch. One of the essential things I have learned on my road to self-love and gaining inner confidence was that it’s in your best interest to have a self-care routine daily.  Even if some days it’s a small step in that direction.

What other experts are saying:

According to Mental Health First Aid, there are two types of self-care

Physical self-care refers to living habits that can also impact your mental health – things like healthy eating, regular exercise, and getting enough sleep. Mental and emotional self-care refers to healthy coping mechanisms that help you manage daily stress.

This is a new concept for some of you, so I will share with you the secret to taking care of yourself when you feel overwhelmed.

This is crucial; it can be very challenging to think clearly and make decisions that align with your values if a million things are bouncing around in your head—slowing down and taking care of yourself by inhaling a big breather and exhaling that same big breath. It helps me to repeat inhale/exhale until I  calm my mind. Repeat this for 5 mins longer if time allows. The key is not to stop till you feel better and your mind is clearer to deal with the next take ahead.

Trusting yourself to control the thoughts you focus on and doing your best not to let your ego’s agenda win can be challenging at first. The more I would be aware of how different thoughts made me feel, the easier it was for me to change the bad feelings and thoughts For example…

Bad Feeling Thought: 

“I feel like a bad mother because I have to go to work”

Better feeling thought: 

“I am so blessed to have a way to earn money, so my kids have a safe place to live, food to eat, and clean clothes to wear.”

Can you feel the heaviness with the bad feeling thought vers the good feeling thought? This is all you have to do, but it does take practice. Frist is getting good at being aware of the negative thought and then flipping it to a better feeling one. Give this a try; I know you can do it.

      Another big part of taking care of yourself is knowing when your plate is full and overflowing with responsibilities, which can cause you to feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Making a to-do list of everything that needs to get done can help relieve the pressure, so you don’t have to struggle to remember everything.

It can even help to organize it by household, kids, and pets. Always remember yourself!! You can break down your ‘to-do list’ into as many separate ‘to-do’s’ as your desire.

A big part of taking care of yourself is staying active. In other words, I dont mean running 5 miles a day unless that’s your jam but moving your body daily is essential in taking care of yourself. Find a physical activity that feels good when you do it, so it takes the pain out of doing it.

If you are unsure, get out there and start trying different things.

I can’t tell you how many different things I tried before I found my passion for yoga. I went to the Gym, took up jogging, did pilates, and who would have guessed that at home, yoga is what brought me the most joy. Its time now to find your physical activity bliss so you can genuinely start taking care of yourself

And if you don’t know yet, write a list of things you think may possibly bring you joy. The first step to Manifestation a peaceful life is clarifying what brings you joy. Writing these ideas down on paper will help you learn what you want your life to be like.  This will put you on the road to taking care of yourself more. Putting you at a high vibration, and help make life decisions feel like a breeze.

We put a certain kind of pressure on our shelves as mothers that only other mothers can genuinely understand.

As a result, I am on a mission to inspire other women to live confidently and love themselves first.

Just remember, we all must take care of ourselves to take care of others at our high state.