ESTABLISHING SOME RESEMBLENCE OF SELF CARE
I’m calling this part 1 because it needs to be an ongoing theme. I’m also tagging it to the BirthTraumaMama category as well as #momlife because really… we could all use some self care.
When I first started therapy my therapist asked what I like to do for myself. Uhhhh myself? Who’s that? Lol I take care of babies and laundry and dishes and rides and homework and dogs etc, etc, when do I have time for me?? ((I think being a nurse makes me doubly guilty of this bc I’m pretty much always taking care of people)) —— but all the more reason for self care right?? She pointed out that in order to heal I needed to make myself a priority, too. And I knew that I wanted my happiness ((rather than my anxiety)) to rub off on my kids, so I needed to make myself better.
So… that’s basically how I got into gardening. I had tried gardening before, back when I was single and working night shifts I tried to landscape a little at my first house. But I would go on sleep-work-sleep binges, not throw a drop of water, and everything would die lol. When we found our new house, the yard needed A LOT of love. And now that I wasn’t pregnant anymore I could actually manuever around to give it some. I had cleaned out and weedmatted the flower beds so at this point I was starting with a pretty clean slate. So… kind of out of a need to find something to dive into, and a need to spruce up our yard… gardening became my first self care initiative so to speak.
That doesn’t mean the kids can’t join in, although watering the gardens with my coffee in silence for 15 min in the morning is 🔥 . I think gardening helped because it gave me something to do in a peaceful silence that worked the creative part of my brain and kept me busy enough that my thoughts were kept at bay, yet I was still intentionally taking time for myself ((even if it was just nap time lol)) to do something for myself… which can be powerful as a mom because we don’t often step away. It was also something to google other than failed spinals 🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️. And uhhh… FLOWERS. And SUN. And FRESH AIR. Which are all good, too. 😉 I’m going to share some of my landscaping and gardening projects later this summer once I make sure they actually grow back. 🤣🤣
I think part 2 is exercise… I know this is something that will make me feel better to have scheduled into my week. Probably not daily, but I could definitely squeeze in workouts with some consistency. A couple people have asked me about fitness bootcamps on Instagram now that I’m blogging, and I’m not quite sure about that level of commitment yet lol! If anyone would be interested in something like that leave a comment… maybe you’ll convince me! It would be like a workout group with access to at home workout videos&more. ANYWAY… from a self care standpoint… I think adding in an excercise regimen needs to be my next step. Eating regularly too…. like more than crumbs and coffee until I binge at dinner time 🤣🤣 but baby steps. 😉