Many of us with kids have started the dreaded digital learning/homeschooling! How has that been going? I won't lie...I am feeling the STRESS of being in a pandemic, digital learning, and life in general. I have made it a point to take a step back and take care of my mental wellbeing. I joined a therapeutic parenting group that meets on Wednesdays and I am excited to be meeting my therapist! Virtually of course...What have you been doing to take care of yourself?
I am going to offer you three tips to take care of yourself and deal with the stress that has taken up residence in many of our lives! When we take care of our emotional wellbeing, we are simultaneously taking care of our marriage and family. We cannot take care of others well if we do not take care of ourselves.
Make time and space for yourself...There are 24 hours in a day...Can you give yourself 1 hour of time to simply attend to yourself without attending to someone else, planning for tomorrow, working or taking care of something around the house. I know, our to do list is ENDLESS…Which is why we need to have a hard stop! Otherwise we will run ourselves into the ground trying to do more than the day allows. We can't begin to do anything for ourselves unless we are intentionally creating space for ourselves. If you struggle with this, email me...I will gladly help you!
Just Breathe...OK, I know some of you just balked when I said take one hour for yourself...Like where do we find one hour!? How about 5 minutes? Can you give yourself 5 minutes? Spend 5 minutes every day simply focusing on your breath...nothing else...if random thoughts come into your mind, simply notice it without judgement and return to focusing on your breath. You can count each inhale and exhale and each time a thought enters your mind you start over. See if you can make it to 10! It takes A LOT of practice to get there...trust me, I am not there yet...Thoughts comes in my mind before I say 2...and then I am back to one!
Ice-Water - If you are REALLY OVERWHELMED and ANGRY dipping your hand or body in ice-water will immediately reduce the intensity of how overwhelmed you feel. Your heart-rate will instantly decrease and you would be able to get your "thinking brain" back online...Once we are angry or overwhelmed emotionally our "thinking brain" goes offline and our "emotional brain" takes over...This is our nature by God's design and is meant to protect us when we are threatened...However many times we are not in a real life or death situation and therefore we need to be able regulate ourselves.
Let me know what you think in the comments! As always, please share this blog and Authentic Marriages with a friend! We are working really hard to get our names out in the community as a resource for couples! We appreciate you for being part of the team and helping us :).