With Mother’s Day this month, and as a mom of two young ones myself, I wanted to share my top 5 tips to help you to prioritize your health.
- Remind yourself that you are important, deserve care, and can function better when you give yourself what you need! You deserve to stop and make yourself a glass of water. You deserve to feed yourself a complete meal instead of eating your family’s leftover scraps. You need lasting fuel like the rest of your family!
- Choose how you handle your stress. We cannot make stress go away. But for the most part, we can usually choose how we handle it. Take a break. Find a therapist. Choose how you react and manage your stressors (hint: balanced, regular meals can help!).
- Find movement you enjoy. Movement you enjoy is movement you’re more likely to do again and make into a habit. Joyful movement can relieve stress, release endorphins, and give you a clearer mind. Even 10-15 minutes of movement can do the trick!
- Get sunlight when you can, even for just a few minutes. Exposure to sunlight is thought to trigger your brain's serotonin release, helping to improve mood, mental clarity, and calmness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10-15 minutes of sun exposure a few times a week during the summer helps to keep your vitamin D levels high. Vitamin D helps build and maintain strong bones, as well as support immune and muscular system functions and brain cell activity.
- Recognize your triggers. Learn to listen to your body. Feeling sluggish? Having GI issues? Body aches? Could you change your sleep habits? Is there something you can modify to make you feel better? When my kids were babies, that afternoon coffee worked as an energy booster for a bit, but when I started listening to my body I realized it made me feel nauseous shortly after, affected my sleep, and actually didn’t even taste good. It was a quick - in the moment- fix, that wasn’t what I actually needed. We can help you figure out what that is for you!