Guest post written by Dr. Mary Bran

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Being a mom is a rewarding but demanding job. From managing the household to caring for children, moms often feel overwhelmed and stressed. Maintaining mental health is crucial for moms to handle daily challenges and enjoy their lives. However, many moms neglect their mental well-being, focusing instead on the needs of their families. Creating a daily mental health routine can help moms care for themselves while still being there for their loved ones. This article will outline simple daily practices that can support moms in maintaining their mental health, starting with a positive morning routine, midday practices to manage stress, and an effective evening routine for a good night’s sleep.

Morning Routine

Starting the day with a positive mindset can set the tone for the rest of the day. Here are some practices that can help moms begin their day on the right foot:

1. Mindful Waking and Stretching: Instead of jumping out of bed and rushing into the day’s tasks, take a few moments to wake up mindfully. Stretch your body gently, focusing on how each part feels. This can help you become more aware of your body and start the day calmly.
2. Morning Meditation or Deep Breathing Exercises: Spend a few minutes meditating or doing deep breathing exercises. This can help clear your mind and reduce any anxiety you might feel about the day’s responsibilities. Simply sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and take slow, deep breaths. Focus on your breathing and let go of any distracting thoughts.
3. Setting Daily Intentions or Goals: Before diving into your tasks, take a moment to set some intentions or goals for the day. These don’t have to be major achievements; they can be simple things like “I will take a short walk today” or “I will spend quality time with my kids.” Setting intentions can give you a sense of purpose and direction, helping you stay focused and positive throughout the day.
4. Nutritious Breakfast for Energy and Mental Clarity: Eating a healthy breakfast is essential for maintaining energy and mental clarity. Choose foods that are rich in nutrients, such as fruits, whole grains, and proteins. Avoid sugary cereals or pastries, as they can cause energy crashes later in the day. A balanced breakfast can help you feel more alert and ready to tackle your tasks.

Midday Practices

As the day progresses, it’s important to manage stress and maintain focus. Here are some practices to help you stay on track:

1. Short Breaks for Relaxation and Mindfulness: Taking short breaks throughout the day can help you relax and recharge. Spend a few minutes away from your tasks, practicing mindfulness or simply resting. Close your eyes, take deep breaths, and let go of any stress or tension. These breaks can help you stay calm and focused, making you more productive in the long run.
2. Physical Activity or Quick Exercise Routines: Incorporating physical activity into your day can boost your mood and energy levels. Even a short walk around the block or a quick exercise routine can make a big difference. Physical activity releases endorphins, which are natural mood lifters. Find an activity you enjoy and make it a part of your daily routine.
3. Healthy Lunch and Hydration: Eating a healthy lunch and staying hydrated are crucial for maintaining energy and focus. Choose a balanced meal with plenty of vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. Drink plenty of water throughout the day to stay hydrated. Avoid heavy, greasy foods that can make you feel sluggish and tired.
4. Gratitude Journaling or Positive Affirmations: Take a few moments during the day to practice gratitude or positive affirmations. Write down things you are grateful for or repeat positive statements to yourself. This can help shift your focus from stress and negativity to positivity and appreciation. Gratitude journaling and affirmations can boost your mood and help you stay motivated.

Evening Routine

Continuing with an effective evening routine, here are the remaining practices to help you wind down and prepare for a restful night’s sleep:

1. Reflective Journaling or Family Discussions: Spending time to reflect on your day can be very therapeutic. Writing in a journal about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences helps you process your day. If you prefer, you can have discussions with your family about what happened during the day. This not only helps you unwind but also strengthens family bonds. Sharing your day’s highlights and challenges can make you feel supported and connected.
2. Light Stretching or Yoga: Incorporating light stretching or yoga into your evening routine can help your body relax and prepare for sleep. Gentle movements and deep breathing can release any tension or stress accumulated during the day. This practice can also improve flexibility and overall well-being. Even a short session of 10-15 minutes can make a significant difference in how relaxed you feel before bed.
3. Limiting Screen Time Before Bed: Reducing screen time before bed is crucial for better sleep quality. The blue light emitted by phones, tablets, and computers can interfere with your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. Try to turn off electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime. Instead, engage in calming activities like reading a book, listening to soft music, or practicing relaxation techniques. This will help your mind to wind down and prepare for sleep.
4. Creating a Calming Bedtime Ritual: Establishing a calming bedtime ritual signals to your body that it’s time to sleep. This can include activities such as taking a warm bath, reading a soothing book, or listening to relaxing music. A consistent routine helps your body recognize when it’s time to wind down, making it easier to fall asleep. These rituals create a peaceful transition from the day’s activities to a restful night.
5. Ensuring a Comfortable Sleep Environment: Your sleep environment plays a significant role in the quality of your sleep. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, and cool. Invest in a comfortable and firm mattress that supports your body and enhances your sleep quality. Comfortable bedding and pillows also contribute to a restful night. Keep the room tidy and free from distractions to create a serene atmosphere conducive to sleep.

Creating a daily mental health routine is essential for moms to maintain their well-being and handle the challenges of motherhood. By starting the day with a positive morning routine, managing stress with midday practices, and winding down with an effective evening routine, moms can take care of their mental health. Mindful walking, meditation, setting daily goals, and a nutritious breakfast can set a positive tone for the day. Short breaks, physical activity, a healthy lunch, and gratitude journaling can help manage stress and maintain focus throughout the day. Reflective journaling, light stretching, limiting screen time, creating a calming bedtime ritual, and ensuring a comfortable sleep environment can help moms unwind and prepare for a restful night’s sleep.

Taking care of mental health is not a luxury but a necessity, especially for moms who juggle multiple responsibilities. By incorporating these simple daily practices into their routine, moms can improve their mental well-being, making them better equipped to handle the demands of motherhood. Remember, a healthy mom is a happy mom, and taking care of yourself is the best way to take care of your family.

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Guest post written by Abby Calabrese

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What are the signs that you’re headed towards burnout? For busy professionals and/or busy moms, it’s easy to just keep running and not realize when burnout is creeping up. It is so important to be in tune with ourselves and understand the signs of when you’re nearing burnout. 

Some of the major signs that I’ve noticed whenever burnout creeps up are feeling exhausted all the time, even if you got a good night’s sleep. Also, you might notice that you’re getting sick more often. Illnesses that you might’ve been able to bypass before are now leaving you in bed for multiple days due to a weakened immune system. You might notice that you’re relying heavily on coffee or other caffeinated substances just to get you through the day. For some people, impending burnout means they’re finding it hard to focus and be productive during the day, whether that’s at work or home. You might notice that you’re being too hard on yourself and there’s a lot of self-criticism going on.

You might also see that you’re pulling away from those activities that you know make you feel better. You’re convincing yourself that you don’t have time for some of the self-care hobbies that restore you. 

If several of these key signs resonate with you, it is an indication that you’re going to need to lighten or delegate out some of your workload. It’s just not sustainable or healthy when these signs are popping up, month after month. 

So now what? We identified some of the key signs that burnout is approaching, but even more importantly, what do we do about it? 

A big theme here is going to be boundaries. Learning to get comfortable with saying “no” to tasks or obligations that are not essential. Another one is going to be delegating. I have struggled with this in the past but it is critical to learn how to delegate some of the tasks that don’t necessarily need your personal touch involved. That leads to the next solution for burnout, which is accepting “good enough.” It might not be exactly how you’d handle it, and it might not have your touch on it. Still, if it’s good enough, that’s going to give you back time for self-care and for things that are going to restore you and overall leave you rested, a productive, better version of yourself, and allow you to start enjoying this amazing life you built.

This is going to take action on your part. You are going to have to go through and evaluate the things that are on your plate to see what you can delegate. There will be some tasks that just don’t make the cut. You will narrow down which ones are essential and that will be where you spend your time. 

With the freed-up space on your calendar, slide your self-care items in that spot! Schedule it, add it to your calendar, make it part of your day-to-day, and I think you’re going to notice an AMAZING difference. 

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Guest post written by Dr. Hannah Yang of Balanced Awakening

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With the relentless pace of modern work life, finding equilibrium in your personal working space has become crucial. Feng Shui, with its ancient roots in managing the flow of energy, presents a unique way of arranging your home office. 

This approach encourages a serene but energizing space that sparks creativity, promotes inspiration, and supports a healthier work-life balance.

Understanding the Core Concepts of Feng Shui

To bring balance to your home office using Feng Shui, getting acquainted with the foundational concepts of the Bagua, Chi, and the Five Elements is important.

The Bagua: Your Energy Map

Consider the Bagua as your guide to dividing your space into nine distinct areas, with each one correlating to an important life aspect, such as your professional growth, personal connections, or health. 

Within the context of your home office, utilizing the Bagua can pinpoint the perfect spots for your furniture, decorative items, and other features, ensuring a more positive working atmosphere.

Chi: The Vital Force

Chi is the life force that invisibly flows through all entities and spaces. The practice of Feng Shui focuses on maximizing this flow to create a space that vibrates with balance and harmony. 

A well-channeled Chi can elevate the sense of well-being, pave the way for success, and instill a natural ease within an environment. Look at Chi as the vibrant energy you want to draw in and enhance your work setting.

The Five Elements

At the heart of Feng Shui are the five elements – earth, metal, water, wood, and fire – each carrying its own set of energies and distinct features. Here is a quick look at these elements:

• Earth: Emphasizing stability, grounding, and the nurturing aspect of nourishment, the earth element is synonymous with a dependable sense of security. Decorating your workspace with hues of beige, brown, and yellow not only reflects Earth’s qualities but also creates an environment of peace and concentrated energy.
• Metal: Metal is associated with clarity, precision, and accomplishment. Metallic colors like silver, gold, and white can introduce a sense of order and focus into your space.
• Water: The water element is a symbol of wisdom, smooth progression, and the ability to adapt. It stands for a serene intelligence and flexibility in thought and action. Introducing elements such as small fountains or the soothing sounds of water into your space can create an ambiance of fluid tranquility and ease.
• Wood: The wood element is closely linked with expansion, creative energy, and fresh starts. By adding plants to your office, you not only bring the wood element into your space but also encourage an atmosphere rich in life and creative possibilities.
• Fire: Fire symbolizes the burning intensity of passion, vigor, and motivation. While the fiery hues of red, orange, and purple are effective, their use in a workspace should be measured. However, when applied thoughtfully, these colors can inject a vibrant burst of inspiration and spark creative thinking.
  

By incorporating these elements through color, materials, and shapes in your home office, you can create a balanced and supportive environment aligned with your goals.

Incorporating Feng Shui Principles into Your Home Office Design

Now that you understand the core concepts of Feng Shui, here’s how to strategically incorporate various elements into your home office space:

Improving Energy Flow through Desk Placement

The positioning of your desk is crucial in Feng Shui. The “command position” is the most powerful placement. Ideally, you’ll be facing the door of your office without being directly in line with it. This allows you to see opportunities coming while feeling secure and in control.  

If the command position isn’t possible, try to avoid placing your desk with your back to the door or directly facing a wall, as these positions can create feelings of vulnerability or being blocked.

Using Aromatherapy for Better Productivity

Aromatherapy can be a valuable tool for influencing your mood and mental state. This is why you’ll often see it used during trauma therapy or anxiety therapy sessions.

Need to really focus and stay alert? Peppermint or rosemary can offer an invigorating pick-me-up. Lavender, chamomile, or bergamot are known for their calming properties, perfect if workplace stress starts to build. If you’re stuck in a creative rut, orange or grapefruit could also potentially help get those ideas flowing.

Thoughtful Mirror Positioning

A well-placed mirror can create the illusion of more space and boost good energy flow in your office. Choose to reflect something enjoyable – a bit of nature outside your window or a piece of art that makes you smile. 

On the other hand, avoid mirrors reflecting clutter in your work area since it can make it feel like your workload is doubled or directly facing your front door, as it might push away positive energy.

Decorating Your Workspace with Natural Elements

A few well-placed plants can add vibrancy and positive energy to your workspace. For a touch of Feng Shui, explore using plants with symbolic meanings – snake plants for prosperity or spider plants to spark creativity.  

The soft sounds of a water fountain also bring tranquility, while natural materials like wood, stone, or crystals can create a sense of connection to the earth.

Embracing Natural Light and Color Harmony

When setting up your home office, make the most of natural light as it greatly impacts mood and efficiency, promoting feelings of vitality and focus. To inspire creativity, introduce shades of green and brown, reflecting the nurturing essence of the wood element. 

Additionally, touches of red or orange can inject bursts of enthusiasm and innovation since they have the dynamic qualities of the fire element. Select colors that speak to you, creating a cohesive and motivational workspace.

Softening Your Space with Careful Furniture Selection

To maintain a smooth flow of Chi in your workspace, prioritize furniture with rounded edges and gentle curves over sharp corners and edges. Not only does this choice encourage a more harmonious energy flow, but it also creates a more welcoming ambiance.

When selecting furniture, particularly your desk chair, consider ergonomic design principles. Investing in a comfortable and supportive chair can significantly reduce physical stress and promote proper posture, ensuring you remain aligned and energized throughout your workday.

Decluttering Your Workspace

Combatting clutter is crucial for maintaining positive energy and mental clarity in your workspace. Begin by addressing clutter in manageable portions, starting with reducing paper clutter. 

Explore options like digitizing documents or establishing an efficient filing system to minimize physical mess. You’ll also want to institute a regular decluttering routine, dedicating small increments of time each day or week to tidying up and organizing.

Recreate Your Home Office Space with Feng Shui

Implementing Feng Shui principles can revolutionize your home office, turning it into a sanctuary of efficiency, equilibrium, and creativity. Even minor adjustments inspired by Feng Shui can profoundly improve the energy and ambiance of your workspace, establishing a deeper sense of harmony and vitality during your daily tasks.

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Guest Post written by Taylor McKnight, Author for Nothing But Hemp

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As a busy working mom, you probably know it’s important to find ways to relax and take care of your mental health. But you might also discover that forcing yourself to relax can be stressful.

If you simply cannot find time for lengthy meditation sessions or other commonly suggested strategies, don’t fret! You do have other options. These five relaxation techniques will improve your mental health and leave you time for managing your busy schedule.

Use Waiting Times to Practice Deep Breathing

Other people might have hours to spend breathing deeply in a forest, but you have a packed schedule. The good news is that you can get the same effects from deep breathing within only a few breaths. Look for pockets of time when you can slowly breathe in and out. Practicing breathing deeply while you’re waiting in line or for a doctor’s appointment can instantly decrease stress.

Choose Workouts With Rhythmic Movements

There is no doubt that hitting the gym hard can get your body into shape. But sometimes, heavy workouts can feel stressful and time-consuming. Instead of laying on the guilt because you didn’t hit the gym, try going for a walk or swim with your kids. Or, you could choose to do some dancing in your living room. Choosing low-impact workouts that incorporate rhythmic movements helps to soothe your body while increasing the endorphins in your brain.

Explore the Relaxing Benefits of Hemp Products

If you’re using a glass of wine to relax, you could be stressing your body to the point that you feel less productive the next day. Drinking alcohol in the evening can also interfere with your sleep. Give CBD products a try to induce a similar sense of relaxation while still being in control of your actions. CBD gummies and tinctures work well for helping you to sleep at bedtime or making it easier to relax when you’re experiencing aches and pains.

Engage In Child’s Play

If long work days leave you longing for your past childhood when each day felt like bliss, then you can use this technique to connect with your kids and feel less stressed. Carve out some time in your busy schedule to sit down with your kids and color in a coloring book. Or, you could make shapes with modeling clay or paint. You can even use adult art materials if you prefer, but engaging your senses can help take your mind off whatever problems are stressing you out.

Do a Body Scan Meditation Before Bedtime

Meditating is another stress-reduction activity that is challenging for some people. Body-scan meditation allows you to focus your mind on each part of your body starting from the toes and moving to the top of your head. As you meditate, you’ll strive to notice and release tension in each body part until you feel completely relaxed.

The key to relaxation is to have several strategies in your self-care toolkit. Remember to check in with yourself occasionally to identify if you feel anxious, overly tired, or just plain stressed. Then, get in the habit of using your strategies regularly to achieve the best effects on your mental health.

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What do you need to quit?

I know, I know. When do I ever talk about quitting?

The truth is that we all do things that don’t serve us. I’m dealing with this now, as I seek to publish my first novel in the genre of women’s fiction. I’m comparing myself to other authors of women’s fiction. It would be so easy for me to look at Jennifer Weiner, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Emily Henry, Ali Hazelwood, or Lucy Score and think, “I’ll never be that successful.”

But why? What’s the point in doing that? How does comparing my beginning to their “middles” help me?

News flash: it doesn’t.

So I’m gonna stop doing it. And no, it won’t happen overnight, but I’m going to keep at it.

If you’re comparing yourself—whether to other moms or to women in your professional field—stop, mama.

You matter and you have something to offer this world. And I’m gonna keep telling you that until you believe it.

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At the beginning of every year, I choose a word to represent what I want for my life over the twelve months that will follow.  Have you ever done that?  I picked it up a few years ago and found that it helps me focus.  I slap my word of the year at the top of my vision board, which I keep in my closet, and then see it every day as I’m getting dressed.  

Last year, my word was “skyrocket.”

Seemed like a great choice after everything we went through in most of 2020 and all the way into 2021.  Nowhere to go but up, right?

But for a lot of 2022, I didn’t feel like I was skyrocketing at all.

In fact, there came a point last year where I wasn’t sure what I was doing with Your Ideal Mom Life or with the Love Your Mom Life podcast.  I started believing the lie that I wasn’t making an impact, that no one was listening, that I didn’t know how to serve you.  

And then, right around THIS time last year, when I had almost totally checked out and felt like 2022 was on its way to being over, I got the spark of an idea to write a book.  For you.  To serve you.  And it came together in a snap.

On November 28th, when most might say the year really was basically over, my first book, “But Definitely Wear Mascara: Hacks to Help You Love Your Mom Life (and Yourself) a Little More,” was listed for sale on Amazon.  It might have taken THREE HUNDRED thirty one days, but I sure felt like I was skyrocketing then!

Did you have a word this year, mama? If so, I hope you’ve been living it!  

Or . . . maybe you haven’t. Maybe, like I did at this time last year, you feel like maybe you shouldn’t even bother; like the year is basically on its way to being over anyway. 

But here’s the thing: even if you feel like you haven’t lived out your goal so far, it’s not too late.  We still have one hundred fifty-two whole days left in this year.  152 days! 

So take one itty bitty step today.  And another teensy weensy one tomorrow.

You can still create something amazing.  You can still live in alignment with what your heart desired 212 days ago, on January 1st.  I know you can.

It’s not too late to start being awesome. You got this, girlfriend. And I am cheering you on. 

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